It Falls Apart

As I sit here writing about books, looking out at the towering Catalina Mountains in Tucson, Arizona, I realize that it would be an injustice to ignore the likes of Barbara Kingsolver, a former Tucson resident and University of Arizona graduate--not to mention the pride of the Old Pueblo.  Though many of her short stories center on life in the arid Southwest, her most popular novel is set in a more distant locale where Kingsolver lived as a child, the Belgian Congo.  A decade has passed since The Poisonwood Bible shot to the top of the New York Times Bestseller lists and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, yet this story still draws new readers eager for a taste of that dark, earthen atmosphere so unique to post-colonialist literature.  Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe, and Alan Paton may come to mind. 

Told from the perspectives of the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a determined yet desperate evangelical Baptist missionary, Kingsolver methodically unravels the seeming stability of the Price family as they engage with a new landscape and culture.  Throughout the entire novel, although cast in the unique light of each character, Kingsolver weaves the question of how individuals come to comprehend god and divinity in their daily lives.  While Nathan falls deeper and deeper into his obsession with baptizing Congolese at any cost, his wife and daughters rapidly lose respect for him.  Mirroring their personal struggles is the ongoing political strife which came to a head in the 1960s after the assassination of Congo's first prime minister.  It is clear from the opening of the novel that ruin will come to the Price family.  What is not clear, however, is whether they will manage to reconstruct and find peace.  Perhaps the fate of the tumultuous Belgian Congo might provide some clarity for those seeking clues.

Interview with Barbara Kingsolver on The Poisonwood Bible

Barbara Kingsolver's website

Other titles that may be of interest:

Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe

Heart of Darkness (1902) by Joseph Conrad

Disgrace (1999) by J.M. Coetzee

Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton

Lucy (1990) by Jamaica Kinkaide

So Long a Letter (1981) by Mariama Bâ

Raise Your Forks

Wandering through a supermarket can be a formidable task, indeed.  Consider that most large grocery stores display an unfathomable 40,000 products for your perusal and you may feel that familiar sense of anxiety mounting in the back of your mind.  Take a deep breath and remind yourself that you are safe for the time being--far away from the fluorescent lights, the Rick Astley songs, and the children nipping from bulk candy bins.  Michael Pollan refers to this glut of food options as the omnivore's dilemma, a concept that he addresses in his book of the same name.  In the introduction, he mentions in passing that there are some anthropologists who believe the human brain has evolved in complexity just to deal with the issue of what to eat.  Lucky for us, Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University, published a pivotal book on exactly this topic. 

What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating provides an insightful and informative glimpse into the American supermarket, sparing no detail when it comes to the meaning of food labels, the processes behind food production, and the politics of nutrition education.  If you feel the anxiety creeping in again, find relief in the fact that Nestle's primary goal with this book is to educate readers about how to make informed decisions while shopping.  Nestle is able to effectively meld her expertise as a nutritionist with her experience as a consumer which makes her an invaluable liaison to the uninitiated.  Her attitude is one of moderation, but--as a self-professed gourmand--she never overlooks the pleasures of good food.  What to Eat seeks to communicate that consumers still have power, especially if we start "voting with our forks."  Perhaps after reading this book, you may even feel comfortable crossing that threshold into grocery-land, as I do now.  Oh yes, and now that Nestle has told us what to eat, it seems our brains may stop evolving...

A link to Marion Nestle's blog: http://www.foodpolitics.com/

Other titles that may be of interest:

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (revised ed. 2007)

by Marion Nestle 

Cultivating an Ecological Conscience (2010)

by Fred Kirschenmann

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006)

by Michael Pollan

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001)

by Eric Schlosser

Food, Inc. (2008 film)

directed by Robert Kenner