Barbara Kingsolver feels that a 'contract' lies between the author and the reader. This is correct. A novel must entertain the reader before a novel teaches the reader... If not, the reader would have no interest in finishing the story. Barbara Kingsolver did not live up to her contract. The Bean Trees is a down-right uninteresting novel and has no relation to any normal person. The Bean Trees tells a heart warming story about a woman and her daughter trying to get away from town and start a new life. Going by that perspective you could say that this novel could be slightly relatable to some people in our society, however, it's not. This novel, other then the first sentence of this paragraph, relates to almost no one in this generation or even any generation before this one. First of all, what kind of deranged, fatuous human being gives a child to a random person outside of bar? That's absolutely ridiculous and unrealistic. No sane person would ever do that and no sane person would even let that happen like Taylor did. The concept of Turtle is completely unrelatable and over the top. The Bean Trees tells another back story of a couple who are immigrants named Estavan and Esparanza. This part of the novel is also preposterous. Kingsolver wrote about the immigrants who have it easy with no acknowledgments to the immigrants who have no place to stay and have to fear for their lives and freedom everyday. It's a very nice way of looking at things but Kingsolver is apparently all about the 'real world', and that is not where she went with this story. This novel has touched many people but it's just not a very interesting book. Therefor Barbara Kingsolver did not live up to her
