51. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

In my opinion, some editor somewhere should have told Barbara Kingsolver to cut the last third of this book. The book's first two thirds is intriguing; following the life of the Price family as missionaries to the Congo in the 1960s, you are drawn into the setting and political situation through the narratives of the four daughters. Interspersed with this are "present" memories of a grieving Mrs. Price, which tell the reader that one of the children will not survive the experience. The final third of the book however, feels like a very extended epilogue - after the split of their family as the girls near adulthood, they all deal with the experiences in different ways. I found this section really dragged but I did learn a lot about the politics of the Congo, now Zaire, during this era which was pretty interesting.

Definitely not a book, I'd read again - but the narrative structure is interesting and well-executed. Each girl has a distinct narrative voice, authentic to their age and personality.