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Bastard Out of Carolina

Bastard Out of Carolina

List Price: $14.00
Your Price: $9.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wrenching
Review: Yowtch! This searing quasi-autobiography dressed up as fiction is worth every painful moment it takes to get through it. The book's title says a lot: it's the story of the childhood of a "white trash bastard" and her battles against physical and sexual abuse. I wonder: was this the first book that inaugurated the era of so many memoirs about childhood abuse that Oprah eventually elevated to mythic levels?
Bastard out of Carolina is a scarey story with memorable characters who will haunt readers nearly as thoroughly as they haunted Bone, the child protagonist: the violent ones, the jealous ones, the just plain weird ones, the inexplicable ones...
This is not a book with a happy ending. One gets the sense that the end of the story hasn't been written - possibly because the author hasn't lived it yet.
Outstanding. Worth 6 stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very well done
Review: This is a very well written book, with much emotion behind the story. It captured my heart. As a southern girl I could almost "see" the story.
I would like to recommend Nightmares Echo and Running With Scissors...all the above books are 5 star+

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Outstanding...
Review: I just finished reading the absolutely superb Bastard Out Of Carolina. All I can really say about the book is that no other of its kind has ever had such a resounding impact on me. No other book has ever made me feel such raw emotion for its characters. Written as realistically as anything ever could be, Bastard out of Carolina is moving, vivid and unforgettable...and definitely not for the faint of heart.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Made me want to vomit
Review: A friend gave me this book to read. I expected a poor sad story about a little girl who didn't have a daddy. Indeed it was that but much much more. The crass reality, and harshness that this poor girl endured had my entire body tense. When I finished this book it felt like I need to vomit to help wash away that girl's hurt. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading about hurt and despair

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Surprising
Review: The title grabbed me first. I read the first few pages and thought it was going to be another sweet as pecan pie story extolling women of the South. I thought, Why would I want to read a soap about a family of rednecks? Well, I kept reading nonetheless, and I'm glad I did. "Bastard Out of Carolina" is beautifully and honestly written. The characters shock you with their realism. As a mother, though, I was troubled by the ending. I couldn't decide if the author was condoning Anney's "Stand by your Man" attitude. I hope not.--Sophie Simonet, ACT OF LOVE, a romantic suspense novel (Fictionwise)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's one of those books...
Review: I can't tell anybody enough about how much I adored this doll of a book. It's about a young girl named Ruth Anne (Bone for short) who lives with her hardworking and weighted down by sadness mother, Anney in South Carolina in the 1950's. Anney falls for this guy, Glen, thinking that he's the 'right man' who'll take care of her and her two daughters. At first, Glen's a pretty good guy, despite the fact that he has trouble keeping a job and bringing in a decent income, but then he grows meaner over time, jealous of the relationship Bone has with her mother. And, during the climax, the relationship between the girl and her mother is tested with the brutality of Glen.

This was an excellent book, possibly one of the best books I've read. I practically read the whole thing in one sitting, it was that hard to put down. The characters were so well-developed, it felt as if I'd met them on the streets somewhere along my life. From the shoplifting incident at Woolworth's to the brutal beatings inflicted upon Bone, you really felt as if you were there, viewing the scenes as they unfolded. You will laugh, cry, grow angry as you read this book. I recommend it to anybody.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I think I've read this before . . .
Review: Bone is a very fleshed-out, believable character. Her swinging attitudes and emotions are realistic, and I applaud Allison for writing the situations so frankly instead of trying to muffle them in "sweet innocent child" patina. The end is also realistic--it's not always a fairy tale.

However, the story itself really doesn't offer anything new--perhaps because there have been so many books written on this topic, with the same narrators & points of view. Sometimes, if a character is distinctive enough, s/he rescues the story from being monotonous, but Bone doesn't quite. Though I like the way she is portrayed, she is still too similar to most other abused-child narrators (Bird from _Before Women Had Wings_ comes heavily to mind) for me to regard her as an individual. Despite the honest depictions of child abuse and its consequences, this book still somehow pales for me.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn meets To Kill A Mockingbird
Review: Ruth Anne, better known as Bone, lives in South Carolina surrounded by a veritable force of strong womanhood, made up by her mother Anney and her many aunts. Her numerous uncles are lovable goons, in trouble with the law and getting into fights, and her cousins are also numerous and trouble-making, though essentially good at heart.

Bone's story begins when her mother meets and marries Daddy Glen. Bone never knew her real dad (hence the 'bastard' in the title) and her younger sister Reese's father Lyle dies shortly in the beginning of the book. Daddy Glen has it in for Bone, who is only in grade school when he starts his vicious beatings, which he justifies to himself and Anney, who is not strong enough to help her daughter, no matter how much her aunts lecture Anney that Bone is not safe.

During this same time in her life, there is a mosaic of what her life in the South is ..... discovering and enjoying gospel music, her aunt Ruth's terminal illness, her albino friend Shannon who both interests and fascinates her, and getting caught shoplifting. All of these events also come full circle as the years progress.

At times, though, you wonder where the author was going with several storylines because they just seem to be plunked down to create a novel and you wonder if she is ever going to get back to them. You also get the feeling that Bone is just Scout with more issues and no Atticus. Like most novels set in the South, you get the feeling it is set in the 1950s as usual. But it is still an enjoyable novel.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: One of those books I'd been meaning to read...
Review: A friend gave me a copy of Dorothy Allison's "Bastard Out of Carolina" the week we graduated from college, and the book moved with me cross country and back again, a little dog eared from travel, but always unread. It was one of those books I'd always meant to read, for nine years, until recently I finally did. It felt like an accomplishment to finish it, first because I'd had it so long, and second because the story just didn't fully do it for me. It is one of those books, for me, that was so gorgeously written, so heartfelt, that I wanted to love it, and don't quite understand why I didn't. Ms. Allison is an accomplished writer, and was well deserving of the National Book Award. But "Bastard Out of Carolina" has a strange air of familiarity to it, as if I'd read it before it even began. It didn't cover much new ground for me as a reader, although I'm sure there are many who'll disagree.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: RAW AND UNCOMPROMISING
Review: While society tends to rely on Hollywood versions of growing up in the 1950's (i.e. stable and loving), BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA punches the reader in the stomach with its stark and brutal narration of Bone, a young girl struggling against all odds growing up in a poor "white trash" family in rural South Carolina. Rarely is a reader afforded a glimpse into a family riddled with so much violence and despair as the Boatwright's. Bone, desperate for her mother's love and devotion, constantly avoids the swings of her abusive stepfather who is apt to punish Bone for all his problems. Taking refuge in her mother's extended family Bone psychologically dismisses the abuse and is filled with shame until her breaking point is finally reached. BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA is a wonderfully, albeit disturbing, journey into a poor dysfunctional family during an era when we are constantly led to believe that the ideal family unit lived in every house.

Despite my enjoyment of this book I don't think I could dislike a character as much as I disliked Bone's mother. Her neglect to protect her daughter from the evils of her husband made me cringe in anger. How could she choose a man who can't keep a job and is full of empty promises over her own daughter? Maybe I am not savvy on victim psychology but after first instance of abuse she should have sent him packing for good. I was also irritated somewhat at the abusive relationship between Bone and the stepfather. I felt that the beginning of the violence was too jolting and wasn't explained adequately. For example, Bone expressed fear of his wringing hands but this was never demonstrated by his behavior for the reader to fully comprehend her fear. In addition, the onset of his physical violence was too abrupt. I felt as if their relationship went from calm to violent with no bridges or connections. While the later stages of the abuse were well written the beginning was unconvincing and one-dimensional.

Regardless of my technical qualms with this book, BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA is an enjoyable, albeit stomach wrenching, book that stays with the reader long after the book is put down. My heart goes out for Bone and her childhood. I wanted to protect her from her abusive stepfather and make everything okay. Although she is a fictionalized character I hope Bone's life turns out better than her adolescence.


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