Barbara Kingsolver took my breath away!

In an odd move for me, I did not run out and buy this book as soon as Oprah announced it as her summer read of choice. At the time, I was hip-deep in mandatory college reading and had no leisure time for pleasure reading. It was years later, when I found the title gathering dust on the "for sale" shelf at my local library, did I snatch it up, pay the fifty-cents the librarian asked for it, take it home and begin to read.

The story starts out simple enough: an American minister and his family are sent to the Congo in 1959 to take over an existing ministry there. They leave their comfortable home in Georgia and go to the Congo, having no idea what to expect. They are taken by surprise at the tone of the existing ministry (incorporating large aspects of their "pagan" worship with bits of Christianity) and are in complete culture shock upon arriving. The Congo was a completely different world to them. Something as basic as establishing a kitchen garden was done differently.

In a stroke of pure genius, Kingsolver divides the narration of the tale between each of her six principle characters, each taking a section and allowing the readers to see the Congo through their eyes. This allows for some exceptional character development, in that each character takes a dramatically different path, with varying degrees of success and certainly its own set of consequences.

It seems Kingsolver enjoys a bit of political commentary in her work, as she tackles the political unrest that began in the 1960s in the Congo and has never really stopped---only slowed briefly until yet another treaty or cease-fire is broken. Kingsolver not only manages, but masterfully weaves politics, war, love and family together into this mind-blowing tale-----wrought with emotion that not only invokes a reader to find that part of themselves that is their essence----that purest part of themselves--and live it---but The Poisonwood Bible DEMANDS it. We never know when the mamba will bite us.

It took me almost two weeks to get through this book, mainly because I had to put it down and just grieve in places. In others, I couldn't put it down. Once you get into the rhythm of the story and understand where she's going with it, Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible takes you on a tour of not only your own soul, but the human spirit. It's a journey you'd be richer for taking.