Pigs in Heaven

by Barbara Kingsolver

Book Overview

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction and a New York Times bestseller for 18 weeks, Pigs in Heaven has sold over 500,000 copies in its English editions. Now this phenomenal novel is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060922532
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: HarpPeren
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Eloquent sequel to The Bean Trees

Turtle, adopted Cherokee daughter of Taylor Greer, is the metaphorical baby in the King Solomon dilemma, a child wanted by two divisive forces. Kingsolver manages to show compassion and understanding for both sides of the issue: Indian lawyer Annawake Fourkiller, who insists that the child be returned to the Cherokee Nation on one side, pitted against Taylor, who has rescued the child from an abusive situation and wants to integrate her society at large, wrapped securely within her mother-love.Beautiful prose and superior descriptive abilities heighten one's appreciation of this superbly crafted story.

I can always count on this writer to make me think!

"All families are weird." So one of Barbara Kingsolver's characters declares, and he is (of course) absolutely correct. But what is a family, anyway? Why is this concept such an important one, and how does it change from one culture to another?When Taylor Greer reluctantly fell in love - not with a man, but with an abused and terrified little girl abandoned in her car - she found out, day by day and challenge by challenge, what motherhood meant. "Pigs in Heaven" opens three years after the conclusion of "The Bean Trees," in which Taylor adopted Turtle (so named because of the way the child hung onto her) by typically unconventional means. Turtle is a happy and healthy six-year-old now, and Taylor has settled into an uncommitted but loving domestic partnership with a man who adores them both. Mother and daughter are visitng the Hoover Dam, on a vacation that professional musician Jax can't share, when Turtle is the only witness to a retarded man's accident. The resulting rescue puts mother and daughter on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Where idealistic Cherokee attorney Annawake Fourkiller sees them, hears Taylor tell Oprah how she came to adopt her daughter, and realizes that Turtle - a child of color "found" by a white woman during a trip across Oklahoma - must surely be a fellow Cherokee.Annawake Fourkiller visits Taylor Greer to let her know that under the Indian Child Welfare Act, Turtle still belongs to her tribe no matter what legal proceeding may have given her to anyone else. The young lawyer doesn't anticipate what Taylor promptly does - which, of course, is run. Leaving Jax behind in a heartbeat, along with every other part of her support system, she takes to the road because it seems like the only sure way to keep her daughter.What follows is an odyssey of discovery not just for Taylor and Turtle, but (although she doesn't travel as far as they do physically) for Annawake Fourkiller as well. Not to mention for Taylor's mother, Alice, who comes west from Kentucky after her recent second marriage expires from boredom; for Jax, who stays behind in Tucson; and for Cash Stillwater, an aging Cherokee who returns to the tribe after leaving it several years earlier when he lost his mother, wife, and adult daughter, all within a few months of each other."Pigs in Heaven" is another of Kingsolver's marvelous depictions of human nature as it really is. Always honest - sometimes brutally so - its humorous and occasionally lyrical prose brings the characters' interwoven stories together at last, in a way that may not surprise most readers but is nevertheless profoundly satisfying.A keeper. I can always count on this writer to make me think as well as feel!--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of "Love, Jimmy: A Maine Veteran's Longest Battle"

A joy to read

One, it's beautiful. This woman can write. From elegant descriptions to well-formed characters, nothing disappoints the mature reader. Two, it deserves a willing suspension of disbelief. So the plot is a bit unlikely; it doesn't matter. And I've lived long enough to know that it's only slightly unlikely that some of the strangers in this novel would prove to have connections. If a lyrical, meaningful, warm-hearted and provocative big story is what you crave, read this. Don't dismiss this as a woman's story, or a story about women who don't understand men. Although the male characters have smaller roles, they are very important, and very likeable. Kingsolver does a virtuoso trick of letting you see them through the eyes of flawed observers and yet rather more clearly. As for the negative reviews: You might also note that nearly all of those who didn't like this book commented on their own political divergence of opinion or were forced to read it for school. Who asked them about their politics? Who cares? As for the mewling high schoolers, too many of whom have a lot of trouble spelling, punctuating or matching cases, please realize that bathroom images are not an impressive metaphor for your opinion. Less emotion and more substance from both sets, please.