This week's selection comes to you courtesy of wise voices long past. In college, I kept hearing about this book, The Poisonwood Bible, and how fantastic it was. So, towards the end of college I found it on a sale bookrack for little to nothing and there it sat, on my book shelf, dormant. For years. I always had good intentions to read it but never quite got there. Somedays there were books like Harry Potter that got in the way. Thanks to this list and challenge, I have finally picked it up and read it, cover to cover.
“I wonder that religion can live or die
on the strength of a faint, stirring breeze.
The scent trail shifts, causing the predator
to miss the pounce.
One god draws in the breath of life and rises;
another god expires.” -Barbara Kingsolver
It is the story of the Price family, Baptists missionaries from Bethlehem, Georgia, going to a post out in the Congo of the 1960's. Kingsolver weaves this narrative through the voices of the females, the mother and the four daughters. The overly zealot father's voice is only expressed through the lens of the female speaker of the chapter, and their perception of him changes as the years progress.
Originally, it had been the voice of Religion professors drawing me towards this book, hoping to expand my definition of God. Kingsolver does a remarkable job of expressing God as pluralistic, deeply intimate, and everything in between. The zealot father, who never swayed from his fundamentalist ideals, believed in a very real perception of God. Just as his daughter, who envisions God through creation and lived out through suffering does. These perceptions add depth and meaning to a person's life, no matter how God has become manifested. It gives me a greater appreciation of being able to share faith stories with others and to see the many ways God has become manifested in the lives of so many people.
Among the religious aspects, there were also tones of what was occurring in Africa in the second half of the 20th century. This was a lesson that I would never have seen in text books growing up, yet it was very raw and very real. The conditions people lived in and the corruption when power and money come to play were heart wrenching. More so because I know those things are most likely still happening today. Our world is getting smaller, yet the divides between people are getting wider. That, in and of itself, leads me to tears and motivates me to try and make a difference, no matter how small.
One last aspect, the one that really resonated with me, was understanding this piece through a family systems lens. I was touched by how different each woman was and how they were all shaped by one another. They were formed by the happy and the tragic times that they went through, carrying a piece of another with them through time and space. When one of the females passes away suddenly, she does not die. She lives on in the memory of her sisters and mother. Their grief and love for her shape their future selves. Each one grieves and grows differently, yet they still have that connection that does not break. This really resonated, at this time in life, because I am noticing these types of tragedy stories in my own family. My grandfather, who passed away before I was born from a sudden heart attack, has been a present ghost amidst family gatherings for many years. Lately, he has been showing up more frequently. I realized that he has been showing up more because his sons are reaching the age he was when he passed away. It is interesting to see how much of him they continue to carry with them. They are not just bringing along half of their genetics, but the ways they live their lives are direct reflections of how they were able to grieve his passing. They add him to the story of their lives.
I leave you with two quotations from Kingsolver, “To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know.”
“He was my father. I own half his genes, and all of his history. Believe this: the mistakes are part of the story. I am born of a man who believed he could tell nothing but the truth, while he set down for all time the Poisonwood Bible.”
Rating: B+
Next Reading Adventure: The DaVinci Code
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