This book is read from the point of view of four sisters and occasionally their mother, who have been forced to move to the Congo by their preacher father who is determined to bring all the natives to Christ. The oldest Rachel is sixteen and extremely selfish and despises her parents for bringing her into this insect infested jungle. Leah and Adah are twins. Adah is a little defective from birth and so walks with a significant limp. She has chosen to not speak, ever, is very observant of the world around her and draws many insights out of it. Her favorite pastime to read words backwards and make other meanings out sentences. Leah is her father's daughter, though he couldn't be less aware of her. She hangs on his every word and knows the Bible almost as well as he does. The youngest is Ruth May, who is just a little girl and like most children wanders off and plays with who ever will play with her. Their mother Orleanna is the very picture of a wife who has been forced down into submission by her husband. She rarely speaks her mind and when she does, her husband gets very angry. All she knows is just to take care of her children the best she can while maintaining some semblance of normalcy in the jungle whose world turns upside down with the shout of independence.
This book was very intense and it was a slow read for me. I really liked Kingsolver's writing style. She really gave each of the girls their own characters and it was interesting to read from each of their perspectives. They go through so many hard times in the jungle. Sickness, animal ants, hunger, and political turmoil. Having finished it, I can't say that it is one of my favorite books but I appreciate it and what it says. It puts America in a not so great light, which is interesting to read about and not entirely unplausible. Though most of us in the book club really disliked Rachel, she is the one we most identified with. Why would anyone want to live such a hard life if you had the choice not to? There really was no ending and it seemed like no one was completely happy in their lives, which makes it more real but a little sad too. I would reccommend this book but it would not be at the top of my list. I'm kind of just in "I'm not sure how I feel about it" kind of thing. After hearing some of the things my fellow book clubbers said I might want to read it again to see the things they saw in it but not anytime soon.
3 comments:
Interesting. Somehow although I've heard the title of this book come up often, I've not heard much about it in detail before now. Perhaps I'll have to pick it up at some point.
As you know, I really disliked this book, but I read it back in the day when all I read was mysteries and LDS fiction. Nothing very thought-provoking. I did like Kingsolver's "The Bean Tree" and "Pigs in Heaven."
As you also know, this is one of my favorite books. I was hoping you would love it as much as I did. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes, isn't it?
Post a Comment