Monday, September 15, 2014
PIGS IN HEAVEN by Barbara Kingsolver
Annawake Fourkiller, a Cherokee lawyer, recognizes Turtle from a TV news
clip, and wants to return her to the tribe.
However, Taylor adopted Turtle after a woman dumped Turtle in Taylor’s
car. Now Taylor and Turtle are
inseparable, and they try to disappear.
Taylor soon finds that life on the lam is no picnic, especially since no
employer is going to allow Turtle to come along, and day care options are
non-existent. When Taylor’s mother Alice
seeks out her long-lost Cherokee cousin, Alice becomes romantically involved
with Cash, who turns out to be Turtle’s biological grandfather. Obviously, there’s got to be some middle
ground here that will make everyone happy.
I found it hard to side with Annawake on this conundrum, given that
Turtle was physically and sexually abused before she found asylum in Taylor’s
car. Losing their children to outsiders,
though, has long been a sticking point with the tribe, who want to make sure
that their kids understand their heritage.
Losing one’s ancestral identity seems to me to be a small price to pay
for personal safety and well-being, but Turtle’s abusers are out of the
picture, and her grandfather is a kind man who has long been deprived of
contact with his granddaughter. This is
a sticky situation, and Kingsolver handles it with her usual compassion and
tenderness. My favorite character is
Jax, Taylor’s laidback boyfriend, who is honest to a fault and loves Taylor
wholeheartedly. What’s not to love about
a musician whose band is called Irascible Babies? Taylor and Turtle could do a lot worse.
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