The Bean Trees

Not bad; not as good as I'd hoped.

This was technically a reread; I read it for the first time in freshman English in high school, over a decade ago. Like many of you I was conscious only sporadically during that class, and I didn't remember it very well.

I decided to reread it after reading The Poisonwood Bible, also by Kingsolver, and it didn't do as much for me as that one did. It's... I don't want to say lower-stakes, but it lacks the gravitas lent by the Congo crisis, and it does not share the same cynicism. The opposite is true, in fact – The Bean Trees is a mostly optimistic book, bullish on shared humanity and community, not that it lacks conflict or trouble entirely. It concerns a girl from a backwater town who drives west to find her place with a little girl she is unceremoniously given along the way, and the people she meets when she does.

This one isn't a waste of time by any means, but it isn't the heavy, crushing experience of The Poisonwood Bible. Worth a look all the same.