This is the second Barbara Kingsolver book I have read. The first was The Poisonwood Bible and I LOVED IT! It was a really great story; interesting and intriguing. This one was different, I still liked the book but I didn't LOVE it. The story was a bit dull. I guess I find myself reading something in order to escape for a time into a life more compelling than my own. I found myself hoping that the character in this book would end up having more of an adventure, it left me a bit let down.This story is about a young girl, Taylor, who leaves home in lieu of staying in her "go nowhere" town where basically her only option is getting pregnant and being a young mom. She wants something better / more for herself. You find yourself rooting for her - go get 'em, make something big of yourself. Instead she ends up in another "go nowhere" town and, surprise, being a young mom. I think she realizes that this is the "something big" she was destined to do. It's not earth-shattering or monumental - except to herself and her "daughter". The side story is interesting but there wasn't enough details to be exciting. All it really does is make me feel like Taylor is just a bit selfish and self centered. The end of the book is beautiful and touching, however, and I feel she did a great job at resolving the conflicts.
Kingsolver has a way of making me feel uneducated about social and political issues of different cultures, like I'm not just isolated but a bit ignorant regarding societal calamities around the world. The Poisonwood Bible made me feel interested in learning more about African culture and history whereas The Bean Tree just made me feel a bit depressed and helpless. It's almost as if she's saying to her readers - be cognizant of the world and people around you, but in the end there's not much you can do to change things. I know the optimistic view of this conclusion, and maybe your opinion of the moral of the story, would be to say that one can't change the world but just a few of the lives of those in it.
In the end, I would recommend the book just not highly. Her style of writing is almost lyrical and so it is entertaining.
Well I guess I better get myself to the library.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this one: Poisonwood Bible is fabulous; The Bean Trees and some of her other earlier books didn't interest me quite so much.
ReplyDeleteOne of her latest, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, is exceptional. It will have you buying cheesemaking supplies.
Funny thing about Poisonwood Bible--I listened to the whole thing on my ipod while running. That's how I "read" 75% of books these days...
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, the thing that made it so great listening were the parts when Adah spoke backwards. The narrator was excellent, and since I never saw the words on the page so that I could re-read the sentence in the other direction, it was like a poem. Wow--how did she do that?
And sometimes I still say to myself Tata Kuvudundu, just because it was such a great name. :) Loved that book!!