I am nearly done with The Poisonwood Bible, a large book that is roughly the size of Lord of the Rings. It is somewhat hard to get into, and is definitely a challenging book to read. The father is, of course, and overbearing, abusive and demanding man. If, like me, you are looking for what in his past made him that way, you will find it in his wife's flashbacks. Against everyone's advisories, he takes his family of four girls and a wife to the Congo. Despite his lack of training, the family gets along pretty well, and would have gotten along better without him. It is written from the alternating points of view of the four daughters and their mother.
The varrying perspectives are interesting and add to the story. Each of the girls reacts differently to their father and his faith. Leah begins to "go native" and finds herself often siding against her father. Adah early on decided that if God was what her father said He was, she didn't believe in him. And I agree with her. There is no room for philosophy questions in his belief. To him, those born in America are automatically saved and those born in tribal areas are automatically lost. I disagree. I think Americans, even of that time period had just as probable of being lost as the Congolese, and the Congolese were just as open to applying the words of Christ to their lives. The concept of grace is challenged, mainly because in the book there is no such concept.
Like any book, Poisonwood must be viewed with a critical eye. It is not for the faint of heart.
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