One Little Indian Girl

Barbara Kingsolver's uniquely eccentric, free-wheeling, poetic literary voice is, to the readers' delight, amply on display in "Pigs in Heaven".
In a story brimming with off-beat humor, poignance, and powerful insights into human foibles, Kingsolver, the literary equivalent of a fine impressionist, paints the story of a young woman, Taylor, and her struggle to keep an abused Indian child who was left to her care when she was abandoned in her car by her family. When a Cherokee lawyer for the
Bureau of Indian Affairs learns of the child's adoption, she is determined to reunite the child with her tribe. Taylor goes on the lam and turns to her 61 year-old mother, Alice, an unhappily married, but vital woman who has had her fill of men who'd rather veg out in front of a TV set than talk more than 5 words to their mates.
Taylor, her mother Alice, and the now 6 year-old child, Turtle's odyssey to keep the wounded child, and their eventual efforts to reach an agreement with the Native Americans who would lay legal claim to Turtle, may at times leave the reader impatient as Kingsolver seems to be meandering, but perseverence yields rich rewards as the author's subtly rendered mosaic falls into place, and culminates in an emotionally moving and satisfying conclusion.
A supporting cast of eccentric characters
from Taylor's laid-back, casually unfaithful boyfriend who belongs to a band called "Irascible Babies", to a thieving young woman who's made a personal religion of Barbie Dolls, add, simultaneously, humor and meaning to Kingsolver's tale of the clash between mainstream American culture, with its obsessive materialism, fractured families, and emotional isolation, and that of the decimated Native Americans, with their strong reverence for family and all manfestations of the natural world. Kingsolver's work subtly reminds us of the human toll our destruction of Native populations has exacted on our increasingly debased culture.
It is Kingsolver's unique gift that, like a master magician,she is able, almost undetectedly, to convey so many powerful insights, and such profound meaning under the surface of her entertaining and engrossing narrative.Her uncannily effortless facility with powerful metaphors and simile only enhance the reader's ultimate pleasure, serving up a sumptuous repast consisting of equal parts bittersweet humor, sorrow, thoght-provoking insights, and ultimately cause for hopefulness and joy.