This week I fairly abandoned all my other reading in order to devour an old favorite of mine: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I never reread books as I feel there are so many books and so little time. But I made an exception for this book which I first read about ten years ago. I was not disappointed with the second reading and actually think I enjoyed and appreciated it more this time. It's a moral tale on many levels: the dangers of imposing American values on other cultures without bothering to understand the other culture; how religion can be misused; and the consequences of nations interfering in the politics of other countries.
Having return from a trip to Haiti, I saw so many parallels between the Congo and Haiti - the use of the French language; the inescapable poverty of the people; the traditional African beliefs; the tropical diseases; the influx of Western missionaries; the colonization by Europeans; and the foreign intervention in political matters. This book is still among my favorites.
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