This books was a delightful read. There's something about BK's Kentucky roots and eventual pilgrimage to Arizona that I resonate with. I love her conversational writing (mostly first person in this one). There is humor, humility, and heart wrenching characters. She manages to weave these social justice touchpoints into a wonderful narrative.
The friendships that evolve between a young Kentuckian and two Guatamalan refugees is totally charming. She encounters Lou Ann - a single mom who is given a chapter of her own to set the stage - a fellow Kentuckian and single mom. Their friendship is beset by mutual counseling, laughter, and sister-parenting. The protagonist, leaves her tiny Kentuckian town in a beat up old car, and changes her name, determined to avoid pregnancy and poverty, along the way she acquires a Cherokee baby that is handed off to her as she passes through Oklahoma. She nicknames the baby "Turtle." The baby who has undergone deep trauma is transformed from a muted numb creature into an animated child through the love and care of Taylor and her community.
Taylor meets Mattie at "Jesus is Lord Used Tires." Mattie is a mother figure and eventual employer to her and activist for the refugee community. Taylor falls for her Guatemalan friend Estevan whose wife is just beginning to emerge from an emotional abyss. She reigns in her feelings to do what is right, as does he. The connection is subtle and developed without sappy drama.
"Jesus is Lord Used Tires" and the "1-800-the-Lord" call number offer a gentle satire of the market driven evangelical movement of the latter half of the 20th century, particularly in the Bible Belt. She eventually calls the number out of curiosity, only to have a sarcastic exchange with the operator who is conscripted to collect financial pledges for a televangelist.
I'm drawn to BK's protagonists who seem to share a common thread: perhaps autobiographical? tomboyish, independent, bookish, sarcastic, yet tenderhearted - no wonder I love her stuff! Kindred spirits.
