Book Bites book review by Debbie Herbert February 17, 2009
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Bastard Out of Carolina
Although it’s been several years since I’ve read “Bastard Out of Carolina” it’s the kind of story that sticks with you. Probably because Bone is a character you will come to care about.
Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatwright is coming of age in a family that is poor and wild but decent people in their love for each other. Her uncles have been in and out of prison, her Mom isn’t particular about things like marriage before children, and the women can cuss and hold their own with the men. The novel reminds me of “Little Altars Everywhere” by Rebecca Wells in that it starts out humorous with eventually touches of foreshadowing that there is something darker to emerge.
For reasons no one can understand, Bone’s mother falls for a drifter who lies and has trouble holding a job. And so it is that “Daddy Glenn” comes into Bone’s life. She doesn’t like him one bit from the very beginning and is struck by the disproportionally large hands on his small body.
Those hands will soon be a torment to her as the book goes hurtling to the inevitable conclusion. What is even more gripping, however, is the relationship between Bone and her mother. That ending is a surprise best left for the reader to discover.
Published in 1992, this first novel by Dorothy Allison was a National Book Award finalist. She is also the author of Trash, The Women Who Hate Me, Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature, and Two or Three Things I Know for Sure.
A quick look at amazon.com shows over 300 customer reviews of five stars (the highest possible rating) and a list of over 100 nonfiction books that have cited Bastard Out of Carolina.
From her own web site is information on the author: “Dorothy Allison grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the first child of a fifteen-year-old unwed mother who worked as a waitress. Now living in Northern California with her partner Alix and her teenage son, Wolf Michael, she describes herself as a feminist, a working class story teller, a Southern expatriate, a sometime poet and a happily born-again Californian.”
Allison will soon publish her newest work, She, Who Is.
Murder on the Menu 2009 February 11, 2009
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For the fifth year in a row a group of nationally published mystery authors visited our town and were greeted by a sell -out crowd of mystery fans. Over lunch every year the authors not only talk about what they write, but often tell how they got started writing in the first place. I enjoy hearing these various stories every year.
The library has purchased at least one book by each of the authors from Sunday’s event. These books are available for checkout; just look for the Murder on the Menu display near the circulation desk.
For those of you that attended the event, we would like to hear from you. Tell us what you liked, what you didn’t like, what could have gone better, etc. We try to make adjustments every year based on what we learned the year before.
On behalf of the Wetumpka Public library I would like to thank the Friends of the Wetumpka Library; especially Murder on the Menu committee members Betsy and Craig Sheldon, Becki and Richard Cumbie, Tammy and Neil Lynn, Tonia Ayers, and Phoenix Martin for all they do to make this event possible. Thanks also to Margaret Fenton from Birmingham and our own Tammy Lynn for the year-round work they do getting these authors lined up and excited about their trip to the deep south! I would also like to thank the City of Wetumpka for their support in providing the venue for this event.
