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The Bean Trees

by Barbara Kingsolver

3.85 · rating details · 42,525 ratings · 2,648 reviews

Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Tur

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Mass Market Paperbound, 323 pages

Published October 1st 1998 by HarperTorch (first published 1988)

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Apr 13, 2007

Larissa rated it

Shelves: 2007, usa, southwest

My stepmother was the type of woman who painted the walls in our house eighteen different colors and wore turquoise-encrusted Kokopelli jewelry to show how in tune she was with the local culture. She hung Frida Khalo prints on the bedroom walls and thought that speaking ‘Food Spanish’ to waiters made her nearly fluent. She also compelled my sister and me to read a lot of Tony Hillerman paperbacks and other ‘local literature,’ which I am now almost positive included The Bean Trees. Because after ...moreMy stepmother was the type of woman who painted the walls in our house eighteen different colors and wore turquoise-encrusted Kokopelli jewelry to show how in tune she was with the local culture. She hung Frida Khalo prints on the bedroom walls and thought that speaking ‘Food Spanish’ to waiters made her nearly fluent. She also compelled my sister and me to read a lot of Tony Hillerman paperbacks and other ‘local literature,’ which I am now almost positive included The Bean Trees. Because after reading the first chapter of this book, I got the strangest sense of de ja vu.

This is probably appropriate in its way, given that the reason I picked it up in the first place was to suppress a bit of homesickness. Because a couple times a year—amidst the April snowstorms and one too many guys on the subway who splay themselves across two seats while playing audio-enabled Snood on their cell phones—I start pining for the homeland. I turned to this book hoping to get a good dose of Tucsonan flavor to keep me going until I had the time and money to go home and remember why I left in the first place.

I have to say, though, The Bean Trees didn’t really do the trick. Because even though I appreciate details about the Sun Tran bus line and the way it smells in the desert when it rains (the thing I miss the most about Tucson), there’s more to invoking a landscape than just listing of things that are really there. A good book about New York, for instance, isn’t good because it mentions the Empire State Building or talks about people taking taxis. It is a major (and frequent) misstep in novels to try and just be factually accurate about a place, without ever getting into how it really feels there.

To be fair, though, while the landscape wasn’t terribly reminiscent of Arizona, the writing style really was in its own (probably accidental) way. Because Ms. Kingsolver really illuminates that deep Southwestern flare for ‘characters’ and ‘culture’—a fondness for highlighting how darn quirky desert folk really are, and a gringo’s deep and abiding love of all things latino.

(As a side note, though: if we’re going to just start dropping real places into the book for authenticity, I would have swapped the ‘Jesus Is Lord’ tire place for the church that has ‘Happiness is Submission to God’ painted on it—a slogan which often gets altered to ‘Happiness is Submission to Godzilla!’ by persistent neighborhood delinquents…)
(less)

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Feb 17, 2009

Black Elephants rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver is the older twin of a book I read a year ago called Pigs in Heaven. As the first book of the duo, it chronicles the flight of Taylor Greer from a small, hick lifestyle to a freer life she didn't expect. Basically, Taylor's managed to be educated and not get pregnant when she finally takes her car across the country. But one night in a bar, a mysterious Indian woman gives her a young girl. Suddenly, Taylor finds that she's a single mother with no prospects. W...more

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Apr 30, 2008

Liz rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 03, 2008

Siria rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, american-fiction

I quite liked this, though it's obvious that this was Kingsolver's first novel. The main character, Taylor, is unevenly developed--she's too mutable, changing to fit what Kingsolver wants to say or how she wants to say it at various points in the book--and many of the other characters are types, not people, however finely observed. The plotline involving the refugees from Guatemala in particular was a little too anvilicious. And while it's set very definitely in the American South, the novel did...more

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Oct 23, 2008

Jamilka rated it

· review of another edition

This Book was pleasant
Things i like:
1.Female relationships, very strong i know Taylor wouldn't have made it without them. I love the relationship between Taylor and Turtle. This book is filled with motherly love.
2. Struggles- Very realistic (for her time) struggles. The book was truthful and lovable. The struggles were difficult because Taylor was dealing with something that she really wanted to avoid which is having a child. Taylor was always running away from every teenage gi...more

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Jan 13, 2009

Stacy rated it

· review of another edition

When I first read this book several years ago, I was terribly impressed by
1) her writing style, which I really like - I wish I could write like that
2) the interesting plot of a single girl who had avoided teenage pregnancy through her young life only to end up with someone else's baby
3) the relationship she has with her mother, who believes her daughter "hung the moon in the sky" and can absolutely do no wrong. I think it would be wonderful if my daughters came out ...more

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Jan 13, 2010

Maria rated it

· review of another edition

This is a well-written novel with a resilient protagonist, beautifully-drawn characters and an inspiring theme of relationships, growth and compassion. It was interesting to me to see this author's progress from this early novel to The Poisonwood Bible, published a few books later, and which is superbly written. In my zeal, I also started Kingsolver's early Animal Dreams, which is thematically somewhat similar but more of a love story, which holds no particular interest for me, but her style i...more

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Jul 11, 2009

Erika rated it

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Marietta Greer has just completed two miracles of her rural Kentucky upbringing: graduating high school and avoiding pregnancy. To celebrate, she jumps in her ’55 Volkswagen bug and rides West, leaving her job at a Kentucky hospital counting platelets to stay true to her plan “to drive out of Pittman County one day and never look back” (11). On the road, she changes her name to Taylor and finds herself in Tucson, Arizona with a broken down car and a Cherokee baby in her arms.

Taylor...moreMarietta Greer has just completed two miracles of her rural Kentucky upbringing: graduating high school and avoiding pregnancy. To celebrate, she jumps in her ’55 Volkswagen bug and rides West, leaving her job at a Kentucky hospital counting platelets to stay true to her plan “to drive out of Pittman County one day and never look back” (11). On the road, she changes her name to Taylor and finds herself in Tucson, Arizona with a broken down car and a Cherokee baby in her arms.

Taylor is an honest, straight-forward protagonist that speaks with youthful tact and an open heart. Through her, Kingsolver voices the morals of an ideal United States brought down with prejudice and misunderstanding. The Bean Trees isn’t a celebration of the Southwest and its adopted mixed-heritage culture as it is a vision into a world stricken by the hypocrisy of that adoption. Comparing her rural Kentucky hometown and Tucson, Arizona together to discover they’re as foreign to each other as to be separate countries, Taylor declares herself an immigrant in her own right and easily warm up to Mattie--the local mechanic--and the plight of the hunted illegal immigrants coming and going from the sanctuary rooms above her garage. She is naive, but warm-hearted, as she struggles to comprehend the idea that a person can not only commit illegal acts, but can be illegal in the eyes of the law, too.

When I began the novel, I was not expecting to read about political and human rights issues. I was really surprised to discover Taylor navigating prejudices that are extremely close to home. Now that I’ve finished, I’m blown away with Taylor’s sweet-below-the-surface personality and firm beliefs in the extension of natural human rights to everyone, not just citizens. She finds more in common with Estevan, Esperanza, and Lou Ann Ruiz--her roommate--than she does with the other local folks she meets in town. Themselves displaced from their own points of origin, Taylor and her group form fast friendships and a loyal support system as binding as any family she could ever imagine. Together they help each other survive in a foreign land, everyone as much part rhizobia as part wisteria vine. They are an incongruous family, the titular bean trees, a confusing connotation of the more widely known and beautifully named wisteria vine.

Kingsolver’s debut novel is charmingly powerful and subtle in its celebration of families, whatever the form. I’m also entirely prejudiced when it comes to immigration issues and agree with Kingsolver’s politics here (there are a lot of people who will not). I think it’d be difficult to get through this novel coming at it with a closed or contrary mind that would disallow for the suspension of one’s own beliefs. The Bean Trees is filled with rich sentiments that call for an open mind and are impossible to ignore if you want to experience (and enjoy) the book to its fullest.

The best part about the book was the dialogue. Taylor and Lou Ann’s colloquial conversations are disarming and honest. It’s very easy to fall in love with their (and everyone else’s) quirks--they bloom from the pages as studies of characteristics we’ve all encountered before; Lou Ann, the worrisome young mother; Virgie, the bigoted senior citizen; Mattie, the bleeding heart. Because of this, The Bean Trees readily comes to life, vividly reminding us of real life issues still very pertinent to our society, even after twenty years. Even little Turtle, who speaks her strange vegetarian language, manages to communicate effectively, if a bit eccentrically, and found in me a sympathetic heart. She speaks a recipe of nourishment, sprinkled here with food, there with a small army of ‘Ma’s determined to raise her right. Like Taylor and Lou Ann finding reprieve in each other’s speech, she finds solace in surrounding her auditory world with comfortable, familiar things.

One of my favorites scenes is a complete spoiler, but I think it’s the most powerful in the entire book: emotional and transcendent, reaching far beyond the actions on the page. I’ve dwelt on the political issues, but what drives the narrative are the characters, their personal journeys, and the relationships they form with each other. While it may be difficult to appreciate those aspects without also understanding the politics of what motivates them, it’s hard not to grip the book firm with both hands when Taylor, Turtle, Estevan, and Esperanza sit nervously in Mr. Jonas Wilford Armistead’s office, certain that any sudden movements will break the spell and destroy not one, but four lives. I held my breath and absolutely could not put The Bean Trees down or risk psychologically damaging someone.

I had nothing to compare Kingsolver’s writing to. This is the only book of hers I’ve read so I can’t say where on a Kingsolver scale this would land, but I really liked it. What am I talking about? I loved this book. This is the type of literature I think everyone should read and try to understand. It opens a dialogue that I hope engages people in a positive way.(less)

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Dec 17, 2008

Jill rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub

I'm a big Kingsolver fan and this is a great story - probably mostly because it's so original. You're not quite sure how to make out the main character for some time, but Kingsolver has a wonderful ironic way of writing that is highly entertaining. Coupled with the originality, it makes for a great read!

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May 14, 2008

Misse rated it

· review of another edition

I really liked this book. Even more than Poisonwood Bible- which was good in a different way. This book reminds me of Where the Heart Is. It's a quick read- I think you'll like it.

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Oct 13, 2009

jess rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, audiobook-d, fiction

"But nothing on this earth is guaranteed, when you get right down to it, you know? I've been thinking about that. About how your kids aren't really YOURS, they're just these people that you try to keep an eye on, and hope you'll all grow up someday to like eachother and still be in one piece. What I mean is, everything you get is really just on loan. Does that make sense?"

"Sure,"I said. "Like library books. Sooner or later they've all got to go back into the ...more"But nothing on this earth is guaranteed, when you get right down to it, you know? I've been thinking about that. About how your kids aren't really YOURS, they're just these people that you try to keep an eye on, and hope you'll all grow up someday to like eachother and still be in one piece. What I mean is, everything you get is really just on loan. Does that make sense?"

"Sure,"I said. "Like library books. Sooner or later they've all got to go back into the nightdrop."

I'm trying to get better about listening to more audiobooks in the car and less Top 40s best hits of today and your school days. Allow me to be perfectly clear: there is entertainment value in your child knowing all the words to Soulja Boy's romantic serenade "Kiss Me Through the Phone," but it's also rewarding for him to say that Barbara Kingsolver is a good storyteller, discuss immigrants, refugees, and murderous South American regimes on the way home from the bus stop, and groan when the narrator announces the last disc. "There's a sequel! We'll read it! Don't worry," I offered.

I picked The Bean Trees to rehabituate myself to the life of an audiobook commuter because I remembered reading another Barbara Kingsolver book in college, and I remembered her writing to be funny and engaging, I remembered she leans toward female protagonists that don't suck, and she wrote that book everyone loves, Animal Vegetable Miracle. I keep meaning to read AVM, but it's got such a long wait at the library. The Bean Trees had no waiting at all, and Sue Monk Kidd said it was one of her all-time favorites it in the Goodreads September newsletter. That's enough good reasons.

So I "read" the audiobook of The Bean Trees, and I enjoyed it. The pace of the story is occasionally more of a stroll than a walk, the characters fluctuate in ways that are more convenient for the plot than authentically human, and the dialogue trails off occasionally, leaving the reader hanging. All these things can be annoying, or charming, and I think they work well enough here. So, yes, it reads a little bit like a first novel, which it is. I was quite surprised to realize this was written in 1988 - a number of the sentiments and political views seem timely and contemporary, like Native parental rights & US immigration/refugee policies. This book has feminist characters and stories, it's structured around unconventional families, and includes an emphasis on community support in a way that's not contrived, hokey, or idealistic. Special bonus for the most amazing business name ever: Jesus is Lord Used Tires.

The most important things I hope I remember about this book:
1. The new year started on July 12, my birthday.
2. They spend a lot of time in Oklahoma, which I have done.
3. The ladies in this book are smart, independent, and they talk to each other about real life.
4. I just love a good, epic road trip with life-altering consequences.
5. There's a lady whose "power color" is red, and she wears it all the time. I love people with power colors.
6. The theme of unintentional single motherhood & parenting in a fairly unconventional way. (less)

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Oct 23, 2010

Kathy rated it

· review of another edition

This was my first Barbara Kingsolver book and I definitely liked it (but didn't love it). The protagonist, Taylor Greer, leaves Kentucky and the near certain fate of barefoot and pregnant behind, only to wind up with an abandoned child left on her metaphorical doorstep (well, in her car, anyway). I loved the relationship between Taylor and the child, Turtle, as well as her relationship with her friend, roommate, quasi-wife, Lou Ann. The pace of everything was a bit plodding for me though and ...more

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Jul 20, 2008

nat rated it

· review of another edition

I have to admit, this book really did a number on me. It was recommended to me from a friend, so my expectations were high, but after the first few chapters I was was not getting into it. The narrator's first-person voice was simple, non-descriptive, and frankly just a bit too naive to handle for an entire novel. But the story was interesting, so I kept going.

And the thing is, so does Taylor, the main character. As she charges her way through a haphazard journey to the Southwest, she...more

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Jul 04, 2008

Mason Wiebe rated it

· review of another edition

I’ve read two of Kingsolver’s books (Prodigal Summer and The Poisonwood Bible) down here and really liked them both. So when I saw this I picked it up. I enjoyed it, but I don’t think it compares to either of the other two. Part of it may be that I am not a woman and this book is all about women. There is only one male character and he is relatively minor. The book is about a young woman from Kentucky who has only two goals, not to get pregnant and to get away from Kentucky. A few years after Hi...more

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Jan 27, 2008

Jennifer rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone

Recommended to Jennifer by: Belleatrix

This is the third book in my read all my friends favorite book campaign. This one is from Skye and though she does not have any favorite books listed this one was communicated to me as highly recommended. I only gave this book 3 stars because I thought it moved slowly at times. It took me a while to relate to the characters and really feel like I cared about what happened to them. It was a good "coming of age" story so to speak, the main character Taylor learns that the world around he...more

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Jul 23, 2007

Katie rated it

· review of another edition

What I enjoyed:
- The style of narration - the main character, Taylor, tells most of the story with her sharp tongue and witty sayings from her poor, working class upbringing in rural Kentucky.
- The primary female relationships, between Taylor and her mother, Taylor and Lou Ann, and Taylor and Mattie; these relationships are strong and provide sustenance to Taylor (as well as the other women)
- Taylor's mother didn't have much to give her daughter in the way of material co...more
What I enjoyed:
- The style of narration - the main character, Taylor, tells most of the story with her sharp tongue and witty sayings from her poor, working class upbringing in rural Kentucky.
- The primary female relationships, between Taylor and her mother, Taylor and Lou Ann, and Taylor and Mattie; these relationships are strong and provide sustenance to Taylor (as well as the other women)
- Taylor's mother didn't have much to give her daughter in the way of material comfort, but her profound and unwavering belief in her daughter is palpable and it's clear that Taylor draws strength from it, even when she's far from Kentucky
- Kingsolver has created a predominantly female world (Estevan is the only significant male character & he's pretty dependent on Mattie and Taylor); these women don't have much (Taylor), they have difficult life circumstances to overcome (Esperanza), and they're often full of self-doubt (Lou Ann); nevertheless, they survive, they help others, and they find enjoyment, strength, and love in their connections with each other
- flora, fauna, the changing seasons and the climate of Arizona are beautifully and carefully described throughout the book so that the changes in nature progress in lockstep with the changes in the characters; the connection between nature and character is most apparent with Turtle, who develops a keen interest in vegetables growing from the ground; we discover at the end that it's likely she saw her mother buried in the ground - perhaps her fascination with vegetables and their growth process symbolizes her desire to see life grow where there once was death

Details to remember:
- The main character, Taylor, moves from Kentuky to Arizona, and on the way finds Turtle, a 3 year-old child (who looks 2 yrs old b/c of the abuse that she's experienced) who is given to Taylor by Turtle's aunt
- Taylor lives with Lou Ann and her newborn son, Dwayne Ray; Lou Ann is somewhat of an insecure hypochondriac whose husband, Angel, has recently left her
- Taylor works for Mattie at her tire repair store; Mattie also shelters refugees, including Estevan and Esperanza, who are Guatemalan refugees; their little girl, Ismene, was taken from them in Guatemala (less)

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Sep 13, 2007

Debbie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: older teens and adults

Shelves: fiction

Marietta Greer struggles to finish school in a small town where teen pregnancy and dropout rates are sky-high. A few years after graduation, she decides to drive west in her old VW bug. After the car runs out of gas in Taylorville, Marietta changes her name to Taylor. It is ironic that after vowing not to become a mother at a young age, she becomes the guardian to an abused Native American baby who is dumped into her car. I love this girly story. It is beautifully written, funny, and full o...more

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Mar 16, 2009

Mary rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A decent choice for a quick, well written novel to pass a long airplane ride. Although full of confrontations with "hard issues" like immigration, violence, injustice & single motherhood, these themes weren't given more than an passing once-over. Although easy to fall into and even enjoy, the critical edge and depth that made Poisonwood Bible one of my all-time favorite books was absolutely missing here.

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Oct 16, 2007

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, women

I finished this one over lunch today. I really loved this book. It didn't give me tingles down my spine like The Poisonwood Bible, but it did make me choke up a few times.

It's the story of a girl named Taylor who moved from Kentucky to Arizona. Yeah, I know. That alone really endears this book to me. The characters even say things like "I swon." There's an amazing description of an Arizona summer thunderstorm that made me a little homesick -- those pink skies! You don't ge...more

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Nov 27, 2008

Jean rated it

· review of another edition

"...nothing on this earth's guaranteed, when you get right down to it, you know? I've been thinking about that. About how your kids aren't really yours, they're just these people that you try to keep an eye on, and hope you'll all grow up someday to like each other and still be in one piece. What I mean is, everything you ever get is really just on loan. Does that make sense?" I read this book on Thanksgiving morning (when three of my kids were in other states, and one was out with...more

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Jul 08, 2008

Charis rated it

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This is a book about friendship and about idealism--that wonderful philosophy that allows a person to do the right thing, laws and social norms and religion be damned.

I decided to read this book because at our library, all three copies of The Poisonwood Bible were checked out. Oprah must've recommended it or something. So I chose another Kingsolver book, this one still a virgin of all Oprah entanglements. Oprah may be a wonderful person, but her cliche name plastered on the cover ...more

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Oct 10, 2008

Michelle rated it

· review of another edition

I just finished reading this book for the second time. I think I did like it better ten years ago when I taught it to my sophomore English class! That is probably because we did activities with the book along the way, and we were able to discuss the book in more detail.
Although I think the book is a slow read and it takes a LONG time to get into it, there are some good themes to think about. I do like the ending because it's hopeful and you can see a lot of growth in the characters by t...more

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Jan 13, 2012

Connie Cox rated it

· review of another edition

Knowing this was a first work, I read it with some leeway. Loved the phrasing. Loved the artful and deep development of characters in such a seemingly simple way. Did NOT like being preached to as the dirty American--but beyond the politics, enjoyed the story.

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Dec 09, 2008

Suzie Fullmer rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I really like this author. Great story about one woman's struggle in finding her own way in life and in the processs meeting people who change her life forever. Full of interesting and rich characters.

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Jun 17, 2008

Rachel rated it

Shelves: read-in-08, overrated

ok this sucks. boring. terrible writing. overly schmaltzy. i give up.

i give up on barbara kingsolver.

i LOVED "the poisonwood bible." one of my favorites.

i abhorred "animal, vegetable, miracle." i am one of those people that HAS to finish every book i start, but I couldn't get past page 150. i was hoping that it was just her attempt at nonfiction that failed, but now i can't get page 150 of this either.

i'm starting to think "...more

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Mar 01, 2008

Oceana2602 rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, women-writers, english

You know when they say you'll be sad that you have to leave the characters at the end of the book, and 99% of the time it's not true?
This is not one of those times.

Kingsolver makes her protagonists become alive, you'll love them, even the ones you don't like. One of the rare books that will make you forget that you are reading. Part road trip, part American Dream, part 60s community - you'll be living in the heat of Arizona with Taylor Greer and Turtle for a precious moment and...more

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Jan 27, 2009

Beverly rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: literary, audio, immigrants

Simple, readable, amnd moving in Barbara Kingsolver's way. However there is some preachiness. Kingsolver rails against immigration restrictions (I am in sympathy), but she is still knee-kerk and simple minded. Her Guatemalan immigrant characters find a life in the U.S., but have to hide from immigration officers, so she gets in some digs against the U.S. as a nation. I don;t know; they would be dead in Guatemala. She also takes on child abuse. She cites the outlandish (imaginary) stat that one i...more

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Feb 14, 2009

Molly rated it

· review of another edition

I was assigned to read this for my English class. It was moderately okay. The plot was fine, but I thought the ending was abrupt and never really understood it. The writing style was easy to read, but it packed a lot of information in a single paragraph, so it could be overwhelming at times. It had some really good moments, though.

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Feb 19, 2009

Fourthemodicas rated it

· review of another edition

Apparently one of Kingslover's early works. I found the story interesting but not neccessarily eloquently written. I would recommend this book for a vacation read where you don't want to apply any brain cells to what is written and just want to enjoy an easy story.

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Apr 20, 2010

Joyce Lagow rated it

Taylor (n�e Marietta) Greer was born into poverty in rural Kentucky but had the great good fortune of choosing a tough, loving, totally supportive mother, who cheered her on. Successful in her twin goals of avoiding pregnancy and escaping, driving a beat-up VW bug that has no working starter, Taylor starts her odyssey by crossing the Pittman County line, promising herself that she will keep driving west until her car just simply stops running.[return][return]This more or less comes to pass--but n...moreTaylor (n�e Marietta) Greer was born into poverty in rural Kentucky but had the great good fortune of choosing a tough, loving, totally supportive mother, who cheered her on. Successful in her twin goals of avoiding pregnancy and escaping, driving a beat-up VW bug that has no working starter, Taylor starts her odyssey by crossing the Pittman County line, promising herself that she will keep driving west until her car just simply stops running.[return][return]This more or less comes to pass--but not until she has had thrust on her by the aunt an Indian baby girl outside a run-down diner in Oklahoma; the girl, whom Taylor estimates to be around 18 months old, has been sexually abused. [return][return]Not exactly sure what to do about the situation but feeling a curious bond with the child Taylor drives on with the child who never makes a sound until the VW gives up with not one but two flats in front of the Jesus is Lord Used Tire mart in Tuscon, Arizona.[return][return]Kingsolver has an amazing ability to write about the economic underclass that is composed of women and usually, in her stories,Native Americans as well. Set in the 70s or 80s (the timeframe isn t clear), The Bean Trees is a remarkable story of survival--of tough women who learn to depend on the kindness of strangers but who also learn to depend on one another. It is also the time of the sanctuary movement in the US, started by Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen in Seattle, when churches of all denominations and people of all faiths quietly smuggled Central American refugees, illegal aliens, especially at that time from Guatemala,to safe houses and new lives in the US. The story of one such couple figures prominently in the book.[return][return]Kingsolver s prose is off-beat, her dialogue true to character, and her humor wry, as befits the people and the situations she is describing. She manages to portray the life these people lead realistically--not as some rosy dawn that is about to break in their lives but as a struggle to survive but with hope and dignity. It is a remarkable achievement--to be able to entertain but do so in a way that illuminates lives that are a far cry from those that most of us live and do so empathetically and with humor. [return][return]Highly recommended.(less)

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About Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in Africa in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in Biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her most famous works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo,...moreBarbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in Africa in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in Biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her most famous works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a non-fiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally.

Her work often focuses on topics such as social justice, biodiversity, and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments. Each of her books published since 1993 have been on The New York Times Best Seller list. Kingsolver has received numerous awards, including the UK's Orange Prize for Fiction 2010, for The Lacuna and the National Humanities Medal. She has been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

In 2000, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize to support "literature of social change."

Kingsolver was born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1955 and grew up in Carlisle in rural Kentucky. When Kingsolver was seven years old, her father, a physician, took the family to the former Republic of Congo in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her parents worked in a public health capacity, and the family lived without electricity or running water.

After graduating from high school, Kingsolver attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. Eventually, however, she changed her major to biology when she realized that "classical pianists compete for six job openings a year, and the rest of [them:] get to play 'Blue Moon' in a hotel lobby." She was involved in activism on her campus, and took part in protests against the Vietnam war. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1977, and moved to France for a year before settling in Tucson, Arizona, where she would live for much of the next two decades. In 1980 she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned a Master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology.

Kingsolver began her full-time writing career in the mid 1980s as a science writer for the university, which eventually lead to some freelance feature writing. She began her career in fiction writing after winning a short story contest in a local Phoenix newspaper. In 1985 she married Joseph Hoffmann; their daughter Camille was born in 1987. She moved with her daughter to Tenerife in the Canary Islands for a year during the first Gulf war, mostly due to frustration over America's military involvement. After returning to the US in 1992, she separated from her husband.

In 1994, Kingsolver was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from her alma mater, DePauw University. She was also married to Steven Hopp, that year, and their daughter, Lily, was born in 1996. In 2004, Kingsolver moved with her family to a farm in Washington County, Virginia, where they currently reside. In 2008, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Duke University, where she delivered a commencement address entitled "How to be Hopeful".

In a 2010 interview with The Guardian, Kingsolver says, "I never wanted to be famous, and still don't, [...:] the universe rewarded me with what I dreaded most." She says created her own website just to compete with a plethora of fake ones, "as a defence to protect my family from misinformation. Wikipedia abhors a vacuum. If you don't define yourself, it will get done for you in colourful ways."(less)

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“There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, 'There now, hang on, you'll get over it.' Sadness is more or less like a head cold- with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.” — 188 people liked it

“There were two things about Mama. One is she always expected the best out of me. And the other is that then no matter what I did, whatever I came home with, she acted like it was the moon I had just hung up in the sky and plugged in all the stars. Like I was that good.” — 58 people liked it

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