The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver [108]
She bobbed her head up and down like a hen, with her eyes fixed on something out the window that only she could see.
“You know where we’re going now? We’re going home.”
She swung her heels against the seat. “Home, home, home, home,” she sang.
The poor kid had spent so much of her life in a car, she probably felt more at home on the highway than anywhere else. “Do you remember home?” I asked her. “That house where we live with Lou Ann and Dwayne Ray? We’ll be there before you know it.”
But it didn’t seem to matter to Turtle, she was happy where she was. The sky went from dust-color to gray and then cool black sparked with stars, and she was still wide awake. She watched the dark highway and entertained me with her vegetable-soup song, except that now there were people mixed in with the beans and potatoes: Dwayne Ray, Mattie, Esperanza, Lou Ann and all the rest.
And me. I was the main ingredient.
About the Author
BARBARA KINGSOLVER grew up in eastern Kentucky. She is the author of eight books, including three other novels (Animal Dreams, Pigs in Heaven, and most recently, The Poisonwood Bible), a collection of stories (Homeland), and a book of essays (High Tide in Tucson). Since writing The Bean Tress, she has had two children, whom she raises with her husband, Steven Hopp. They live near the mountains outside of Tucson, Arizona.
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Extraordinary Praise
for
Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees
“THE BEAN TREES IS THE WORK OF A VISIONARY.”
—Los Angeles Times
“A LIVELY NOVEL…. AN EASY BOOK TO ENJOY.”
—The New Yorker
“LOVELY, FUNNY, TOUCHING AND HUMANE.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A SPIRITED, WARM BOOK, WRY AND AT THE SAME TIME REFRESHINGLY GUILELESS.”
—Ella Leffland
High Tide in Tucson
“A DELIGHTFUL, CHALLENGING, AND WONDERFULLY INFORMATIVE BOOK.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Barbara Kingsolver’s essays should be savored like quiet afternoons with a friend…. [SHE] SPEAKS IN A LANGUAGE RICH WITH MUSIC AND REPLETE WITH GOOD SENSE.”
—New York Times Book Review
“THE ACCLAIMED NOVELIST’S EXTRAORDINARY POWERS OF OBSERVATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF CHARACTER SERVE HER BEAUTIFULLY IN THIS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“MS. KINGSOLVER POSSESSES THE RARE ABILITY TO SEE THE NATURAL WORLD WITH THE KEENNESS OF BOTH THE POET AND THE NATURALIST.”
—Washington Times
Animal Dreams
“KINGSOLVER IS A WRITER OF RARE AMBITION AND UNEQUIVOCAL TALENT…. Animal Dreams is a complex, passionate, bravely challenging book.”
—Chicago Tribune
“KINGSOLVER PROBES THE HUMAN HEART WITH UNCOMMON WISDOM. Animal Dreams is a gracefully written, large-spirited novel. Anchored on the earth, it dares to soar into the ethereal.”
—New York Newsday
“ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST WORKS OF FICTION.”
—Detroit News and Free Press
“ANIMAL DREAMS IS A NOVEL THAT FEELS CLOSER TO THE TRUTH ABOUT MODERN LIVES THAN ANYTHING I’VE READ IN A LONG TIME…. An astonishing book that ought to put Barbara Kingsolver in the first ranks of fiction writers.”
—Louise Bernikow,
Cosmopolitan
“Rich, complex, witty…. This is a sweet book, full of bitter pain; a beautiful weaving of the light and the dark. THIS ONE WILL BE WITH US FOR A LONG TIME.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin,
Washington Post Book World
Pigs in Heaven
“A NOVEL FULL OF MIRACLES.”
—Newsweek
“FULL OF WIT, COMPASSION, AND INTELLIGENCE.”
—People
“THERE IS NO ONE QUITE LIKE BARBARA KINGSOLVER IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE. Her dialogue sparkles with sassy wit and the earthy poetry of ordinary folks’ talk; her descriptions have a magic lyricism rooted in daily life but also on familiar terms with the eternal.”
—Washington Post Book World
“Possessed of an extravagantly gifted narrative voice, Kingsolver blends a fierce and abiding moral vision with benevolent, concise humor. HER MEDICINE IS MEANT FOR THE HEAD, THE HEART, AND THE SOUL.”
—New York Times Book