This was another one of those book club books. The title was interesting but I couldn't quite imagine what the book could be about and despite two intense readings I am still puzzled about what Kingsolver really wanted us to take from the book. (A writer must have a nice title if they want their book to attract readers and buyers). Was the message about the family (white evangelist, wife and four daughters) or was it about the Congo? The many themes have been so neatly intertwined and interwoven that they left me both laughing and crying at the same time. The writing style was excellent...the same issues told from different perspectives by each of the characters. I would have loved to explore the themes further. To ask why she wrote this book and what it was really about. My considered view is that the tale finished rather abruptly and uncompleted...needing a sequel.
Why did the fellow (and his wife) just bear daughters? Why not at least one son? I felt compassionate for the patriarch....and his broken dreams. Was the sacrifice worth it? Why did he not understand that his dreams were his alone and that his family didn't fully buy into them. For all his passion, he unknowingly dragged his family to the precipice...like sheep to the slaughter Where was God to come to his aid? After all, he relocated deep into the Congo with the sole purpose of converting the Africans...treading where even angels feared to tread.
One resultant factor was that I suffered an unintended crisis of faith from reading this book. The other result was that I became an 'expert on the Congo'. For days on end, I kept hustling friends about information on the Congo and recalled from the recesses of my mind the Patrice Lumumba saga that I briefly learnt in French History class. When I was younger, I thought Patrick Lumumba was a name from Kenya...so many people were named for Patrice...after the assassination. The book taught me so much history. I even learnt some botany....about the Poisonwood tree.
I am at the verge of becoming a political scientist. A sage in the book mused in passing about the impact of the political changes brought about by colonialism. How can one be a winner just because they win by some few extra votes? Voila!! That question opened my eyes to some of the crisis' experienced in Africa subsequent to each election. Perhaps Africa was not ready for the aftermath of colonialism . That political framework, that was imposed after colonialism, wasn't really our way of life. Why must one winner take it all even when they have won by a few percentage points.
And the Congo? oh! The Congo. I have been to the Congo once - to Kinshasa. Back in 1994. Like many of my people, I love Congolese music ...How they love to sing!!. I wonder whether I developed a better understanding of these people and their country just by reading the Poisonwood Bible...written as it was from someone not Congolese.
I haven't been to the rain forest...the Congo Basin...or sailed on the river Congo. Perhaps I should for I hear it is 'bewitching' and quite enchanting.
No comments:
Post a Comment