As others have said, it just doesn't seem to go anywhere, and the characters are pretty boring. Even with better narration, I think I would have stopped. I guess I didn't read them before I bought the book, and maybe a couple were posted after my purchase, but I have to agree with all the negative comments.

Taylor Greer hightails it out of Kentucky as soon as she gets a car, refusing to be just another small-town girl. After being bored for the next 3 or 4 hours, I took a look at the reviews here. The Bean Trees, first published in 1988, is the first book written by Barbara Kingsolver and was followed by a sequel, Pigs in Heaven. The first hour was pretty interesting, in spite of the narration, which I found grating and monotonous, and the accents were all wrong. So I looked forward with great anticipation to listen to the Bean Trees. Then I listened to Prodigal Summer, and though it was completely different, I was engrossed from the start, though it took me a bit to get used to Ms Kingsolver's narration, once I did I found I liked her reading very much.

She succeeds, but inherits a 3-year-old native-American little girl named Turtle along. It is the charming, engrossing tale of rural Kentucky native Taylor Greer, who only wants to get away from her roots and avoid getting pregnant.

I first listened to the Poisonwood Bible and was gripped from the beginning by the story and the wonderful narration. The Bean Trees draws from many of the experiences of its author, Barbara Kingsolver, whose personal life and academic training provide some of the background for the novel.The novel is not autobiographical, but there are numerous parallels between Kingsolver and the narrator, Taylor Greer. The Bean Trees is bestselling author Barbara Kingsolvers first novel, now widely regarded as a modern classic. The Bean Trees is a novel by the American author Barbara Kingsolver that takes place primarily in Tucson, Arizona.

Author of the bean trees