I read this book and really enjoyed it. It sure gave a lot to think about, and I loved how the story was told from several points of view, just like it happens in life. Have any of you read this book? What did you like, dislike, think about it?

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 26, 2002

Answers

AWESOME, awesome book.

I was impressed by the amount of research that went into it. And the way the language flowed. I don't think I disliked anything. I thought it was a powerful piece of fiction.

-- Cat (catcrazy@somewhere.com), January 26, 2002.

I did find myself wondering WHY a family that was prejudiced and never associated with blacks in their hometown, would move to an African village full of Africans! What could they possibly have hoped to accomplish under those circumstances?

I think the author forgot to research gardening though- tomatoes and green beans do not neeed pollinators to produce fruit (they're self pollinating). The pumpkins could easily have been hand pollinated so I couldn't understand the trouble there either....

My husband thought the book had a slightly feminist slant. I didn't think so- women put up with this kind of nonsense all the time, and I thought the story illustrated really well, how women will simply hang in there and try to make it from one day to the next, often to their own detriment. So I don't think Nathan Price was exagerrated- definitly extreme, but I have met men like that! Besides, there were positive male figures in the book, like Anatole.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 26, 2002.

Good points! Especially about the plants. Which is interesting because the author has a botany background...shouldn't she know that?

I couldn't put it down.

-- Cat (catcrazy@somewhere.com), January 26, 2002.