The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, is the story of Taylor Greer and her struggle to find a place to belong. Like Kingsolver, Taylor began her journey in Kentucky and ended in
Tucson, Arizona. As a result of writing The Bean Trees, Kingsolver has been praised by many critics. The San Francisco Chronicle called the writing in The Bean Trees, "...so wry and
wise we wish it would never end...". I could not wait for this book to end. Though the novel is well written, the content was done in bad taste. Many factors have led to my disapproval of
this novel. For now I will only discuss a few of these factors: an unnecessarily long beginning, the portrayal of Taylor Greer as a heroin, and randomly placed offensive material.
From the beginning I was disappointed with this novel. Kingsolver chose to begin the novel from Taylor's point of view in Kentucky, but when the reader reaches chapter two, the book
switches to Lou Ann's point of view in Arizona. This tradeoff continues until the end of chapter five when these two characters finally meet and decide to live together. By this time I had
no idea what to expect next from this story. Some may enjoy this type of delay before the story truly begins, but I am not one those people. If it were not required of me to read this book, I
would have given up reading it by chapter three. My patience was worn thin by this technique. I was driven to boredom. I lacked an understanding concerning what the writer was trying
to accomplish. I am still unaware of her reasoning. Kingsolver could have introduced Lou Ann's character in less detail. She is not the main character. There is no need for extra
background information on a supporting character like LouAnn. By adding extra chapters for detailed character exploration Kingsolver takes away the suspense and intrigue and leaves the
reader confused and bored. Kingsolver would have shown better taste in writing by shortening the initia...