Book Review: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Title: The Bean Trees
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Reprint edition
Publication Date: May 19, 2009
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN: 978-0061765223
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.

My Review:

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver is a story of strength, endurance, love, and family.  Kingsolver weaves together the lives of several women; all strong in their own unique manners to create a moving story that will engage the reader from the very beginning.  Kingsolver creates many heroines, primarily Marietta “Taylor” Green and a woman, whose name unfortunately I cannot mention without giving away the moving ending, who inspire the reader and command attention and admiration.  The Bean Trees is poetically written, not as much as some of Kingsolver’s later novels, yet quite well in the context of this story.  Along with her prose, Kingsolver uses regional dialect along with vivid imagery and vivid details, which take the reader from the hills of Kentucky across the United States to Tucson, Arizona.  I found myself ringing up my friend to help me with some of the Kentucky terms, he was delighted to know there was a novel filled with people who speak as he does and I learned new metaphors and what “I’ll swan” means.  I highly recommend The Bean Trees to all readers and recommend the reader prepare for a delightful afternoon of reading.

About the Author:

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of seven works of fiction, including the novels The Lacuna, The Poisonwood Bible, Animal Dreams, and The Bean Trees, as well as books of poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction. Her most recent work of nonfiction is the enormously influential bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. In 2000, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country’s highest honor for service through the arts. She lives with her family on a farm in southern Appalachia.

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I received a complimentary copy of The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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