Required reading, at school or at home

Sierra Kuzava | Generation: Next

5/1/2008 - 5/1/08

Most activities are much more enjoyable when you are not forced to complete them in order to satisfy some rigid and restrictive higher force, such as high school.

Reading is a prime example of this phenomenon. Many of my friends read Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible as part of their junior-year English course. I, on the other hand, read it on my own last week. While I loved the novel, there was really nobody left who wanted to ever discuss nuances of character development and feminine symbolism again. So I am prefacing this review with a warning: if you know you'll have to read The Poisonwood Bible for school, read it now.

The novel takes place in the depths of the African Congo in 1959 in the fictional village of Kilanga. A stubborn Baptist minister, Nathan Price, has moved his wife and four daughters — Rachel, twins Leah and Adah, and Ruth May — in the hopes of converting what appears to be a wildly alien Congo population to Christianity.

The book, which is divided into seven sections, is written alternately from the perspective of each female member of the family. In this way, the reader observes the ways in which the harsh foreignness of the Congo and Nathan Price's own bitter misogyny irrevocably changes each woman.

Rachel, the oldest, is deceivingly shallow, pining for mohair sweaters and smooth peanut butter; Leah, the oldest twin, is sensitive to the injustice during the politically volatile era the novel is set in and craves the attention of her father; Adah, who suffers from a brain condition called hemiplegia, is physically silent but easily the most intelligent and critical; and Ruth May is 5 years old and a refreshing voice of innocence and honesty.

The retroactive narrator is the girls' mother, Orleanna. She speaks from far in the future, and her guilt-stricken voice acts as an eerie foreshadowing.

More than anything, The Poisonwood Bible should be read because of the depth of each character and the effect that is created when each chapter is narrated from a different perspective. Its political statements and historical context are well-researched and analytical, but the strength of the characters is the strength of the story.

Sierra Kuzava is a senior at Santa Fe High School.

You can reach her at partita_101@hotmail.com.