The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

The Bean Trees

by 

Barbara 

Kingsolver


On my way home from work this afternoon,  I finished listening to The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver on audio.   This is the second book by Barbara Kingsolver that I have listened to on audio and I intend to either listen to or read every novel she has written.   I really like her writing style and I like that she addresses social issues  incorporating them into her novels.    The Bean Trees is about friendships and relationships.   In many ways it is a coming of age story of a young woman named Taylor.  The novel is set in the 1970s so,  for me,  is nostalgic.   Today this novel is required reading in many university settings.  Some of the social issues that are brought up are teen pregnancies,   abuse of women by their husband,  sexual abuse of children,  living conditions on a Native American reservation,  and Guatemalan illegal immigrants.  The novel begins with Taylor growing up  in Kentucky and saving her money from her after school job at the hospital lab to buy a beat up old VW bug.  After graduation she leaves home to find a new life,  although she is not sure where she is going.  She just knows she is not going to be like many of the girls she went to high school with and end up pregnant and alone.  Along the way she stops for vehicle maintenance and a sandwich in Oklahoma and inadvertently does so on Cherokee land.  While there a Native American Woman hands her a baby and tells her that she is the baby's aunt,  that the baby's  parents have died and that Taylor must take the baby and care for her.    As soon as she finds the need to change the toddler's diaper she discovers the tell tale signs of sexual abuse.  Taylor finds herself settling in Tuscan, Arizona where she finds work and forms friendships.  Among her friends are a couple that are on the run for their lives from the Guatemalan Civil War.   During the 1970s and 1980s I can remember much debate about whether or not the United States was on the wrong side of the Guatemalan conflict and Taylor's friends are not on the same side as chosen by our government so they were in the country illegally.   Kingsolver does a fine job describing this fictitious couple's experience and making it real to the reader.     I highly recommend this book.  Please click on the title and the authors name above, and the link in the text,  to find more information.  And enjoy the following video.  Underneath the video find a quote from the You Tube site about the video.





" 'Guatemala', a song and human rights video from the Pete Sears album "Watchfire", features Sears on piano, slide guitar and vocals, David Grisman on Mandolin, and Enrique "Quique" Cruz on Quena. Music was written by Pete Sears, and lyrics by Jeannette Sears. The video was produced by Sears in 1988, right after his 13 year run as a member of Jefferson Starship. It was made by a non-profit video production company started by Sears, Jeannette Sears, film director Ray Telles, Mary McCue, and Mark Adler. It was a project of "Earth Island Institute" and was funded by Jerry Garcia and the Rex Foundation, and the Tides Foundation. Hundreds of free copies were distributed globally at no charge to human rights organizations working to bring the genocide of the Mayan population of Guatemala to the attention of the world. Amnesty International recently played the video again as part of a presentation on Central America. Sears and his wife, Jeannette, have visited Guatemala many times since their first trip in 1978...just as civil war was breaking out." ~posted on You Tube by "Permagrinsf"