|
I believe this struggle for survival is the main theme of the book and how people are changed by their surroundings. With dramatic imagery, you enter the jungles of Africa and can hear the sounds, feel the heavy humid air on your skin and see the magnificent greenery of the jungle. The Price family led by their Hell and brimstone Evangelical minister, Nathan Price, are dragged into a life which they are totally unprepared for, bringing along their Betty Crocker cake mixes, packets of seeds for Big Boy tomatoes and gardening tools. After having 4 children, she can only blindly follow his lead, ending up in Africa.
This definitely adds a greater dimension of depth to an otherwise beautifully told story. This book is a portrait of a missionary family who leave their middle-American home in Bethlehem, Georgia for the dark and fobidding rainforest of deepest Africa. For example, Orleanna has been sheltered most of her life in Mississippi until she marries Nathan. I really enjoyed this novel with all the adventure and drama that only AFrica could provide. I see some reviewers here were not impressed with this book, which I really do not understand.
Soon after she finds she has entered a loveless union with a broken man who is not able to show any compassion or even kindness to his wife. At times it is even humorous with the native men in AFrica wearing red trousers with holes in the bottom or when the women danced at the tribal celebration being naked to the waist, much to Nathan Price's chagrin. The story is told from 5 different points of view, as we hear from the mother, Orleanna and 4 daughters. Later on Kingsolver shows how events in AFrica, including some of the worst possible disasters, make a change in Orleanna. From the beginning, Kingsolver casts a spell on the reader and you are swept up into her world of Africa.
She gives authentic characterizations of the land, its people, the conflicts and struggles for survival in day-to-day life in the Congo. However, with Nathan and RAchel, the oldest daughter, there is little that changes in their basic characters.
Kingsolver's themes and characters are so complex that the book literally takes you to a completely different level of critical reading. Her imagery of Afica's unpredictable terrain is simply beautiful. In addition, the story progresses in a way that just hooks and astounds you until you reach the last page. I highly recommend this amazing novel.
All of this was going on while America was enjoying the fabled era of poodle skirts and cherry cokes and Africa is still paying the price today. This book has some flaws but I cannot overstate how deeply I was affected by reading it. If I cannot afford to send each of them abroad to gain perspective on life outside the United States then perhaps I can ask them to read this book. Did you know that this has contributed strongly to a legacy of madmen dictators during Africa's initial post colonial period. That caricature does mean to me that Kingsolver is leading us by the nose with this fable. American's today tend to idealize the 1950's and this book takes place just when that decade was wrapping up.
The patriarch of the American missionary family, Nathan Price, is an extreme caricature of close mindedness and intolerance. There is an element of `Real American' pop culture on the march in the USA today, led by the proudly incurious Sarah Palin. There is one singular flaw in the way Kingsolver wrote this book. America was still basking in the righteous victory of WWII and enjoying the grandfatherly governance of Uncle Ike Eisenhower. Did you know that while that was going on that the US government was busy overthrowing democratically elected governments and murdering leaders in Africa because of interests in mineral mining. I have met people like him but he is so over the top that readers could be put off the entire story.
However, it is a message that is not part of the collective American conscience but perhaps ought to be and the nose leading was welcomed by me.
As an ex-Peace Corps volunteer who spent two years in rural Africa, this novel has passages within it that are so true, so authentic, I kept thinking, "She knows. She really understands this." as I read. Kingsolver allows the plot and characters to evolve beyond the African jungles in an attempt to establish a connection to readers who have never experienced life in Africa. A great read.
Intricate, detailed and immaculately woven together, it is a delightfully layered novel. Oh, I enjoyed this book MUCH more than I thought I would. I loved how each woman's voice was strong and uniquely her own - I especially enjoyed the "errors" made in Rachel and Ruthie May's chapters, not to mention the palindromes in Adah's sections. Africa as a setting does not particularly grab my attention and a missionary family would not typically be the types of characters to intrigue me. Yet, I loved this book. The plot, too, was solid and entertaining and though it really could have ended sooner, I was glad that the book kept going throughout their lives as long as it did. I am definitely going to be keeping an eye out for her other books.
|
