Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Poisonwood Bible

When I told Wintermute I was trying, again, to read this book all the way through she looked puzzled. "Why?" I still do not have a good answer, even though I finished the book. My thoughts:

(early December) This is a carryover book from the 2007 book challenge. I started this book way back in maybe college maybe? I couldn’t finish it the first time and now I’m going back to it. I’ve heard that it’s awesome, but some of my friends say they couldn’t finish it either. We’ll see.

(January) I again, did not like this book. Wintermute was right, it seemed like the author didn’t want to end the damn thing! But since I was determined to finish it, I kept plugging along. The main part of the book, when they were living in the Congo, was fine. But it was annoying that the story and the characters never changed. They were literally the same from start to finish. Sure, it seemed that the characters learned some things, but essentially they didn’t change their behavior or perception of life or anything based on their experiences, which were pretty dramatic. I’m not sure what the whole point of the book was supposed to be. But fun, it wasn’t.

Anyone have suggestions as to the grand idea I was supposed to grasp? The life lesson I was supposed to learn? 'Cuz either I am too dense to figure it out or there just plain wasn't a point.

2 comments:

The Enforcer said...

As far as I can tell, there is no point to this book. The author does an amazing job building the characters and weaving an intricate story (that she can't end), but other than that, meh. I'm totally underwhelmed. I really wished the book would have ended after the climax of the story happened at around 300 pages. But then the author drags it on and on and it takes away from the story itself.

Glad you finished it. Now let it collect dust with other sucky books...

Anonymous said...

Agreed. I'm thinking of donating it because I dont want to even keep it for the book exchange!