Genesis

I just finished reading book one, Genesis, in the Poisonwood Bible.  My first impression of the book when I read the introductory pages were that this was going to be difficult to read because it seemed that there was a lot said that you had to think about to make more sense of.  The introduction was told from the perspective of Orleanna Price, the mother of the family in the book.  During this part of the book, it was hard to tell who she might be talking to, where she is, and what is going on.  At first I thought the introduction was actually an "introduction" to the book but it turns out that after reading Genesis, it seemed like she was telling us the ending of the story instead, and not the beginning.  Her first line, "Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened," already sets off a tone to the rest of her story.  She seems to be in a forest and talks about the silence that surrounds her but in actuality there are several things going on that only if you stand still and listen, you may notice.  But all the things that are happening are a little eerie and creepy and dead.  If we read on, she begins to describe this place as very familiar and like a home, but one she never wanted.  She describes her feet as "twin birds helpless to fly out of there" but she also seems to be hiding from something and can't leave.  I noticed that she talks of her children but also makes the statement, "mother of children, living and dead".  When we read the rest of the first book, we get to know that she has four daughters, Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May.  There are no mentions of there being another child, living or dead.  So this makes me curious to find out what will happen to these girls in the future of the book.  She says a lot a regretful things about what they have done.  If she really is telling us the ending, then it tells me that the Price family has quite a life to look forward to in Africa.  Towards the end of her story, she says that "it began and ended with us".  This makes me wonder that when they went to Africa, what are they going to try and change that will cause this much grief to Orleanna Price.  I'm really glad that this ended up being the introduction to the book because now it gives me so much more to look forward to reading in the next coming weeks.