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the poisonwood bible/africa/ (and oops a lil bit of christianity:-)
the poisonwood bible is breathtaking. barbara kingsolver
is consistently one of the best writers alive. her book of
essays... i think its called "high tides in tuscon" is
fantastic, and then she's got a great book of poetry as
well, "other america/otra america" (the whole manuscript is
translated into spanish). i admire writers who aren't
afraid to research. i have not been to africa, but her
portrayal of the congo is so much more lush and
believable-- and most importantly, less racist-- than
conrad's "heart of darkness", the only other book i've read
about that area. her portrayal of christianity is
downright frightening... the whole presense of christian
evangelists in countries like africa alarms me a bit, even
as a christian, b/c of the shitty way they treated the
indigenous people. however, i have a friend who just got
back from tanzania, and she said the people there are so
dedicated to the christian faith... so even if it wasn't
brought to them in positive ways, they've made it their own
and you just couldn't take it away from them now. although
one church my friend visited had oddly illuminated,
lily-white icons of jesus and mary, and the walls were
painted the same color. she felt as if, in an indirect
way, they were worshipping whiteness, albeit
subconsciously.
at any rate, the poisonwood bible is a helluva lot better
than its oprah's book club classification would lead one to
believe.
-=katherine=-
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If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the sea.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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