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Pigs in Heaven and Frank Turner
Dec. 14th, 2010 11:45 amPigs in Heaven is the sequel to Barbara Kingsolver's first novel, The Bean Trees. I was surprised to discover this, since Kingsolver doesn't really seem like the sequel type, and I thought The Bean Trees concluded rather nicely with no loose ends that might need further exploration.
Major spoilers for The Bean Trees follow...
The Bean Trees is the story of a girl named Taylor, who is given a Cherokee baby at a truck stop by the baby's aunt, who begs Taylor to take the child, as she is being abused and the aunt cannot protect her. Taylor does so, and eventually secures adoption papers by getting two Guatamalan illegal immigrants to pose as the child's parents and "give" her custody.
Pigs in Heaven is a much longer, much weightier book, which is all about the destruction of American Indian culture and the importance of Indian children having contact with the tribe and knowledge and experience of their heritage. The whole premise is based on Taylor doing something wildly out of character at the start of the book, which alerts a Cherokee lawyer to the fact that she has an "adopted" Cherokee daughter. The story then progresses through the conflict of the tribe trying to get the child back and Taylor trying to stop them. The coincidences that lead to the incredibly neat and happy conclusion were as unbelievable as the inciting incident at the beginning, and the whole book was more about ethics and politics than it was about the characters.
I may be entirely wrong, but I got the distinct impression that Kingsolver wrote the book to "solve" the problem of the child's separation from the Cherokee tribe - whether because readers complained about it on the publication of The Bean Trees or because she felt she needed to do so herself, I don't know.
It was still an enjoyable and well-written book (at least in terms of the characterisation and narrative style, if not the plot structure).
On Sunday night, Dave and I schlepped to Brixton to see Frank Turner. I wasn't feeling particularly well on the journey, and standing up through an hour of faff and a less than inspiring support act didn't improve my mood. By the time Frank Turner eventually turned up on stage, I was wondering why I had come, and vowing not to agree to go to any more gigs in the future. But then Frank bounced (quite literally) into view and kicked off his set with three or four stonking good numbers, and suddenly I was having a fantastic time. The middle section of newer, slower songs didn't maintain the energy levels (but then if he'd tried to keep up the bouncing throughout the whole set, he probably would have died) but were still very good songs, and the latter part of the set went back to the upbeat, crowd pleasing numbers. Mr Turner was clearly enjoying himself tremendously, and it was great to share in his experience of his biggest gig to date. Great music, lots of fun.
Major spoilers for The Bean Trees follow...
The Bean Trees is the story of a girl named Taylor, who is given a Cherokee baby at a truck stop by the baby's aunt, who begs Taylor to take the child, as she is being abused and the aunt cannot protect her. Taylor does so, and eventually secures adoption papers by getting two Guatamalan illegal immigrants to pose as the child's parents and "give" her custody.
Pigs in Heaven is a much longer, much weightier book, which is all about the destruction of American Indian culture and the importance of Indian children having contact with the tribe and knowledge and experience of their heritage. The whole premise is based on Taylor doing something wildly out of character at the start of the book, which alerts a Cherokee lawyer to the fact that she has an "adopted" Cherokee daughter. The story then progresses through the conflict of the tribe trying to get the child back and Taylor trying to stop them. The coincidences that lead to the incredibly neat and happy conclusion were as unbelievable as the inciting incident at the beginning, and the whole book was more about ethics and politics than it was about the characters.
I may be entirely wrong, but I got the distinct impression that Kingsolver wrote the book to "solve" the problem of the child's separation from the Cherokee tribe - whether because readers complained about it on the publication of The Bean Trees or because she felt she needed to do so herself, I don't know.
It was still an enjoyable and well-written book (at least in terms of the characterisation and narrative style, if not the plot structure).
On Sunday night, Dave and I schlepped to Brixton to see Frank Turner. I wasn't feeling particularly well on the journey, and standing up through an hour of faff and a less than inspiring support act didn't improve my mood. By the time Frank Turner eventually turned up on stage, I was wondering why I had come, and vowing not to agree to go to any more gigs in the future. But then Frank bounced (quite literally) into view and kicked off his set with three or four stonking good numbers, and suddenly I was having a fantastic time. The middle section of newer, slower songs didn't maintain the energy levels (but then if he'd tried to keep up the bouncing throughout the whole set, he probably would have died) but were still very good songs, and the latter part of the set went back to the upbeat, crowd pleasing numbers. Mr Turner was clearly enjoying himself tremendously, and it was great to share in his experience of his biggest gig to date. Great music, lots of fun.
