Rating: 
Summary: Great book but it misses something
Review: In an assignment for an Interdisciplinary Class, I was told to read this book, or one of two others. I chose this book, and read ... It was a fast read, though at times it gets confusing. As an overall, I give it a 9 - It provided for a GREAT essay assignment, which gave me an A, and it helped me personally. It gave me a sort of ... insight? ... as to what I do not want to be. It had great use of symbols - From Bone's black eyes and hair, to Daddy Glen's smile and eyes, the symbols were prevalent all around. But it misses one thing. In my opinion, it is missing an explaination near the end.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book for the beach
Review: Yes, it was a very good book and kindof intresting. It really grabbed my heart. HOWEVER, I believe that there were a lot of excess scenes. It is a particularly fast read, considering you are able to skip whole paragraphes at a time and not miss a single thing, except how Aunt Raylene feels about Uncle Earle. There are so many aunts and uncles that it gets cunfusing. The parts about Bone are intresting and well written, though other scenes are pointless and irrelevant. The book also leaves you hanging with one thing that bone does. It could use more follow up. But over all, I liked the book enough to do a report on it and it is worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: dull prose, written to titillate more than to evoke empathy
Review: Some books are just bad, and I put them down and walk away. This one infuriated me. First, the prose was dull and rambling. That is forgivable, however. Second, as a southerner, I found the use of stereotypes boring. It's not a question of rejecting negative stereotypes and wanting a hero, but rather, the question is, do these characters help us to see past stereotypes to their human experience? In this case, they do not. They only serve as reference points to something we think we already know, so we don't have to look any further (and the book offers us nothing further in any case). Final point below: WARNING, IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE SUSPENSE OF THE BOOK TO BE SPOILED, STOP READING HERE. For most of the preliminaries I was willing to go along with the story, asking myself: will he rape her or not and imagining how the author might handle this situation in a sensitive or creative manner. The actual scene was more than a disappointment. I actually threw the book across the room (uncommom behavior for a proper southern lady brought up to respect literature). The author manages to tell the event as if it were a bodice-ripper scene. I could imagine certain readers getting secret thrills while reading. It was nothing like a real rape, and did not in any way invite us to see it from the victim's point of view. Notice how in the writing we see the victim, as if from her attacker's point of view, rather than vice versa. Notice how easily he rips her clothing (in a real rape, believe me, clothing does not rip so easily; it hampers and hurts and makes the whole process much less romantic). Notice how the climax arrives when he climaxes (again, obviously not her point of view). This novel read more like porn fantasy than a realistic treatment of suffering, whether in the south or anywhere else.
Rating: 
Summary: A highly engrossing novel
Review: I read this novel for a college english course and found it enchanting. The main character Bone, grabs your heart and never lets go. It sends a powerful message about child abuse through the thoughts and experiences of a juvenile. This will not lift your spirits, but it will make you more aware of how vulnerable abused children are. Unlike some reviewers, I do not believe all the family members are white trash, they are merely numb to these ways of life. Bone's grandmother on her mother's side is her salvation. Overall, this story shows the power of how family members can hurt or heal you. A wonderful novel for anyone who loves family sagas. I did not give it a 10 because some parts are very disturbing.
Rating:
Summary: In need of a good editor
Review: I found the book poorly written. Here are my criticisms. The book would have been much tighter if about 100 pages had been trimmed. I found whole sections pointless. The supporting cast of characters all blend into two prototypes: the drunken, violent male and the hardworking female. The plot device of the birth certificate stamped "illegitimate" seems tacked on to the beginning and end in an attempt to give the rambling narrative some point. The ending of this book annoyed me. It was a cheat. Disturbing for the sake of being disturbing. The mother character gave no hint of being capable of such behavior. This was made into a Showtime movie. Don't watch it, and don't bother with the book either.
Rating:
Summary: simutaneously bleak, depressing, moving and inspiring
Review: I've never understood why people pan and/or disregard books because of bleakness. It seems absurd to me, that a sad story should become something worthy of scorn. I see all over the place, here, at this on-line, interactive bookstore, people raging against the "unlikability" of a character, or the "worthlessness" of certain stereotypes evoked in someone's work. This book uses stereotypes. There is a reason for stereotypes. They represent people's views of other people they do not know, people they never will know and would never want to meet. Stereotypes, no matter how overboard or ridiculous have some basis in fact, someone, somewhere, from which ever group you might want to choose was exactly like that. Stereotypes are an important tool to explain a character, a brief summation that all of us can easily focus to mind. Bastard Out of Carolina is about lower-class, white trash Southern hicks, a group we here up North have been brainwashed into fearing and laughing at because they are so unlike us, so grimy and down in the dirt with the pigs and the cows and the muck and the slime. But this book's true success is to grab us by the scruff of the neck and put us there in these people's lives, into the pathetic, wasteful, useless existence of these worthless people with no hope of ever accomplishing anything and then making us care about them, driving us deeper and deeper into their emotions until we realize that they aren't so different from the rest of us, from WE, the enlightened few who can truly 'understand' the world. These are the kinds of lies we tell ourselves to keep away from realizing that everyone is, ultimately, the same and we all have the same bitterness, the same envies, the same dark urges and desires and we are all capable of the same terrifying acts that other people we root to be executed are guilty of committing. Tragedy is the way of life, there are no true happy endings. There is only hope, there is only getting over the misery of your barren life and striving forth ahead into a future that might not be quite so painful. I resent it when people talk and talk of how they need a hero to root for, a happily ever after finale. That is a pathetic delusion. Life will always end with something unfinished, something you'll regret on your deathbed. Deal with it and understand it and then maybe you can get beyond these fragile lies so you can truly enjoy the brief span of time you have to do as you like. Nothing counts for anything so shut up and read a book like this!
Rating:
Summary: The Most Moving Book I've Ever Read!
Review: Dorothy Allison captured in words the very
feelings I had growing up in a similar
situation. I read this book before it became
known and the movie was made; and I
told all my close friends that if they wanted
to know what my childhood was like, they
should read it. At times it hit so close to
home that I had to put it down for awhile.
Thank you, Dorothy Allison!
Rating:
Summary: Subject matter a bit overdone
Review: After reading "The Book of Ruth," "Ellen Foster," and now "Bastard Out of Carolina," I now know that I am no longer interested in books about white trash kids with well-meaning mothers who marry abusive drunks. My suggestion? Pick up Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" or Mary Karr's "The Liar's Club" -- the true-life tales are more truthful, indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Subject matter a bit overdone
Review: I now know that I am no longer interested in reading books about white trash kids with well-meaning mothers who marry abusive drunks. My suggestion? Pick up Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" or Mary Karr's "The Liar's Club" -- the true-life tales are more truthful, indeed.
Rating:
Summary: good, but not great
Review: This book tells a story about white trash as seen through the eyes of a small girl. I was fascinated by her reactions, since she has nothing else to compare it to. There is a lot of realism in this book and it causes some sympathy for the little girl (bone) and others like her.
|
