#24: The Bean Trees

 

I stayed up until 1 AM to complete The Beans Trees....because it was simply that good!  This novel is our faculty book club's May-read.

This one took me a few chapters to become hooked.  Several teachers had commented how good this choice was, and, mentally, I was thinking, "Really?"  Then it happened; I could not put the book down.

Author Barbara Kingsolver tells the story of Taylor Greer, who, determined to not be statistic and be pregnant  before graduating high school, finds herself caring for a young child whose parent simply gave her to Greer as she is traveling across America in hopes of discovering who she is.

Along the way she learns an important lesson that resonated with me:

"For me, even bad luck brings good things...I threw out a rocker arm on my car and I got Turtle [the name she gives the baby].  I drove over broken glass on an off ramp and found Mattie...Do you know, I spent the first half of my life avoiding motherhood and tires, and now I'm counting them as blessings."

This book, I would love assign this as a whole-class read, especially to an all-female class (which we do not have in our school).  Such rich discussion could develop from the pages of this novel.  Her exquisite use of syntax, diction...loved the metaphor of the railroad track to a workings of the heart:  "creaky, chest cavity," "the artery of Tucson, you would have to say it is was a hardened one." (chapter five, page 72)

I very much look forward to our discussion on Monday in book club and hearing what nuggets the others gleaned from within these pages, what life lessons they learned or of which they were reminded.

This one receives five stars.  Yes, it is that good.  Enjoy!