The Bean Trees Anniversary Edition: A Novel

The title of this book caught my attention. I am so glad it did! What a pleasure it was getting to know Taylor! I loved the way the story was told consistently from her viewpoint. . . her 'voice' was heard through-out, even when I thought she 'had it wrong' it was always clear that this was Taylors story, and she would reach her own conclusions, in her own time and in her own way.

The variety of characters was both believable and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the use of description in creating and recreating memories and events, It put me right there in the car with Taylor as she traveled cross country. I saw what she saw, and was able to laugh, and cry right along with her.

Lou Ann is an important part of this story. Emotionally she and Taylor are very different, yet together they are the epitome of every female psyche. In truth, they both teach lessons, and what is life, except a process of growth? I applaud the author for keeping me guessing until the very end. . .there was more than one possibility of course and I love a book that isn't predictable. This book is not a 'Love story', but it does examine what the word truly means. It is not a political satire, but it does make one question whether man's governments will ever accomplish the most basic of human needs. It is not a religious book, but it does 'poke fun' at hypocrisy. It does not get bogged down with moralization, but it does tell the stories of people who's lives are molded, by their economic situation in life. It also offers hope that the 'good' can and often does win out over 'evil'.

I am so glad to discover this author, and hope to savor the rest of her books!

THE BEAN TREES is a novel about a young woman, Taylor Greer, who leaves her home state of Kentucky to find a life outside of what she knew - growing up to become barefoot and pregnant. She wanted more than that, but she did not really know what she wanted. She finally arrives in Tucson and meets a woman who wants to give Taylor a 3 year old child. Taylor promises to take care of the little girl. Whether the woman is the child's mother, we never do find out. But Taylor does find out right away that something is not right with the child. Turtle, the name Taylor gives the child, does not talk. Taylor also finds bruises over the child's body while giving her a bath. Maybe Taylor has saved this child from a horrible life, but now she is responsible for the welfare of this little Indian american girl. But now what to do? No money and no job, and she's got a kid she never planned on having. Taylor and Turtle end up in a small town in Arizona and after meeting several nice people who help them out, they end up living with a gal named Lou Ann, who has her own story to tell. The book is intertwined with the stories of both women so we get to know them both very well. Along the way they meet and get involved with a hispanic couple, Estevan and Esperanza. They are from central America, and their story is a mystery, except we know Esperanza knows very little English, and Estevan was an English teacher in his home land. The four of them, along with little Turtle, become good friends, and soon Turtle is responding to the love she is getting from her new family. But there is still the mystery of what really happened to little Turtle.... THE BEAN TREES is the 2nd Barbara Kingsolver novel I have read, THE POISONWOOD BIBLE being the other one. This second novel reads quite differently than POISONWOOD BIBLE did, and I guess one reason is that THE BEAN TREES was written over a decade before. Ms. Kingsolver's skills as a story teller greatly improved between these two novels, but that does not mean THE BEAN TREES is a poorly written book. On the contrary, I found it very well written and enjoyable to read. The feel of both books is very different. While POISONWOOD had the feel of an epic, THE BEAN TREES was a much more simpler novel (being a much shorter novel helped!) I can't say whether one book was better than the other. I liked both equally. What I'm finding I really like about Ms Kingsolver's books is that she is very good at character developement. She knows how to paint a character well enough that I was able to picture right away what these characters were all about. They were not shallow one dimensional people, but people I could care about. Obviously, I am giving THE BEAN TREES a glowing recommendation. It was probably one of the better books I read in 2001.

This cleverly written, engrossing tale of Marietta/Taylor Greer's escape from her birthplace in Kentucky, and what eventually happens to her in Arizona. The story (and it's a good story) is about family, friendship and our responsibilities as people. To give an example of Kingsolver's style (of which I have long been a fan) her description of Taylor's first stop, a bar in Oklahoma: "..and the black grease on the back of the stove looked like it had been there since the Dawn of Man. The air in there was so hot and stale it felt like I had to breathe it twice to get any oxygen out of it." - p. 21

At this point Taylor is 'given' an Indian baby girl - whom she callsTurtle.

And this, a description of the house she ends up sharing with Lou Ann and her baby Dwayne Rae: "The house was old and roomy, there was plenty of space for Turtle's bed in my room. It was the type of house they called a "rambling bungalow" (the term reminded me somehow of Elvis Presley movies) with wainscoting and steam radiators and about fifty coats of paint on the door frames..." - p. 191

SPOILER ALERT!

Taylor has a job, and gets to know two Guatemalan refugees who are being helped by Mattie, Taylor's boss. Now Taylor is starting to understand the sort of problems other people face, and so when she decides to try to sort out her own legal standing with Turtle, she volunteers to take Estevan and Esperanza with her.

This scene where the Guatemalans are posing as Turtle's natural parents, giving Taylor permission to adopt her, was heart-wrenching: "Esperanza...held her against her chest, rocking back and forth for a very long time with her eyes squeezed shut...the rest of us watched... Here was a mother and her daughter, nothing less. A mother and child - in a world that could barely be bothered with mothers and children - who were going to be taken apart. Everybody believed it." - p. 291

How appropriate for this time!