There are some books that have the ability to shake something loose inside you. You don’t feel like the same person after you finish the final chapter. Bastard out of Carolina is one of them.
Set in Greenville County, South Carolina, the Boatwright family has made a name for themselves. The men drink hard and shoot up each other’s truck and the indomitable women marry young and age too quickly. In the middle of this story sits Ruth Anne Boatwright, known by everyone as Bone, a South Carolina bastard whose black eyes and coal coloured hair set her apart from her mama’s family.
The story describes the experience of Bone as she grows up surrounded by the Boatwrights. She adores her Uncle Earle, who dotes on his “favourite sister’s favourite child.” She spends summers with her mother’s sisters, learning how to can fruit, sing off-key to her Aunt Ruth’s records, and keep the cousins enthralled with gruesome stories of mutilated children and gun-toting girls.
But Bone’s experiences aren’t all to do with the Boatwrights. Her stepfather, known as Daddy Glen, took an interest in Bone from the moment he married her mother, and since then, Bone’s life has been shaped by rage.
This book speaks openly about poverty, abuse, religion, family, and love. It’s not an easy book to read. Bone describes in great detail the abuse she faces at the hands of Daddy Glen, and she does not mince words when it comes to how angry she is at not only Glen, but the world, her mother, her sister - anyone whose life is not shaped by the fear of a hand coming down on them.
Dorothy Allison did her research when it came to the historical aspects of this book. She never says what year it is, but from the descriptors she gives, the reader can infer it’s around the 1940s or 50s. She uses the drawl of a southerner in a way that doesn’t make it bothersome to read. She uses simple language that shapes how the reader sees the characters in their mind. Her imagery is astounding and gives colour to every rundown house on the outskirts of Greenville.
Bastard out of Carolina may be filled with darkness, but there is hope, too. Hope for freedom. Hope for happiness, an escape from poverty. Just an escape. The reader will fall in love with Bone just as quickly as they do with the story itself.
Set in Greenville County, South Carolina, the Boatwright family has made a name for themselves. The men drink hard and shoot up each other’s truck and the indomitable women marry young and age too quickly. In the middle of this story sits Ruth Anne Boatwright, known by everyone as Bone, a South Carolina bastard whose black eyes and coal coloured hair set her apart from her mama’s family.
The story describes the experience of Bone as she grows up surrounded by the Boatwrights. She adores her Uncle Earle, who dotes on his “favourite sister’s favourite child.” She spends summers with her mother’s sisters, learning how to can fruit, sing off-key to her Aunt Ruth’s records, and keep the cousins enthralled with gruesome stories of mutilated children and gun-toting girls.
But Bone’s experiences aren’t all to do with the Boatwrights. Her stepfather, known as Daddy Glen, took an interest in Bone from the moment he married her mother, and since then, Bone’s life has been shaped by rage.
This book speaks openly about poverty, abuse, religion, family, and love. It’s not an easy book to read. Bone describes in great detail the abuse she faces at the hands of Daddy Glen, and she does not mince words when it comes to how angry she is at not only Glen, but the world, her mother, her sister - anyone whose life is not shaped by the fear of a hand coming down on them.
Dorothy Allison did her research when it came to the historical aspects of this book. She never says what year it is, but from the descriptors she gives, the reader can infer it’s around the 1940s or 50s. She uses the drawl of a southerner in a way that doesn’t make it bothersome to read. She uses simple language that shapes how the reader sees the characters in their mind. Her imagery is astounding and gives colour to every rundown house on the outskirts of Greenville.
Bastard out of Carolina may be filled with darkness, but there is hope, too. Hope for freedom. Hope for happiness, an escape from poverty. Just an escape. The reader will fall in love with Bone just as quickly as they do with the story itself.