Poisonwood Bible

by Barbara Kingsolver
There are not very many books that I would care to read again, not because I didn't really enjoy reading them, I just want to go on to something new. Poisonwood Bible is a book I look forward to rereading. I thought the use of symbolism was intrigueing and interesting on multiple layers. I especially liked how the family members burden themselves with items they thought would be indispensable to them in Africa and instead they turned out to be useless. So easy to personally identify as I as well hoard to myself useful treasures that only get in my way of real meaning in my life.

I think one reason I want to reread this book is to rediscover and reinterpret the symbolism to my life at a different time. I really appreciated Kingsolver's perspectives of the symbolism. I realized after visiting several web sites, that my interpretations were pretty shallow. See http://www.kingsolver.com/bookshelf/poisonwood_bible.asp

I was amazed at how Kingsolver used the different voices of the main women characters. It's hard to believe that one author can so convince the reader that a different person is narrating that part of the story. I have read several books that present the storyline from different perspectives. I like that. It reminds me that each persons reality is only from their point of view and that it is different for each person involved. The individual voices are felt as truly individual in Poisonwood. Not so in others who have tried this technique.