Pigs in Heaven, the
sequel to Barbara Kingsolver’s heartwarming first novel, The Bean Trees, starts three years
after Taylor Greer adopted a girl who was dropped on her passenger seat
as she drove through the Cherokee Indian reservation in Oklahoma.
Taylor and Turtle, named for her tenacious grip, live in Tucson with
Taylor’s musician boyfriend. Considering that she had been abused and
abandoned in infancy, Turtle is doing well, and she and Taylor have a
strong bond.
Their happiness is disrupted, however, when Turtle makes news. She has
saved a man’s life by reporting a freak accident that only she
witnessed. Oprah Winfrey invites Turtle and Taylor on to her show,
which is seen by a Cherokee Nation attorney. The activist attorney
starts looking into whether the adoption of Turtle violated the Indian
Child Welfare Act. When Taylor learns of the investigation, she goes on
the run with Turtle.
Isn’t staying with Taylor, the mother to whom she is attached, the best
thing for Turtle? It would seem so except that Turtle would be deprived
of contact with her heritage and stigmatized growing up in white
society. The continuity of the tribe is also at stake. Kingsolver does
a good job of balancing the opposite claims for Turtle. The moral
dilemma of family love versus tribal justice is handled with
intelligence and open-mindedness. Kingsolver resolves the complex
predicament without selling out either side, making for a warm and
satisfying reader experience.
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