Review

The Bean Trees

by Barbara Kingsolver

Taylor Greer has serious intentions --- and they definitely do not include getting knocked up as a teenager and being "hogtied to a future as a tobacco farmer's wife" in Pittman County, Kentucky. As soon as she's able, she packs up and heads west looking for adventure. It finds her in the form of an Indian baby abandoned in the backseat of her '55 Volkswagen. Never one to shirk responsibility, Taylor makes the necessary adjustments (i.e. now she spends the night in hotels instead of her car) and continues westward. What follows is Taylor's hilarious and touching tale of instant motherhood and the friends she