Bastard Out of Carolina

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful piece of literature
Review: Bastard out of Carolina is my favorite book of all time. From the first to last sentence of the book I was completely absorbed by the life of Bone. Allison is truly an amazing writer. Yes, the material is disturbing, but life for some people is unimaginably hard. Reading any book by Allison is like listening to a symphony. God has given her a gift.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing. Infuriating. Completely Readable.
Review: Most of the other reviewers are right-this is an uncomfortable book to read. I found myself engrossed and enraged by this book, as Allison's writing style is easy and deep, fun and cruel. Sometimes it's good to step outside those things that we know and have experienced to really see the world through another's eyes. Read it-you need to.

Rating:
Summary: Love and pain intersect
Review: In "Bastard out of Carolina," Dorothy Allison adeptly portrays a world where love and pain intersect. Allison portrays "crab in a bucket" syndrome more truthfully and painfully than any other writer I have read. Allison's descriptions of violence and sexual abuse are accurate and painful, managing to convey Bone's shame as well as her physical suffering; the reader feels raw and vulnerable for days after reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: It was disturbing,
Review: The book deals with mature subject matter. It is well written and easy to read. However, the subject matter of abuse is very grafic. The characters are deep and some are complex. The ending will surprise you.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: This was SUCH a good book!! gritty and to the point!!!

Rating:
Summary: Rambling and extremely disturbing, ultimately unsatisfying.
Review: I have never been more emotionally upset after reading a book than after finishing Dorothy Allison's "Bastard Out of Carolina." After a rambling and often uninteresting beginning and middle - in which so many stereotypically white trash aunts, uncles, and cousins are introduced it becomes almost laughable - Allison finally settles into her story, slowly increasing the tension until the final, inevitable confrontation and the deeply disturbing denoument. Throughout the book, Allison paints all her male characters as beer-swigging, brawling, unfaithful hot-heads while most of the women are well-meaning, hard working and responsible. She takes shots at male-female relationships (there's not one healthy one in the story), sex (it's never about love, strictly used as a tool for aggression, anger, or capitulation) and especially the naivete of women who think that men can ever amount to anything more than overgrown children obsessed with power, violence, and looking good in the eyes of their own fathers. At the end, when the hero of the book is revealed to be a lesbian, it's impossible not to believe the author must be one as well.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful: a view of white trash from their midst; engrossing
Review: This is a sad sad book, but wonderfully evocative and readable. It takes you into the soul of a family of the sort that we up north stereotype as white trash. It looks out from inside the minds and hearts of citizens of white trash nation. The narrator, Bone, is a heartbreaker, and the book leaves you wanting to know what happens next to Bone, where she goes, what she does, how she feels, how she lives. A powerful book.

Rating:
Summary: Moving story that makes you think and feel,but not feel good
Review: This book is not fun to read, but it is important to read. Allison presents us with the sad tradition of women in the Boatwright family, and leaves us to wonder if the intriguing Bone will ever be able to reject this unfortunate legacy. As the story ends, we can see the hard road that lies ahead of Bone, and can understand her need for love and her burning anger. If you're looking for a feel-good jaunt through southern life, you've come to the wrong place. But this is a wonderful novel that will make you think and feel and analyze along with it's protagonist.

Rating:
Summary: Love and cruelty
Review: Every day I am astonished at the crimes and deeds that adults deal out to children. They beat and rape them. They negliect them. They leave scars that are passed from generation to generation. Why? Well, Bastard Out of Carolina attempts to answer this question. A step father who is told over and over that he is worthless and who fails to live up to his father's expectations takes his frustrations out on his step daughter. But we have heard this answer before. The answer that at least I haven't heard before is that love often lurks around in the roots of abuse. How could Bone's mother stand hearing her child be beaten? In the end, this betrayal by the mother was most shocking to me. Read this book. Think about the kids in this world. And let's try to make it a better place.

Rating:
Summary: Dorothy Allison Rocks!
Review: I read Bastard out of Carolina four years ago, and I was rocked to the core by the book. Even when it was difficult to read, I read on. It has helped me with my writing and with life in general. In reading the reviews below, I find it sad that people trash such a personal story and say it's poorly written. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. We should be proud that Dorothy Allison survived what she went through, wrote her story, then girls who are in similar situations read the book and get out of abusive situations. Isn't that what great books supposed to do-make you think? I guess that's too much for some people.