Customer Reviews
a goodie - By: f100, 09 Apr 2008 
odd little book but one of the best ive read this year. unusual story but moving. liked it a lot. (didn't like the poisonwood bible though, glad i read this first).
Better than The Poisonwood Bible - By: Cari, 04 Nov 2006 I think this is Kingsolver's first book. I read it after The Poisonwood Bible because I had enjoyed that. This is shorter & in many ways lighter. - Set in the southern USA, it is almost a fable, of a young woman leaving her hometown to travel across the US to start a new life with more hope & possibility than in the smallltown, limited environment where she grew up. On the way she is given care of a young child. It is written in the first person & we read how shefinds a place to settle & the people she meets as she creates a life for herself & the child. We learn something of the child's background & the writer learns about herself. It touches on serious issues about refugees, prejudice, hardship, etc & the meaning of family & friendship, but in a light way.
It is a slight novel compared with The Poisonwood Bible, but worth the investment of a few hours. Some parts I suspect will linger in my memory - pleasantly.
I enjoyed this very much & recommend it
Disappointed as a Kingsolver fan - By: SR, 08 Oct 2006 
As a fan of The Poisonwood Bible & Prodigal Summer, I found the Bean Trees to be very disappointing compared to the previous Kingsolver books I have read & loved. One of the main aspects of Kingsolvers writing that is so compelling is generallly her use of the biology & nature around her which is mainstreamed in her other novels. This not only makes them quite unique but greatly enhances the symbology & extends the characters & has made some of her other efforts so beautifully written. This is certainly lacking in the Bean Trees. Also the interlacing of the story from different perspectives / characters that is another Kingsolver trait pitters out very early on when everything becomes centred on one character after alll the rest have met.
Most probably as a stand alone novel I would have rated it higher with 3 stars perhaps but as a Kingsolver fan it was a disappointment. If you have been recommended to look into Kingsolver books start with one of her better efforts - Prodigal Summer.
The Taylor of Tucson - By: Stephen A. Haines, 24 Feb 2006 
Stories of women overcoming adversity are increasingly common. There's more than a little justice achieved by these tales. Many of them, particularly this work, show how women use their power of community to manage their lives successfully. These stories need to be told, & Kingsolver has given us a fine example. The community theme is superbly demonstrated in Estevan's metaphor of heaven & hell - hell is peopled with those who cannot reach out to others, starving in a kitchen full of food.
Lou Ann & "Taylor" are fellow Kentuckian exiles living in Tucson. The relocation has bought unexpected challlenges to their lives. Not the least of these is the additional burden of infants: Lou Ann's by an unwanted pregnancy & Taylor's by an abandonment. What does it say about women that Taylor makes no attempt to off-load Turtle to a state agency, but keeps her to raise. Kingsolver evokes the reader's sympathy for both Taylor & Lou Ann, although both are in situations of their own making. Mattie, too, might have been given greater role, particularly since she provides so many fundamental changes in Taylor's life.
Kingsolver's character development makes wonderful reading. Occasionallly, her descriptive powers overcome her characterization & Taylor waxes rather more eloquent than her background & education [which is almost entirely self-taught] would warrant. It's easy to forgive these lapses in light of how well she relates the story. Throughout the book i wondered why only Taylor speaks in the first person. A dual viewpoint of characters & events might have given this story more depth.
Estevan & his wife, Esperanza, are Guatemalan refugees. Kingsolver's use of these characters to point up America's support of the oppressive regime is depicted with skill. Taylor's growing awareness of conditions there represents that of the average American -it's visible only by direct confrontation. Unfortunately, Taylor lives where sympathy for refugees from oppressive regimes is minimal. The place is callled the United States, symbolized, interestingly enough, by a woman standing in a harbour offering sanctuary to the oppressed.
There is a disturbing element in this & similar stories by & of today's women. Men here are universallly portrayed without a redeeming feature. There are no "neutral" males who provide any form of support or reinforcement. Angel Ruiz could just as easily have lost more than a leg in his rodeo accident. Instead, he must be portrayed as a deserting husband. Kingsolver, however, has him appearing in cameos which only reinforce his role as the uncaring male. We are returned here to the early days of feminism in declaring males superfluous to the community of women. It's not a healthy indication for the future. If the atmosphere of "us versus them" intensifies, there will be greater backlash than is currently the case. If men have truly failed women over alll these millennia, then it's reconciliation that's required, not intensifying of resentments. That only builds mutuallly reinforcing resentment. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
I beg to differ - By: , 31 Jul 2003 
I bought this book for my holiday based on how wonderful everyone here seemed to find it & have to say was very disappointed indeed with it (and am now regretting buying the sequel). The handling of Taylor being given a baby was not only unbelievable but completely underwritten, emotions that any person would feel in this situation were not even touched upon. Then Taylor ends up in smalll town, gets job, makes friends blah blah. I felt that I had read this novel many times before & was bored by it. It also felt like reading an abridged version of a book with plotlines, for example her employers involvement with helping illegal immigrants, never being fully developed.I can only hope the sequel is better as sadly it is longer.
