The Poisonwood Bible

Judy Lockyer, Ph.D., Professor of English emerita, Albion College.

Tuesdays, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. May 3, 10, 17, 24. In person, Ludington 103. Class size 20.

We will explore a big novel full of ideas, humor, human truths and human delusions, history, and beautiful language. Poisonwood is an engaging novel with characters that make us laugh and wonder and a story based on real events but are told in an inspired, imaginative method. I’m eager to discuss the questions it raises and the actions of characters who are very much still with us. It’s a story about a mother and her four daughters who find themselves in jarringly new place, the Congo just before it broke loose from Belgian colonization; it is also the story of their husband/father who brought them to the Congo. This family of six from Bethlehem, Georgia leads us into a story about Americans who are full of assumptions and unexamined needs. The novel leaves us with a richness that will remain with us.

Required Text: Barbara Kingsolver. 1998. The Poisonwood Bible. The College bookstore will have the novel on sale if you don’t already have it. Please come to our first meeting having read the first book, “Genesis.” I can’t wait to meet you!