I'm not sure exactly how Barbara Kingsolver's best-seller landed on the to read list, especially since I haven't read any of her other books. Nor am I likely too. Not because this one was so bad or anything; on the contrary I generally enjoyed this very engaging story of a fraying missionary family in the Belgian Congo. The setting is interesting, the characters well drawn, and the unusual narrative structure keeps things lively by always presenting another side to the same story. However, the book is noticeably too long, the writing often rather melodramatic, and the moral parable aspect a bit heavy-handed. The problem is not that Kingsolver herself has a simple black and white moral lesson, but that her various shades of grey are so constantly backlit with neon brightness. The reader is forced to Wrestle with Moral Complexity almost to the point where the plot begins to resemble one of Tata Price's interminable sermons.
No comments:
Post a Comment