Rating: 
Summary: Emotional tale told in well developed voice
Review: If you want to read a book in which the author exercises amazing control of voice, I would recommend this book. Allison never lets the reader doubt for a minute that she knows this charcter, inside and out. The story is well written and the plot well developed. But above all else, it is an great story of a girl who doesn't start out with a lot on her side. Nearly two years after I read it, I can still remember every twist and turn of he story. Fantastic.
Rating:
Summary: An horribly wonderful book
Review: I just finished reading Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. I really enjoyed reading the book because it kept me interested though the entire story. Bastard out of Carolina is about a little girl named Bone. She lives with her mother and stepfather. At first they are one big happy family. When Bones step father, Daddy Glen, cannot find a job he find reasons to becomes extremly violent with Bone and takes it upon himself to show her the right way to behave. The book was absolutly great. I would really reccommend reading it. Dorothy Allison does a wonderful job of telling the sad story of a little girl who just wants to love and be loved.
Rating:
Summary: Simply one of the best books ever!
Review: Forget the video, this book is for real big time.Dorothy has painted a picture of an abused 'bastard' that is like no other, and you feel every emotion and whipping that this poor girl felt from page 1. The realism is almost scary, because it is SO real - not just 'conjured-up what sells best today to get you going' .... I am surprised that this book was not recognized further than Hollywood, but that is the way it goes - this is easily as good or better than 'Angelas Ashes'. Well, enough rah-rah. You want to read a great book that is compelling that doesn't have the 'pulitzer prize' overhead of 'what the heck was that' throughout, and be pulled in and out of a person's life with an intensity unlike no other (without getting into any multi-car chase scenes or other tripe), THIS BOOK IS IT. Just get it - I cannot say enough great things about it under 1,000 words!
Rating: 
Summary: Incomprehensible
Review: Who can understand why a mother would abandon her own child? It seems incomprehensible, and yet that is exactly what happens to "Bone" in Bastard out of Carolina. Although Bone's stepfather Glen is the one who actually abuses her, to me the real villan was her mother Anney, who let the abuse continue, and finally abandons her. It is Bone's Aunt who relates the lesson to be learned: "Don't ever force a woman to choose between her lover and her child." Coming to the conclusion of the novel, I was sure that Anney would make the right choice. After all, isn't it human (and animal) instinct for a mother to protect her young? You can observe this in nature all the time. And yet somehow Anney chooses Glen. Are we supposed to understand her actions? Are we supposed to be able to justify them with, "well, she didn't have things so easy either, pregnant at 15, poor, etc." Maybe it's easy to judge from the outside, but Anney's choice was wrong, and I'm sure she lived with that guilt every day for the rest of her life. For another good read on the theme of women making choices between their partner and their child, read The Good Mother by Sue Miller.
Rating:
Summary: Uplifting as gospel
Review: "Bastard Out of Carolina" is something rare in modern Western literature-a straightforward, linear story of struggle against poverty, ignorance and brutality without a hint of moralizing. Though it may be odd to call such an unblinking account of parental cruelty "refreshing", reading this simple chronicle--free of meta/pomo wordplay, time/place shifts or referential obscurity--was exactly that. While many people might view this book as depressing, I found the steel-eyed toughness of the protagonist Bone as uplifting as the gospel music she reveres.
Rating:
Summary: A must have.
Review: This is a book ,a must have,for anyone who has been abused or is being abused. It brought tears to my eyes. If your not into the book. Perhaps the movie, a real tear jecker, would be more in your line. This book does have some flaws, but overall is great!!
Rating:
Summary: Evil can look like your mother
Review: Common sense and nature are at each other's throats at times. How else could you explain a 15-year old getting knocked up? Here is where the troubles for Bone begin. Bone is the bastard of the title, who has to endure not just horrible abuse from the part of her vicious stepfather, but also betrayal from her mother. There are many scary parts in the book. One of them is that this is very much an autobiography. Also, even scarier than the fights or the beatings or the sexual abuse is the darkness that such a young girl can experience. After reading this book, i can understand very clearly how psychopaths are created. If Bone (Dorothy) had been a weaker person, she would have ended up a vicious murderer. She explains, step by step, how someone can destroy your very soul, and this really got to me. There are so many of us who insist on living in fantasyland. We want to have a life as perfect as possible, whatever the cost, without realizing that this is impossible most of the time. Bone's mother, Anney, simply wants a beautiful family life for her little girls and the husband she loves so much. In order for this to happen, she puts the burden of responsibility on Bone, a girl who at the end of the story is not even 13 years old. She must be good, she cannot make daddy mad, she needs to be quiet... How cruel can you be? How blind must you be, how weak? Anney uses the word 'love' in every other statement, yet she betrays her own flesh and blood for a man who makes her daughter bleed in body and soul. She was, in my opinion, the real monster of the story. I am sure Dorothy Allison writes from the truth, and can believe that the characters are not stereotypes, but real people. I can even forgive the ones that look a bit over the top, like Daddy Glen. He is difficult to understand, but i cannot pretend to understand everybody in this context. Great book, but beware: very dark and disturbing.
Rating: 
Summary: The Building of a Tragedy
Review: A Bastard Out of Carolina is not a tale for the weak. This novel sheds light on child abuse. Although this story is graphic, it is likely similar to what far too many children suffer. The novel centres around Bone, a young girl born out of wedlock in a time that didn't approve. Bone's mother, Anney, has also suffered a tragic life - pregnant young, married and widowed, and a single parent. Soon the cautious Anney meets Glen. Anney needs Glen and Glen is just as needy. Glen, by most accounts, is an extremely rage-filled man. Soon Glen's rage and abuse is directed to Bone and we see a child suffer like no other. Bone becomes increasingly angry and soon these two worlds collide. A Bastard Out of Carolina speaks to the strength and resilency of children. It details the choices of parents and the means they take to protect their childen. A Bastard Out of Carolina will leave you thinking, and by the end, you will likely shed a tear for all the Bone has lost and for what she gains.
Rating: 
Summary: I seem to be unimpressed.
Review: Dorothy Allison needs an editor. While she's an evocative writer, she's clearly hampered by her desire to write an autobiography, not a novel. Incident follows incident without any impact on what I take to be the vague plotline of, as the blurb says, "family love and abuse." She wants, for a third of the book, to be a gospel singer, then never mentions it again. Well? What changed her mind? She becomes Shannon Pearl's only friend, then Shannon dies. Well? What did that have to do with Bone's life? She and a cousin rob a Woolworth's. Well? What's that have to do with subsequent events? And other than on the first few pages and the final page, Bone's illegitimacy isn't even a problem in the book. Allison is also unaware that a noun either is or it isn't--quite a few objects, people, and sensations "seem to be" swollen, or angry, or aged, etc., to her. When she actually lets herself write the story--in the last hundred pages, really--she's powerful and beautiful, but she is incapable of handling her material in a controlled way. Too many narrative threads "seem to be" left dangling, and the book ends without wrapping anything up--suddenly, though nothing's changed and nothing's resolved, it's over. This book shouldn't have been nominated for anything other than an editor's attention.
Rating:
Summary: A MOVING STORY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT -- AND COURAGE
Review: There are not enough stars in the heavens for this book. Those of us who read a lot, who are moved by life made fiction made real again, know that from time to time a novel or story comes our way that touches and moves us in a way that raises it far above the level of 'literature'. These experiences are precious and few, rare gems that shine out from the pile, illuminating the finest qualities of the human spirit -- and the darkest depths of its deprivation. They frighten us, for they show the hardest cruelties of which we are capable -- and they give us hope and courage, for they show the strength and resolve that can arise from our souls in our darkest hours. Dorothy Allison's story of Bone Boatwright is tragic and compellingly well-written -- it tells a tale that all too often is reality for the children who find themselves victims of child abuse, and it shows how this young girl finds within herself the courage and determination not only to extricate herself from this situation, but to stand defiantly tall and go on with her life, realizing that she is not to blame for the treatment she has received. This is an important lesson for those who are victims to learn, so that they may make the journey to becoming survivors, to reclaiming the lives that have been stolen from them. Bone is a shining example of what it takes to make this transition -- even though the book only follows the first 11-12 years of her life, we are left with a vivid picture of a young woman who has the spirit and guts to accomplish a difficult healing process. She knows that she has been wronged -- she has learned to begin to focus her anger where it belongs -- and she even comes to accept the dubiously distinctive title of 'bastard', not as a badge of honor to wear proudly, but as a label that she is determined will not define her life. The characters that Allison draws, in another writer's hands, might be reduced to stereotypes. Here they are both heartwarmingly and chillingly real -- the unlimited bonds of familial love evinced by her uncle Earl and her aunts Ruth and Raylene -- the bonds she shares with her sister Reese, and even her mother Anney, so deep in denial that she cannot see what is happening to her own daughter under her own roof -- and the unmitigated evil and sickness embodied by her stepfather, Daddy Glen. Some of the Southern cliches are present -- the accents, the brawling, the moonshine -- but they are not the full bodies of the people in this fine novel, but mere characteristics and accessories. This fine distinction makes the characters believable and real. Allison grew up in these type of circumstances -- she knows well the place and time of which she writes, and this knowledge is skillfully infused into this painfully tragic, but ultimately uplifting story. This is not an easy novel to read -- not if you have feelings for your fellow human beings. It's hard to believe that we can cause others among us to suffer so, as in the story here before us -- but it happens far too often, and many people, unlike the courageous Bone, never recover, never stop blaming themselves for what has happened to them. Those among us who have found the strength and support to face it down and say 'I know what you did is not my fault and you had no right to do it to me' are true heroes -- they deserve our admiration, our respect and our support. Bone Boatwright is such a hero -- her story will move you to the core, and it will bear reading over and over again. [Those of you who have read this wonderful novel and are interested in further exploring the issues raised in another fictional (but equally moving) work might like to check out BITTERROOT LANDING by Sheri Reynolds.] On a final note, this novel has been lovingly transformed into a film (same title), Anjelica Huston's directorial debut. It is necessarily narrower in scope than the book, but it is also extremely moving -- and well-acted. It was made for Showtime, so it might be difficult to find in rental outlets -- but it's available from amazon.com at a pretty reasonable price. Like the book, I think you'll want to give it repeated viewings.
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