The Poisonwood Bible

Finally!  I have wanted to read this book for years.  I don't know why I didn't get it from the library or purchase it sooner.  Anyway, I broke down and bought it a few weeks ago and started reading it a few days ago.  I finished it last night and it was a book that kept me up afterwards.  I had about 50 pages to go and thought "Oh I'll finish it tomorrow".  I turned out the lights and tried to fall asleep, but couldn't.  So I turned the lights back on and plowed through the last pages.  After the last page was turned and the book was closed I lay there for about an hour just thinking about everything that happened.  The last time that happened was with a book I finished in July 2011, One Day.  July must be my month for books that make me think in bed.

So on to the review.  The basic premise of the book is that an evangelical white Baptist preacher sets off on a missionary trip to the Congo in 1960 and takes his wife and four daughters along with him.  What happens while they are in the Congo then serves as the crux for character and story development.  I absolutely loved the book up until the fifth section.  The fifth and sixth section went on too long (150 pages of pseudo-epilogue). Then there is a small six-page section that, in my opinion, serves as a true epilogue.  Everything that was conveyed in both the fifth and sixth sections could have been combined and condensed into just a fifth section spanning no more than fifty pages.  After that, the true epilogue of six pages could have followed. That is my only complaint about the book.  Otherwise I loved the story and the way it was written. The prose is quite lyrical and poetic at times.  There were two scenes that made me teary-eyed.  For me, that says a lot because I am not often moved to tears by writing unless it's exceptional. I definitely recommend it, but just know that it runs a little long at the end.