Enjoying the Oldies

Enjoying the Oldies

Taylor Greer, a native of Kentucky, is extremely afraid of tires. Especially when she saw Newt Hardbine’s father thrown on the top of a Chevron sign after his tractor’s tire exploded.

Taylor is desperately trying to get out of her small town, which is famously known for high school girls getting pregnant at a very young age. The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, features the protagonist, Taylor Greer, escaping her predetermined fate, and to leave Pittman County, Kentucky forever.

Taylor, unlike most of her peers, leaves the rural Kentucky forever around 5 years after her graduation from high school.

Taylor Greer notifies her wise mother that she will drive until her car runs out of gas. As expected, Taylor’s car breaks down in the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma. As Taylor is about to leave and keep getting as far away from her hometown as possible, a woman approaches her and gives her something that will change her life forever.

The novel then switches to the story of Lou Ann Ruiz, who is also a Kentuckian living in Tucson, Arizona. Lou Ann’s husband, Angel, abandons Lou Ann and her newborn son, Dwayne Ray.Throughout the novel, Kingsolver provides readers with witty, sarcastic and to-the-point humor from the amazingly developed character, Taylor. The Bean Trees is a must read novel that will not only tug at your heart strings, but will have you cheering on the characters the whole way through.