Barbara Kingsolver
Fiction 1988 | 242 pages
With confidence and self-reliance instilled in her by her loving mother, “Missy” Greer is able to buy a very rough VW Beetle and take off west from rural Kentucky to find her own path after she graduates high school. She has to start her Beetle with one foot on the ground, to get it rolling. She renames herself Taylor when she passes a road sign for Taylorsville.
When she stops for car repairs in Oklahoma, Taylor encounters a Cherokee woman, who gives her a “baby” and tells her that no one else can care for the child. Unsure what to do, Taylor takes the silent toddler to a motel. She discovers evidence that the child has been physically abused and molested. Sickened, Taylor resolves to take care of the child, naming her Turtle, and continues to drive west until two flat tires force a stop in Tucson, Arizona. Because Taylor can’t afford to replace the tires, she decides to stay in Tucson and look for work.
Mattie, who owns the tire shop, offers her a job which Taylor accepts, as she hasn’t a penny to her name. Taylor meets Lou Ann, who becomes her roommate and best friend. Lou Ann has a young son, Dwayne Ray. Mattie eventually reveals that she provides sanctuary to migrants from Central America who seek political asylum in the US. She introduces Taylor to Estevan and Esperanza, a young couple from Guatemala who were forced to enter the country without authorized documents. These characters eventually form their own small family.
It takes her a long while, but eventually, Turtle begins to open up and interact with the world. She’s fascinated by vegetables and plants, starting to speak by pointing out beans in the garden. Her first vocabulary words are bean, “tato,” and carrot. Taylor grows to love Turtle like a daughter and is encouraged by the child’s resiliency despite the terrible situation she endured early in her life.
The story picks up from there as we watch the evolving and fascinating characters of Taylor, Lou Ann, Turtle, Mattie, Estevan and Esperanza. Kingsolver is a master at producing richly-nuanced characters as well as intriguing plots.
The Bean Trees (first published in 1988) is the first novel by Barbara Kingsolver. No wonder she went on to become a renowned author with seventeen published books.
I decided to read the sequel to The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven. I highly recommend The Bean Trees.
July 2026