Background Information on the Political Novel
When most people these days think of a “political” novel, they think of the classic political novels that appeared after World War II: Lionel Trilling’s The Middle of the Journey (1947), Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men (1946), Edwin O’Connor’s The Last Hurrah (1956), and Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent (1959). These novels were set in the world of politics; their main characters were politicians or those who worked for them; they directly examined political topics such as legislative corruption, bossism, and the magnetism and limits of personal and political power. Most of them also delved deeply into the motivations of their characters. As Gordon Milne put it, “The public world of politics is created by the author as a frame for the individual’s private search for knowledge, for an understanding of his responsibility to his society and himself” (The American Political Novel, 1966).
Milne’s observation can also be applied to contemporary political novels; but, increasingly, there are very few “pure” political novels except in the category of entertainment fiction, where the world of politics and political intrigue is presented with stereotypical characters and themes.
In literary fiction, the contemporary political novel tends to be set less directly in the world of politics; it uses politics and political situations peripherally, as a metaphor for issues of power, community, and alienation. John Updike’s Memories of the Ford Administration, for example, is less about the administrations of Ford and Buchanan than about the ways in which history can and cannot repeat itself on both personal and political levels, and the changes in the American sense of self and community since the 1800s. Joan Didion’s The Last Thing He Wanted is less about the contemporary political world than it is about the randomness of history, the fluidity of perspective and facts, and personal alienation.
More and more, the contemporary political novel, like Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, eschews a political setting, and simply tackles overtly political issues. While these novels share many of the same themes with other contemporary novels (alienation, loss of community, loss of self, a collapsing of the logical into the absurd), they tend to reveal also an impulse toward reform, a strong sense of optimism, and a faith in the strength, not of the government, but of the community and the individual.
Background on Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver was born April 8, 1955, in Anapolis, Maryland; her father was a doctor and her mother was a homemaker. When she was a child, they moved to Carlisle, Kentucky. She went to college at DePauw University, receiving a B.A. in 1977. In a 1989 interview with Contemporary Authors, she said that she knew no writers as a child, but knew lots of scientists, so she studied science because it “seemed ‘Reasonable,’ with a capital R. I wrote all along because that’s what I loved to do.” She went on to get an M.A. at the University of Arizona in 1981. While in graduate school, she worked as a research assistant in the Department of Physiology; after graduating, she worked as a technical writer for the Office of Arid Lands Studies until 1985. Then, she became a freelance journalist, and finally, in 1987, a full-time writer.
In 1985, she married Joseph Hoffman, a chemist; they had one daughter, Camille. They were divorced in 1995. Kingsolver has since remarried, and she and her new husband, Steven Hopp, an ornithologist, have a daughter, Lily.
Among her works are:
- The Bean Trees, 1988, novel
- Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983, 1989 (nonfiction)
- Homeland and Other Stories, 1990, short stories
- Animal Dreams, 1990, novel
- Another America, 1992, poetry
- Pigs in Heaven, 1993, novel
- High Tide in Tucson, 1995
- The Poisonwood Bible, 1998, novel
- Prodigal Summer, 2000, novel
Of her work, Kingsolver says, “It’s all about accessibility. That’s why I write in English as opposed to some sort of highfalutin English that’s incomprehensible. I really believe that complex ideas can be put across in simple language. And a good plot never hurt anybody. It doesn’t cost you in literary terms to give your readers a reason to turn a page.” (Interview in New York Times Magazine, Oct. 11, 1998)
Background on Events That Occur in The Poisonwood Bible
Map of Africa
Map of the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Poisonwood Bible is set against a real historical backdrop, the fight for independence in the Belgian Congo in 1960 and beyond. Most of the information you need to understand the novel is incorporated into the story. But if you want to know more, here are links to some websites that will provide more information:
For information on The Democratic Republic of Congo:
- The CIA’s World Factbook gives a lot of basic information about the DRC, mostly statistics.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) page provides links to many other sources of information about the DRC.
- An Mbendi Profile of the DRC is actually a trade profile, with detailed information about the resources of the DRC.
- Stereoviews of the Congo Free State is a site that provides old pictures from the Belgian colonial days of the Congo. Warning: some are gruesome–but they’re all fascinating.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo: History gives you a comprehensive history of the DRC, from its pre-colonial days. A great site!
For information on Patrice Lumumba:
- Patrice Lumumba is a brief biography, with links to some of Lumumba’s poetry.
- Belgium Accused of Killing African Hero is an article from a British newspaper, The Guardian,, which details a new (2000) investigation into Lumumba’s death. Pretty interesting.
- We Should Always Remember Patrice Lumumba is a column written in anticipation of the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism.
For information on Joseph Mobutu:
- Zeigeist Films produced a movie on Patrice Lumumba (called, appropriately enough, Lumumba); this brief biography is a portion of the background historical information provided on their website.
- Encyclopedia.com’s entry on Mobutu is brief but good, with links to photos and related articles.
For information on Angola:
- The Angola Page provides links to tons of useful information about Angola.
- The Library of Congress page on Angola is great, with lots of good historical information.