Product Description

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.

Available for the first time in mass-market, this edition of Barbara Kingsolver's bestselling novel, The Bean Trees, will be in stores everywhere in September. With two different but equally handsome covers, this book is a fine addition to your Kingsolver library.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3808 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-01
• Released on: 1998-09-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Feisty Marietta Greer changes her name to "Taylor" when her car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Ill. By the time she reaches Oklahoma, this strong-willed young Kentucky native with a quick tongue and an open mind is catapulted into a surprising new life. Taylor leaves home in a beat-up '55 Volkswagen bug, on her way to nowhere in particular, savoring her freedom. But when a forlorn Cherokee woman drops a baby in Taylor's passenger seat and asks her to take it, she does. A first novel, The Bean Trees is an overwhelming delight, as random and unexpected as real life. The unmistakable voice of its irresistible heroine is whimsical, yet deeply insightful. Taylor playfully names her little foundling "Turtle," because she clings with an unrelenting, reptilian grip; at the same time, Taylor aches at the thought of the silent, staring child's past suffering. With Turtle in tow, Taylor lands in Tucson, Ariz., with two flat tires and decides to stay. The desert climate, landscape and vegetation are completely foreign to Taylor, and in learning to love Arizona, she also comes face to face with its rattlesnakes and tarantulas. Similarly, Taylor finds that motherhood, responsibility and independence are thorny, if welcome, gifts. This funny, inspiring book is a marvelous affirmation of risk-taking, commitment and everyday miracles.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This debut novel follows the gritty, outspoken Taylor Greer, who leaves her native Kentucky to head west. She becomes mother to an abandoned baby and, when her jalopy dies in Tucson, is forced to work in a tire garage and to room with a young, battered divorcee who also has a little girl. With sisterly counsel and personal honesty, the two face their painful lot (told in ponderous detail). The blue-collar setting, described vibrantly, often turns violent, with baby beatings, street brawls, and drug busts. Despite the hurt and rage, themes of love and nurturing emerge. A refreshingly upbeat, presentable first effort by an author whose subsequent novels will probably generate more interest than this one. Edward C. Lynskey, Documentation, Atlantic Research Corp., Alexandria, Va.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen
Marietta Greer's mama called her Missy, because, according to family legend, when she was three, she stamped her foot "and told my own mother not to call me Marietta but MISS Marietta, as I had to call all the people including children in the houses where she worked Miss this or Mister that..." Her growing up years in Pittnam County, Kentucky, taught her two things: don't get pregnant, and get out as quick as you can. With Mama's expert training in old-car trouble-shooting, Marietta hits the road in her 1955 windowless, jump-start volkswagen, determined to rename herself after the first place she has to buy gas. Relieved at missing Homer, Illinois, and keeping her "fingers crossed through Sidney, Sadorus, Cerro Gordo, Decatur, and Blue Mound," she "coasted into Taylorville on the fumes." Now Taylor Greer, she discovers that car trouble can change more than just her name: when her rocker arm breaks in Oklahoma, she is "given" a baby; when she has two flat tires in Tucson, she limps into Jesus Is Lord Used Tires, where she begins to learn that her troubles are minor compared to people hiding from Guatemalan death squads. The Bean Trees is written in the spirited language of a Kentucky-raised working woman with a generous heart and an audacious imagination. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.

Customer Reviews

Good not great...
I've heard about "The Bean Trees" for years and finally had an opportunity to read it. As seems to often be the case, the first 100 pages or so were delightful and then after that things got a little choppy and heavy handed. My overall reaction is that this feels very much like a first novel, as it hasn't quite achieved the full potential in terms of character development and nuance.

Things I liked: the set-up (young woman, Taylor Greer, traveling cross-country improbably aquires a toddler ), the Tuscon setting (including some lovely descriptions of the desert), the sense of community and alternative families.

What I didn't like: the book at times ceases to be a narrative and starts to feel like a political treatise. There is also a half-baked relationship between the protagonist and a married man which didn't entirely make sense to me. It seemed to come out of no-where and disappear just as quickly. In addition, I found the friendship between Lou Ann and Taylor to be a little too ideal. Would this really happen? I have my doubts. There are things that happen at the end that seem to strain credibility to me on several levels. In fact, the entire book has a slightly kooky premise.

Don't let my criticism fool you: I did like the book. That said, I'm in no rush to read its sequel, "Pigs in Heaven." Based on this, I'd say Barbara Kingsolver is one of those authors I'm happy to read every five years or so.

Deft handling of the difficult life of strong women
At its core, this is a story of the strength of women who don't even realize they are strong. LouAnn, Esperanza, Edna and Turtle are all overcoming their own history -- all feel weak, but are profoundly powerful in their own ways and all discover that they are more than they believe and is easy to see on the surface. Taylor only begins to learn her own value and what she has to offer others. Kingsolver deals with incredibly weighty issues - divorce, child abuse, sexual abuse, immigration -- but in a really accessible and individual level. You grow along with the characters as she opens up their worlds to the reader. They are easy to root for -- and overall they are victorious. You'd think that would make the story trite...but it doesn't. Their victories are messy ones, colored by reality, and suprememly satisfying. A great read.

SIMPLE STORY...WONDERFUL CAST
An early offering, Bean Trees is an often overlooked Kingsolver work but, like her other novels, it is peopled with unforgettable characters that stay with you long after you have replaced the book on the shelf.