Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver - 4 stars

[Joy D]

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver - 4* - My Review

This book is a sequel to The Bean Trees, in which a two or three-year-old Cherokee girl had been unexpectedly thrust into the arms of Taylor Greer while she was moving from Kentucky to Arizona. Taylor adopted the girl (in an unauthorized manner) and has given her a loving home. As the sequel opens, Taylor has moved in with boyfriend, Jax, a musician. Her daughter, Turtle, has been with Taylor for approximately three years.

Taylor and Turtle take a vacation to Hoover Dam, where a dramatic episode ensues, resulting in an appearance on Oprah Winfrey. Annawake Fourkiller, a lawyer for the Cherokee Nation, sees them on television, and decides to contact Taylor. Annawake’s brother had been lost to an outside family when they were young. She knows how difficult it is for native children in society and worries about her loss of tribal identity. Taylor, of course, does not want to lose the daughter she loves, and flees with Turtle.

The author portrays both sides of a difficult situation such that the reader can appreciate each viewpoint. The narrative is filled with both drama and humor. Kingsolver knows how to knit a story together and her characters are memorable. I very much enjoyed the first three quarters of the book. It gets a bit melodramatic and there are many coincidences near the end. I recommend reading The Bean Trees first in order to fully enjoy Pigs in Heaven.

[NancyJ]

I'm glad that you liked this. I really liked The Bean Trees last month, and I want to read this one this year as well. I should check to see if it fits the May tag. It sounds like it's driven by a dramatic plot, but everyone interprets the tags differently.

[Joy D]

Well, it is definitely character driven, but I don't think it has enough tags to claim the extra votes for WPF.