The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1999, Paperback, Reprint)

Barbara Kingsolver's novel, "The Poisonwood Bible," transports the reader to the Congo in the late 1950s, following Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist minister, and his family. Their fate becomes interwoven with that of the country during three turbulent decades. The book is a compelling family saga, a sobering picture of the horrors of fanatical fundamentalism and an insightful view of an exploited country crushed by colonialism and manipulated by a bastion of democracy.

Nathan Price is a sanctimonious, foolhardy fanatic determined to convert the natives to Christianity, a plan that is doomed from the start by Nathan's self-righteousness. The story arc develops through the alternating, first-person points of view of Orleanna Price- Nathan's powerless wife- and her four daughters. Rachel, the eldest, is a self-absorbed teenager who will never outgrow her selfishishness. Twins Leah and Adah are gifted intellectually but are physically and emotionally separated by Adah's birth injury, which has rendered her hemiplagic. Five-year-old Ruth May humorously reflects a child's misunderstanding of the exotic world in which she is forced to live. As the girls become acquainted with the villagers, especially the young teacher Anatole, they begin to understand the political climate in the Congo, the brutality of Belgian rule, the nationalism briefly enjoyed in the election of Patrice Lumumba, and the secret involvement of the Eisenhower administration in Lumumba's assassination, culminating in the installation of the villainous dictator Mobutu.

"The Poisonwood Bible" presents a wonderful mix of diverse characters. The inevitable outcome of the forced imposition of Christian theology on the natives' indigenous faith gives the novel its pervasive irony. Kingsolver's artful integration of humor through the children's misapprehensions of their world keeps the book from becoming a bleak meditation on colonialism. The book is more than an excellent novel. It is a marvelous commentary on the clashes that can occur between culture, politics, and religion.