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Nov 15, 2017
Funny and touching and painful and affirming. Not a word is wasted in the writing in this novel. Kingsolver's use of language in story-telling is masterful. Her characters are real and flawed and lovable. The protagonist, Marietta Greer, is a tiny-town Kentucky girl raised by a strong single mother who kept body and soul together through housecleaning work. Wanting something more for her life than she can find in her hometown, Marietta works and saves her money until she has enough to buy a mostly-running car. Then she sets off driving west, ending up in Tucson. By the time she arrives there, she's changed her name to Taylor and received the surprise gift of a non-verbal toddler, a little girl she calls Turtle. Taylor makes a home with another single mom, while landing a job at Jesus is Lord Used Tires, also a stop on the underground railroad for Guatemalan refugees(It's the 1980s.) She learns that the world can be both a whole lot worse and a whole lot better than she'd ever known.