I wasn't going to write a review, but a friend wondered what made me give this a 1-star rating . . . so here's a brief rationale for my opinion.
This iI wasn't going to write a review, but a friend wondered what made me give this a 1-star rating . . . so here's a brief rationale for my opinion.
This is too much a book-of-its-time for me. I think if I was reading it in 1899 I'd have been totally gripped by the narrative - deepest darkest Africa, dangers everywhere, cannibals, a man turned to savagery, the suspense . . . On top of that, all the readers of the time would have been more than comfortable with the depiction of the native people - it would have fed into the "all blacks are savages" mindset of the day. Some of the then-readers may possibly have read into the novel a criticism of how the whites treated the natives and a criticism of the determination of the whites to make a profit no matter what - though I have no idea whether Conrad was intending a criticism or whether he was simply stating the way things are. Of course, he didn't show any of the characters in a positive light.
We critique books differently now. So, reading it today, in 2024, in the light of all the learning we have done since 1899 about human rights, and about how greed continues to turn men into monsters, I found this book abhorrent. I also found it dreadfully long-winded, though I feel embarrassed to be writing that in the same paragraph.
So that's it. I still give it one star, even though I've now spent the time thinking about it (sometimes writing a review causes me to change my star-rating). I didn't like this book....more
I have enjoyed other Barbara Kingsolver novels but I think this one comes out tops. The setting - the description of the place and the people, the famI have enjoyed other Barbara Kingsolver novels but I think this one comes out tops. The setting - the description of the place and the people, the family dynamics, the history in action . . . it all created a reading experience that I won't forget. I also loved the telling of the story in the five different voices (the mother and the four daughters). This is a stunning novel....more
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