Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - The Bean Trees

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

5 reviews

carriepond's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I have long considered Barbara Kingsolver among my favorite authors, and became further entrenched in that belief after reading Demon Copperhead earlier this year, which is one of the best books I've read in 2023. I realized, though, that it has been a long time since reading some of her earliest books-- ones that I remember loving, but don't remember in actuality. I read The Bean Trees in my senior AP English class, and what I remember resonating with me the most at the time was Taylor's character: this smart, engaged teenager who feels too big for the small town around her, so she sets out on her own to make a life somewhere new. The connection that I felt to that part of the story, at the precipice of setting out on my own, feels inevitable. There is always a danger of reading something that you loved at a specific time in your life: without the same context, will it still hold meaning?

I am happy to report that I still love The Bean Trees. It was such a lovely and wonderful experience to re-read this story, which grew with me. Watching Taylor muddle through the experience of becoming a mother resonated with me, in the thick of a similar experience. I enjoyed the novel's exploration of found family, interconnectedness, and the importance of community much more deeply as an adult in my late thirties, as the reality of humanity's interdependence was not something I really gave much thought to as a 17-year-old. And, there were so many other themes in this novel that I could appreciate more deeply now-- undocumented immigration, the importance of women being in community with one another, and the need for connection with nature and the world around us.

There are, too, some aspects of this novel, written 35 years ago, that haven't aged amazingly read through a modern-day lens: there's some casual fatphobia, ableism, and racism (some of which feels intentional for character and plot development purposes, some of which is more just a byproduct of the casual fatphobia, ableism, and racism that was pretty par for the course then and a *little* less normalized now.) However, overall, I thought the empathy and humanity in this, Kingsolver's first novel, far outweighed the effect of the parts that made me think, "She'd probably have written this a little differently now."

So happy I re-read The Bean Trees, and so happy to feel the joy of rediscovering old favorites.

Content Warnings