Saturday, March 1, 2008

Revisiting Heaven


Pigs in Heaven is Barbara Kingsolver's sequel to The Bean Trees, which is my favorite of her books and possibly my favorite book ever. In The Bean Trees, we meet the fabulous characters of Taylor and Turtle Greer, along with a host of other quirky yet wholly real people. Pigs in Heaven continues the stories of many of those people and adds in a few more, this time giving more attention to Taylor's mother, Alice. Kingsolver's writing always works to promote social justice and environmental awareness, and some readers perceive this as preachy. While I wouldn't call it preachy, Pigs in Heaven does get a bit too dragged down into teaching us what is right, and at the same time it wraps things up just a little too neatly -- that said, the ending still made me cry. When I read it the first time, I loved this book, and thought it's not as strong as some of her other fiction, it remains enjoyable and satisfying.

2 comments:

Leslie said...

I love Kingsolver's work! I read The Bean Trees about 5 years ago and really liked it. Thanks for the rec!

Kayte said...

The Bean Trees is my fave of hers too. and, like you, maybe my fave ever :) i liked Pigs in Heaven, but felt pretty much the same way you did about it. i cried at the end as well :)