Link: Poisonwood Bible
I just finished this book in order to be able to talk to the guy who runs the ferry I catch to work in the morning. What a great book. Far too complex and emotional for me to offer my opinions on, unfortunately. It was, for some time, popular with reading groups, which tended, to my contrary misanthropic side, to register as a mark aginst it. I'm glad I got over that prejudice to read it. Worth (I think) all the time I spent reading it when I should have been sleeping or working.
Monday 5 December 2005
Poisonwood Bible
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Andrew - Poisonwood Bible is one of my top 10 favorite books. (and notbecause it was on the book club lists ...heheh) you're right - it's way too complex to critique or comment about in depth w/o going on and on.
ReplyDeleteOne aspect of the book that appealed to me, was the different perspectives ... so many times an author must choose or decides to choose one particular voice, one perspective from which to tell a story. And of course, there are many untold stories because there are other points-of-view within the novel that could have been used. We could say this leaves more up to the readers' imaginations ... or we could say that just leaves more stories to be told. I liked Poisonwood because I could read more of those otherwise "untold stories" and thus get a better grasp of what happened. I don't know if that makes sense. So I'll just shut up now.
Maureen
I think the use of different voices also allows the author to examine some of the themes that come up in the book: how do we remember the past, how do we face the future, and how do we cope in the present? There are different strategies for this exampled in the different characters' lives and, on a different scale, in the way those lives identify with different strains of thought about history and ethics.
ReplyDeleteWhat's great about this book is that it articulates those differences without necessarily saying that those choices are simple or cut-and-dried or even ethically stable. All the positions the characters take, all the strategies espoused, work some times and not at others, work in some places and not in others, and work for some people but not for others. Despite this, the critiques offered never collapse into so much moral relativism, but stand out as baldly as if they were being offered as truths. Terrible as the truth can be, the truth is part of the world people create around themselves, and it becomes part of how they survive.
The book is told in white women's voices, and maybe I mistake its seeming ability to offer a picture of African life I've seldom read about- maybe those 'other voices' are still somewhere outside- but it does frame that 'white women's experience' in a very vivid and seemingly revealing way, I thought. As you say, there are other points of view that could have been used: we spend maybe the first half of the book wondering when the father character is finally going to come puffing into view, and Anatole's point of view would have been fascinating. But I think the book is more powerful for framing the experiences of these women who have a common background, but whose lives diverge dramatically as a result of their experiences, arbitrary and chosen.
Thanks for your reply Maureen. Always happy to hear someone else's opinion.