Trash: Stories

Rating:
Summary: Harrowing and emotionally exhausting to read
Review: Dorothy Allision's "Trash' is a collection of essays and loosely connected anecdotes about being born into, growing up in, and surviving a horrific childhood in a white trash community in America. The stories recall nightmares you wouldn't wish on your enemies. Allison writes with such bitterness, anger and ferocity it's frightening. I found it a tough read and had to tackle it a bit at a time. The essays/stories are not all compelling. Some I found esoteric and skipped. The earlier ones like "River of Names" were mostly excellent. The later ones which tell of Allison's voyage of sexual self discovery were harder to get through. It's not the graphic sex that's hard to handle but the emotional landscape that's alien to those outside the community she writes of. Personally, I found "Trash" an unpleasant read and while I respect Allsion's integrity, she's obviously not going to be everybody's cup of tea.

Rating:
Summary: Highly dissapointed
Review: I purchased this book with the intention of reading gritty tales of growing up in the South, not lesbian porn. I do not have a problem with Ms. Allison's sexual preference; some of what she had to say about being a lesbian was interesting. However, I found this book to be pornographic and disgusting. I did not realize that 80% of this book was detailed sexual encounters. For example, one story describes her partner urinating on her face. I do not recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Got old after a while
Review: I really enjoyed the first half or so of this book. But then the stories all started to blend together. The latter half of the book felt like one sexual encounter after another, all described similarly so that there was little new to discover or enjoy.

That said, the first half of the book was really quite good. "River of Names" remains one of the most haunting stories I've read, ever since first encountering it years ago in college.

If you do purchase this book, I recommend reading one story at a time, then taking a break from the book. I sat down and read it nearly straight through, which I think contributed to my weariness by the end. Digested slowly, I think that each story might be more distinct, thereby preventing the book from becoming what seemed to be (in the second half) a neverending stream of graphic sex.

Rating:
Summary: i am fat from the honey of her prose
Review: This book is hot. There is heat, and there is fire. I agree with others...the later stories do not compel as the early. Even in "River of Names," the scenes between the persona and the lover make me cringe--it seems like too much of a Device. Without those parts, "River of Names" is layered and astonishing. Sure, shocking, too, if your childhood is not full of dead cousins, but I am using "astonishing" to describe the grace of Allison's prose. She picks you up and drops you into each episode...lets you fall through it like you're in it. Only to catch (you, caught, are breathless) and drop again. "Gospel Song" is the real heat. So hot you oughta know it'll end with real flames.

Rating:
Summary: i am fat from the honey of her prose
Review: This book is hot. There is heat, and there is fire. I agree with others...the later stories do not compel as the early. Even in "River of Names," the scenes between the persona and the lover make me cringe--it seems like too much of a Device. Without those parts, "River of Names" is layered and astonishing. Sure, shocking, too, if your childhood is not full of dead cousins, but I am using "astonishing" to describe the grace of Allison's prose. She picks you up and drops you into each episode...lets you fall through it like you're in it. Only to catch (you, caught, are breathless) and drop again. "Gospel Song" is the real heat. So hot you oughta know it'll end with real flames.

Rating:
Summary: Not just lesbian fiction
Review: Trash is a great book of short stories written by Dorothy Allison. Although she the winner of book awards for lesbian fiction, her stories also tell of a tragic childhood, growing up as white trash, and of a family life involving alcholism, abuse and tragedy. The stories are difficult to read at times, due to the agonizing adversity the she has faced, but it is peppered with comic relief, sarcasm and wit.

Rating:
Summary: Not just lesbian fiction
Review: Trash is a great book of short stories written by Dorothy Allison. Although she the winner of book awards for lesbian fiction, her stories also tell of a tragic childhood, growing up as white trash, and of a family life involving alcholism, abuse and tragedy. The stories are difficult to read at times, due to the agonizing adversity the she has faced, but it is peppered with comic relief, sarcasm and wit.

Rating:
Summary: A series of insightful autobiographical sketches
Review: Trash, billed as a book of short stories, was more like a book of essays - anticdotal, reflective, sometimes funny, often tragic - which give the reader a sense of sitting around the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and an old friend named Dorothy Allison. I loved Trash because I felt closer to Allison after reading it - she is one of my favorite authors, and this book brought me to a better understanding of her both as a person and as a writer.

Rating:
Summary: pour the southern comfort & get to reading
Review: What an amazing book. Ms. Allison illustrates vivdly the many componets that go into making each of us who we are. This is not a book of stories to be quickly read through-- each one resonates intensly,like an unforgetable piece of music on a long drive.