April Book Reviews

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
This book ended up being one of my favorite books that I have ever read. There were just so many things I loved about it - the characters, comprising a family of all girls, the true historical setting (although the book itself was fiction), the wordplay used by the characters and the changing narrator. "The Poisonwood Bible" is set mostly in the Congo (Belgian), Africa in the 1960s. It tells the story of a Baptist preacher and his family who travel to the Congo on an evangelical mission. The story is alternately narrated by the mother and the four daughters of the family. Each has a startlingly astute point of view, whether she realizes it or not. In the backdrop of the family's saga are the true events of the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the election of their first democratic leader, and his subsequent assassination as part of a coup backed by the CIA and the American government. I was shocked to read about this. Maybe I should have already known this important story, but I guess it's not the kind of thing they teach you in high school American history. It was a sad commentary on the effects of powerful, first-world nations, and the devastating repercussions faced by developing countries, especially resource-rich ones like the Congo. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. Five stars.


The Last Summer (of you and me), by Ann Brashares
This book was a nice easy read. It would have been perfect summer beach or camping reading. However, Chase and I had just made a trip to the DI for some old-looking books to help fill our built in shelves in the living room. I saw this one for a dollar, and having read the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series by the same author, thought I'd give it a try. The back of the book says that this is Ann Brashares's first novel for adults. I'm not sure I'd say it's for adults, but I guess it's not for teenagers. It's about two sisters, Riley and Alice, who have spent their summers for their entire lives on Fire Island, a small island off the coast of New York. Riley and Alice are three years apart in age and very different, yet very close. They have shared many things, including the friendship of their next-door-neighbor on the island, Paul. The summer that the book takes place, Alice and Riley are both in their early twenties and they are spending what they both know may be their last summer on the island. Paul returns to the island that summer too, after being away from the girls for 3 years. Riley hasn't lost any of her childhood wonder, energy, or innocence, but Alice, the younger sister has grown up a bit and is confronted with the realization that she has always loved Paul. The two are faced with how to deal with their new found romance in the presence of Riley, who has always been best friends with Paul. The story follows the three through the summer, the fall, winter and spring of the next year, and into the next summer as they deal with growing up, loss, and love. (No, I didn't copy that off the back off the book, but it sounded kinda cheesy, didn't it?) The story was okay. I do think Ann Brashares has a talent for developing the deep feelings and inner musings of her characters, which I enjoy. This was a fun read that you can easily get through in a day or two. Not amazing though. Three stars.



'Tis, by Frank McCourt
This was another DI find. I haven't read his best-selling memoir, "Angela's Ashes" (not sure why - just haven't gotten around to it I guess), but I couldn't resist this "sequel" memoir by Frank McCourt for 2 dollars. Frank McCourt was born to an Irish family in Brooklyn in 1930. When Frank was four years old, his parents moved with him and their other children back to Limerick, Ireland, where his mother was from as his father was unable to find work in Depression-era America. His eventually found work in England when Frank was older, although he spent most of his earnings on alcohol, rarely sending any to support the family and forcing them into poverty and begging for food and other necessities. When Frank was 18, he returned to American by himself, joined the army, received an education at NYU, and became a high-school teacher and Pulitzer-prize winning author. He himself lived in poverty for many of the years he was in New York, subsisting on his meager teacher's salary and sending any extra money home to Ireland to support his mother and brothers. One by one, each of his family members made their way to America, with the exception of his father, with whom he never really reconciled. "'Tis" tells the story of Frank's adult life against the backdrop of mid-century America. I guess I was surprised to learn that even that recently in our country's history, so many immigrants were being treated differently. Not always badly, but sometimes. McCourt notes many times throughout the book that he wonders why anyone he meets who is Irish and can tell that he is Irish automatically tells him what part of Ireland their parents grew up in, and not to mingle with others who are not like him. Even those who are not Irish among the Americans he meets tell him he's better off sticking with other Irish people. "Stick with your own kind", they tell him. I of course realized that blacks and many other ethnic groups faced and still do face this kind of racism and discrimination, but it was sort of new to me to think of Irish (white people!) as being treated so differently in America, and so recently. Ultimately, though, I think McCourt's "Irishness" very profoundly shaped who he became. This was a sad and also funny and moving true story. Four stars.