Cross Country (Alex Cross) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is one of the most poorly thought-out, unbelievable books I have read in a long time. Almost from the beginning, I had the odd feeling that I had just stepped into the most contrived situation imaginable. Horrible grisly murder after horrible grisly murder, unexpected poorly thought out action, characters that you never really get to understand or don't even want to, overuse of the exclamation point to underline the action(!); felt like a cheap harlequin thriller to me.
The Alex Cross series was a great one; this doesn't even feel like it is written in the same voice. Alex is a gritty smart introspective detective; the Alex Cross in this book was something of an idiot -- blindly forcing himself into situations he had no business even thinking of entering into, all without that careful forethought we have been treated to in the past. I would skip this one, or at least wait until you can find it in the bargain bin.

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The Poisonwood Bible Review

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(More customer reviews)I read Kingsolver's earlier "Pigs in Heaven" and "Bean Trees." I picked up "The Poisonwood Bible" on impluse to read while on vacation. Once I started reading it, I found it hard to put down.
I have never had much interest in African history, but this book made me want to find out more. Her characters, as in her earlier books, are very well realized and fascinating. The story begins with the arrival in the Belgian Congo of Nathan Price, fire and brimstone Baptist preacher, and his reluctant family. The family's story is told by Nathan's wife, Orleanna, and their five daughters - shallow teen-age Rachel, twins Leah and Adah, and five-year-old Ruth May. The voices of the characters are authentic and believable.
Other reviewers are correct in their assessment that this is, in a sense, two books. The first is about Nathan's clumsy and ill-advised attempts to fit Africa to his fundamentalist beliefs, and the family's attempts to fit their lives to Africa. The second is about the way a family tragedy marks its survivors and the different ways events in Africa mark them as well. I don't agree that Kingsolver should have "stopped writing" at the end of the first part.
I was absolutely spellbound by the way the voices changed and the way they stayed the same from the first to the last of the book. One believes in the characters, they change and grow as the book progresses. Other reviewers found Rachel grating, but I think that was the point. Her shallowness brought home the points that Kingsolver was making even more effectively than the earnest preaching by Leah. I got the sense that in her own way, Rachel understood the events perfectly well, but that she did not care.
I felt very complete when I finished the book. It was a satisfying experience.

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