In her early twenties, Marietta Greer, buys a cheap VW bug and sets out from her tiny town in KY to seek a new life. She decides to change her first name as well when she happens upon a place that sounds good. She stops in OK on the Cherokee reservation. There a woman walks up to her car and gives her a toddler that seems to be in shock and walks away. The only other people are a couple of disreputable men. She takes the child and continues, ending up in Arizona. During the course of the book Taylor (her new name) and Turtle (the name she has given the toddler) form a bond. They meet up with a variety of unique characters that all help Taylor discover what she really wants in life. I got great enjoyment on rereading this and remembering all the details. ( )

First read in 1999/2000, after reading Pigs in Heaven in English class. Listened to the audiobook September 2024.

"Missy" Greer made it through high school and a few years post-grad in her small Kentucky town without getting married or pregnant, and now she's saved up enough to buy a car and get out of town, with her mother's blessing. On her way west, she renames herself Taylor, but at a stop in Oklahoma, a woman hands her a baby and insists she keep it. With the child - dubbed Turtle for the way she clings - in tow, Taylor continues west until she drives over glass and has to stop in Tucson, Arizona. Despite her fear of exploding tires, she finds work with Mattie at Jesus Is Lord Tires, and finds a place to live with fellow Kentuckian Lou-Ann, whose husband Angel has left her to return to the rodeo circuit.

As Taylor adjusts to the southwest and motherhood, she realizes that Mattie is helping refugees from Guatemala and elsewhere. She makes friends with Esteban and Esperanza, and when they're forced to move, Taylor drives them back east to a safe house in Oklahoma - but first, they try to find Turtle's relatives so Taylor can officially adopt her. Their effort fails, but Taylor concocts a risky plan: Esteban and Esperanza pose as Turtle's biological parents, and without ID for any of the three of them, an Oklahoma City official approves the paperwork (setting up for the sequel, Pigs in Heaven, set a few years later). ( )

This books contains a lot of bad language and has some parts that made me uncomfortable. ( )

Adversity

KY single travels to tuscon and gains a child on way. Story of learning who you are. Good story.