Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel suffers from a surfeit of history, says Alice O'KeeffeBarbara Kingsolver's 1998 novel The Poisonwood Bible is often described as a "book club classic" – a double-edged compliment that somehow implies it is not weighty enough to be taken seriously by anyone other than earnest, middle-aged women. A devastating, brilliantly written account of the impact of colonialism on the Congo as seen through the eyes of the wife and daughters of an American missionary, the novel was a bestseller both here and in the US, but never won the critical recognition it deserved.There is something almost parodically right-on about Kingsolver's choice of subject matter, which is perhaps what keeps her confined to the "book club" category. Her ...