I'm reading
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver right now and I am completely enamored of her writing. I've read her essays previously, but not her fiction. This book she narrates in the voice of five different characters and it is brilliant.
Just read a moment ago...in the voice of a distraught mother and missionary's wife:
Quote:
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Oh, a wife may revile a man with every silent curse she knows. But she can't throw stones. A stone would fly straight through him and strike the child made in his image, clipping out an eye or a tongue or an outstretched hand. It's no use. There are no weapons for this fight. There are countless laws of man and of nature, and none of these is on your side. Your arms go weak in their sockets, your heart comes up empty. You understand that the thing you love more than this world grew from a devil's seed. It was you who let him plant it.
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there is black humor, as well...
Quote:
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Oh mercy. If it catches you in the wrong frame of mind, the King James Bible can make you want to drink poison in no uncertain terms.
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The other four voices narrating are her children and they all are telling the story of their experiences in the Congo just before and during the Congo Crisis of the early '60s - trapped there by their lunatic husband and father who is intent on 'saving the souls' of the desperately impoverished members of the small, remote village they are living in.
It's an epic-ly successful novel. I'm so glad I picked it up during this break.