the poisonwood bible

Last night I finished The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. Goodness. Here's a quote for you, from the very end: "We constructed our lives around a misunderstanding, and if I ever tried to pull it out and fix it now I would fall down flat. Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's, come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization." The book is historical fiction, about a white Southern Baptist missionary family living in the Congo (Zaire) in the late 50s, early 60s. They came to bring salvation to the poor black natives...and they encounter a world that doesn't bend to their white, Christian ways. The story is told from the perspective of the family's four daughters. It's beautifully written, poetry through so much of it. It is sad, so much of it. But as usual with Kingsolver, once you finish the book you realize just how much redemption there was all through the story--it's just different redemption from what you expect. 543 pages.

-Tamie