Let's Bust a Recap : The Bean Trees

Let me tell you a little story. 

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved books. She took a book with her wherever she went. You could find her reading any time a pair of seconds popped up—standing in line to vote, waiting for a table at a restaurant, or even stuck in traffic. She made a list of books for herself to read at the start of each new year. She was always acquiring new books even though she had shelves full at home waiting for her attention. 

One day, she took her car to the shop for some routine maintenance. As was her custom, she had a book with her, a book she was more than halfway through reading. After dropping her little car off with the trusty mechanics, she walked to the nearby lake, found a bench, and settled in to read her book, the book she owned and had been reading for several weeks. 

It being a chilly morning with a brisk breeze coming off the lake, the girl, clad in just her hoodie and jeans, decided after about an hour of reading on the bench by the lake to change location in the hopes of warming up a bit. So she walked downtown, away from the lake, to sit in the sunshine by a beautiful fountain to continue reading her book, the book she brought with her, the book she'd been reading for the past hour. 

Alas, as she neared the lovely fountain in the center of town with the sunshine beaming down on her, the girl happened to pass a Little Free Library. Being the book-lover she was, she naturally detoured directly to the Little Free Library to have a look inside. Upon a few moments perusal, the girl found a book she had never heard of that looked interesting and she proceeded with this book, the book she had not brought with her, a book she'd never heard of, to a nearby bench by the pretty fountain and immediately began to read the new book leaving the book she'd brought with her completely ignored and rejected in her purse. 

That girl is me. 

And the book from the Little Free Library is The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. 

(And if you—like me—need every detail when being told a story: the book I originally brought with me was The Diary of Anne Frank, a book I still haven't finished.)

Not only did I procure and read this book at the end of the year while I was in the middle of reading three books and furiously trying to finish up books from my 2020 book list, it's now jumping in line to be recapped before three other books I finished in October. (Before I even knew this book existed.) 

Such is the life of a bookworm. 

Anyway, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver was originally published in 1988 and was Kingsolver's debut novel. She has since gone on to become one of the most well-known authors in the United States (and world, to be honest). I also own her most famous book, The Poisonwood Bible, though it's one of the books sitting on a bookshelf in my house, waiting for me to read it. 

In The Bean Trees, we're introduced to Marietta Greer. Everyone in her hometown in rural Kentucky calls her Missy but she's determined to make it out of Pittman, and as soon as she leaves town, she decides she needs a new name. 

"I wasn't crazy about anything I had been called up to that point in life, and this seemed like the time to make a clean break. I didn't have any special name in mind, but just wanted a change. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that a name is not something a person really has a right to pick out, but is something you're provided with more or less by chance. I decided to let the gas tank decide. Wherever it ran out, I'd look for a sign. 

I came pretty close to being named after Homer, Illinois, but kept pushing it. I kept my fingers crossed through Sidney, Sadorus, Cerro Gordo, Decatur, and Blue Mound, and coasted into Taylorville on the fumes. And so I am Taylor Greer. I suppose you could say I had some part in choosing this name, but there was enough of destiny in it to satisfy me."

In her '55 Volkswagen, Taylor heads west to make a new life for herself. But on the way, she ends up with a tiny Indian girl. When they finally settle in Tucson, Taylor finds community in a newly single mother, Lou Ann, and Mattie, the owner of Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. What follows is at the heart of this memorable novel about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places. 

This novel hooked me from the very first page. Taylor's down-home, audacious voice was a delight to read, and the strong, tight female relationships highlighted throughout the entire story were a joy to discover. I will say that the book started to drag a bit in the middle for me, and I think Kingsolver could have used a bit of focus in that midsection. Certain points the author was driving at were a tad heavy-handed, even a little preachy at times. Not so in-your-face that I wanted to stop reading, but enough to make me roll my eyes a couple times. But the end was just as strong as the beginning and given that this was her debut novel, I can forgive the slightly scattered sections. Kingsolver's natural wit and wisdom made this book a pleasure to read overall, and I enjoyed it. I even got sorta choked up at the end.

I enjoyed The Bean Trees, and I'm glad I found it, but it's not necessarily a book I would shove into the hands of all my BFFs insisting they read it pronto (which I have been known to do). I would definitely recommend it if you're looking to start small with Barbara Kingsolver (The Bean Trees is less than half the length of The Poisonwood Bible), or if you're tired of romance and looking for a story with themes of friendship and family that make you proud of the human spirit. 

Have you read The Bean Trees or anything else by Barbara Kingsolver? Do you have any irrational tendencies like starting a new book you've never heard of even when you are literally in the middle of a different book that you actually have in hand?