poisonwood bible

My mom, sister and I decided to have a book club this summer. We read Poisonwood Bible and met up for a weekend to enjoy one another's company and discuss the book.

I read Poisionwood Bible as a high school junior. I remember sitting in Mrs. Worthington's class discussing the nuances of the text with a classroom full of AP students, all of us in various stages of discovering our own philosophies on life. Growing up in liberal Olympia but also in a fairly conservative family, I understood both sides of the debates that would often emerge in class in response to Kingsolver's words.

Reading Poisonwood Bible for the second time, a little more than ten years later, was a different experience. Rather than reading the book while my own perspectives were still growing and moldable, I read it this time against the backdrop of fairly solid views about life. Rather than push me towards some idea, this time Kingsolver's words challenged or agreed with beliefs I already hold.

What stood out to me in this reading was the fact that I could identify with some aspect of each of the Price daughters. I wonder if Kingsolver wrote them in a way that they each represented some element of humanity.

I identified with Rachel as someone who can sometimes have a limited view of the world. Living in the United States this is so easy to do. We do not have a sense of where the food we eat comes from, the labor that goes into the products we use on a daily basis, the suffering that is happening on the other side of the planet. Although Rachel was not a likeable character for me, many times I felt I could see myself in her naivety and simplified view of life.

Adah was the character I identified with most at the beginning of the book. Adah sees herself as often in the shadow of others, even forgotten. While her twin sister Leah is always aiming to please, Adah does not believe she could please her father if she tried (or even cared). While I do not feel these things as poignantly as Adah, I identify with parts of this and especially the vivid (albeit sometimes strange) inner dialogue she has.

This time around I identified more with Leah than I had before. I identify with her childhood spent striving to be a perfect daughter in her father's eyes, and her adulthood spent seeing her father as the mortal, imperfect man he's been all along. I also identify with Leah's experience of this perspective change not only with her earthly father, but her heavenly father as well. Though not in the same ways as Leah, I can identify with her view of life, death and humanity expanding, forcing her narrow view of God and faith to be stretched beyond capacity. After what she has experienced in the jungle, Leah would be unable to keep believing in the God she grew up believing in, unless she allowed that faith to be transformed to something bigger and in many ways, altogether different. I have been through this process as I have grown up and seen that life is a lot bigger than me- so God needs to be able to be too.

Lastly, there is Ruth May. She is the youngest, and the first to die, however I believe she had the most positive and long lasting impact on all the lives the story touches. Ruth May is the character I hope to grow into. She loves selflessly, gives without asking questions and is completely honest.

Reading Poisionwood Bible for the second time was a gratifying experience. I especially loved being able to discuss it over breakfast with my mom and my sister. I hope to read many more books together with them through the years!