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Cliffs Notes: Kingsolver's The Bean Trees
Cliffs Notes Kingsolver's The Bean Trees Author:Barbara Kingsolver, Cliffs Notes Editors Ten years ago, Barbara Kingsolver published a first novel that is well on its way to becoming a classic work of American fiction. The Bean Trees is a book readers have taken to their hearts. It is now a standard in college literature classes across the nation and has been translated for a readership stretching from Japan to Romania. — When it was... more » first published, however, its author was unknown. Word of mouth spread slowly among booksellers, librarians, critics and readers with a passion to share their favorite books. In The Bean Trees they found a spirited protagonist, Taylor Greer, who grew up in poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when Taylor heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time she arrives in Tucson, she has acquired a completely unexpected child and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.
Taylor Greer, from rural Kentucky, buys a 1955 Volkswagen and drives west. Along the way, she picks up an abandoned 3-year-old Native American girl named Turtle, and by the time she pulls up at the Jesus Is Lord Used Tire Auto Repair Shop, Taylor is well on her way towards establishing an adventurous new life in the desert land of the Southwest.« less