In one of the poorest parts of rural New Hampshire, teenage girls have been disappearing, snatched from back country roads, never to be seen alive ...
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Jan 22, 2012
Yvonne
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This is an inspiring, uplifting and sadly, very believable novel. I found my eyes filling with tears and my stomach tightening as I willed the seventeen year old girl at the centre of this story to find her way through the pain and dysfunction of her life and come out stronger on the other side.
This is the story of Majie, only child of parents who are basically illiterate and caught up in a bizarre church (cult) where the infliction of humiliating punishments on children is demanded. A More...
This is the story of Majie, only child of parents who are basically illiterate and caught up in a bizarre church (cult) where the infliction of humiliating punishments on children is demanded. A More...
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Aug 19, 2011
Lynn
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Ron Merullo is an amazing, gifted, imaginative…. I could just go on and on…. storyteller. Talk Funny Girl is one of the most compulsive reads I have come across in a long time. Marjorie’s story is not a pretty or pleasant one. She has spent seventeen years living in a shack in the woods, speaking a dialect peculiar to her family, being raised by a psychotic mother and a slow and damaged father. Calling themselves Christian, these parents, with the blessing of the pastor of their small funda
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Jul 29, 2011
Steve
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At 17, Marjorie's future is bleak. She lives with her uneducated, abusive parents in an isolated shack in New Hampshire. They are all part of a small sect that meets in a Quonset hut and follows the word of a far-right, racist, fundamentalist preacher. And the family talks in a convoluted dialect that may owe its roots, distantly, to French Canadian.
Fortunately, Marjorie hasn't run out of hope, and there's an aunt who's on her side. We follow as she tells her tale of finding an unusual More...
Fortunately, Marjorie hasn't run out of hope, and there's an aunt who's on her side. We follow as she tells her tale of finding an unusual More...
Jul 05, 2011
Cheryl
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Marjorie Richards lived a sheltered life. She did not know much about the world other than school, home and her parents. This has something to do with the fact that young girls have been kidnapped around where Marjorie lives. Marjorie does not mind living a sheltered life. In fact her and her parents have created their own language. It is kind of like their own form of pig Latin. The way Marjorie talks you would like she lived in the back woods. The other kids do not get Marjorie and have nick n
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Feb 01, 2012
Michelle
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This book strongly reminded me of The Glass Castle except that it is fiction. Set in northern New Hampshire, The Talk-Funny Girl is a coming of age story of a young girl with a family so dysfunctional that all they do is sit around and drink/smoke/chop wood in their shack in the woods and speak in a nearly incomprehensible backwoods dialect. 1) I hate the term "coming of age" so I am not sure why I just used it, except that it seems the most apt term, 2) the story's trajectory is les
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Sep 06, 2011
Susan
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To praise Roland Merullo's recent novel THE TALK FUNNY GIRL as a roadmap for overcoming abuse is to miss the point that it is artful fiction. True, it is didactic, but its careful structure and magnificent use of metaphor raise Merullo's novel to the level of Dickens's HARD TIMES and Christina Stead's MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN.
Let's start with the title. The narrator Marjorie Richards was a linguistically deprived backwoods New Hampshire girl who as an adult looks back at the turning po More...
Let's start with the title. The narrator Marjorie Richards was a linguistically deprived backwoods New Hampshire girl who as an adult looks back at the turning po More...
Feb 14, 2012
Linda
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I love, love, loved this book, as I have all of Roland Merullo's books. His sense of the inner self of his characters is refreshing because feels so truthful. The setting is in rural VT and the novel is a vehicle for Majorie Lord's personal story - one which she hopes will further her emergence from the pain and suffering inflicted by her abusive upbringing. She is smart and ferociously persevering as she works to better herself and somehow please her strange, reclusive parents who are in the
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Aug 13, 2011
Susanhayeshotmail.com
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If the rest of the book is anything like the prologue this is going to be amazing.
Aug 8 - And it was. I loved this novel. I've had a hard time parsing out in my mind exactly why and though I gave it some thought after finishing it I am still struggling to capture the essence of my thoughts and feelings in a paragraph or two. It's a coming of age story with a mystery well folded in but even more than that,I shall attempt to figure it out the "more than that" as I write.
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Aug 8 - And it was. I loved this novel. I've had a hard time parsing out in my mind exactly why and though I gave it some thought after finishing it I am still struggling to capture the essence of my thoughts and feelings in a paragraph or two. It's a coming of age story with a mystery well folded in but even more than that,I shall attempt to figure it out the "more than that" as I write.
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Jul 06, 2011
Natasha
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I received an ARC of this book from Crown Publishers/Random House - my first ARC, thank you! When I started this novel, I began to prepare myself for disappointment...
Marjorie, the main character, was raised in the back woods by her parents and sheltered from the rest of the world. She didn't go to school until she was nine years old. As a result, she picked up her parents strange manner of speaking - for example: "I'm at beside the 112 Store on the road that goes for to town. I More...
Marjorie, the main character, was raised in the back woods by her parents and sheltered from the rest of the world. She didn't go to school until she was nine years old. As a result, she picked up her parents strange manner of speaking - for example: "I'm at beside the 112 Store on the road that goes for to town. I More...
Feb 20, 2012
Mary
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A haunting and beautifully written novel about a young woman who strives to escape the isolation, poverty and ignorance of her parents' world in rural New Hampshire. I just couldn't stop thinking about this book. The main character and narrator is teased at school for talking funny--she talks with the strange grammar and syntax of her isolated parents. The poverty and lonliness of the family is pitiful. However, the parents are cruel and influenced by a religion that calls for severe punishm
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Jan 04, 2012
Mary
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The topic of this novel--the struggle of an abused young girl to pull herself out of her bad family situation--did not appeal to me at all. This book was highly recommended by someone whose opinion I respect though, so I gave it a try. I felt better about the idea when I realized it was by the author of Breakfast with Buddha.
The writing, the fact that the girl didn't feel sorry for herself, and the structure of the story all made this a very good book. More...
The writing, the fact that the girl didn't feel sorry for herself, and the structure of the story all made this a very good book. More...
Nov 23, 2011
Melissa
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I stayed up most of last night to finish this story. I was captivated by the story of Margie or Maygie as her parents call her. Raised in absolute poverty in the northern part of New Hampshire, Margie has no reason to hope, to strive or to believe in anyone. Her parents are abusive and sadistic, delivering "penance" frequently as they believe God wants them to....but with the help of her aunr Margie rises out of her bleak circumstances and finds peace in her work and her aw in the wo
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Jul 22, 2011
Jamie
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Merullo's novels are like a bowl of butter-topped mashed potatoes on a cold winter night: comforting themes but with the surprising chunks of originality, toothsome characters as human as you are, and a generous sprinkling of spirituality that adds an earthy note to what is otherwise familiar and rich. "The Talk-Funny Girl" is a strong story of childhood pain transformed into adult redemption and it will draw you in quickly and keep you reading because you want the whole story, you ca
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Oct 03, 2011
Lisa
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Great book! I thought the author captured the main character's feelings of isolation (and many other emotions) perfectly. This is not a warm, fuzzy, happy book, but it's really good and I highly recommend it!
As someone who "talks differently" because of my hearing impairment, some things in the book really hit home. It's indeed very hard on one's psyche when you're sized up the second you open your mouth.
As someone who "talks differently" because of my hearing impairment, some things in the book really hit home. It's indeed very hard on one's psyche when you're sized up the second you open your mouth.
Sep 29, 2011
Megan
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Set in rural NH just along the VT border, Merullo introduces a heroine cut off from the world by her reclusive, paranoid, eccentric parents. Despite her shyness, this teen greatly desires to connect with the world around her and her apprenticeship with a stone mason helps to draw her out. This novel, like many I've read lately deals with abusive parents and is quite heavy at times.
Nov 25, 2011
Deborah
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Maygee, as her parents call her, is ridiculed in school for her funny way of talking. She is above average in intelligence, but has been so isolated socially and abused at home that others do not see much in her. This coming of age novel about the people in the back woods of New Hampshire is a compelling story that will have you cheering for her to the end.
Sep 19, 2011
MaryAnn
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This may be Merullo's best novel yet! A graphic account of a girl's growing up in an abusive, poverty-stricken household, saved by her aunt and a job. A realistic story of what life may be like for children in this country who grow up in similar families. Heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.
Sep 30, 2011
Jay
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This was a good book. The main character is very interestinging and the story, while not overwhelmingly original, does have some great elements. The story of her life of poverty and abuse at the hands of those around her is at once heart-breaking and hopeful.
Feb 20, 2012
Cathleen
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Not sure if it is the authors intent to focus on the story of the young girl breaking away from her abusive home or if he wanted to write a murder/suspense novel. If the first, well done-you'll be hooked from the beginning. If the second, by pass this one.
Feb 02, 2012
Emily
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Reading this book, I often was reminding myself that this story takes place in New Hampshire and not Appalachia, or the rural Ozarks. I'm not surprised exactly, just self-reflective that I grew up in a very different New England environment... and am ignorant about much of rural poverty living. I loved this book- and the description on the book jacket does not do it justice.
Nov 26, 2011
Lori
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the highest complement i can give a book is that i don't want it to end, i wanted this one to go on forever. an absolute joy and piece of wonder. can't believe what a gifted writer he is. has other books that i will track down. read this book
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Oct 01, 2011
Cindy
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I really liked this book. It's a coming of age story about a young backwoods girl with abusive parents involved in a cult. Its a bit darker of a story with a couple brief but graphic parts. It's probably not for everyone but I enjoyed it.
Aug 20, 2011
Robin
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Although a tough read due to the child abuse that is central to the book, I very much enjoyed this one. You're cheering and rooting for the female character in this book, and there's a surprise ending that works and fits just right.
Dec 09, 2011
Val
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Great book...disturbing, but very well written. Set in the eastern US, follows the story of a girl growing up with parents who are part of a super-strict sect of Christianity/a cult, and how she frees herself from her past.
Jul 13, 2011
Bekah
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One of the very best novels I have read in a long while. Vivid, unique characters struggle with more than you think they can handle... and then become stronger as time goes on. Great book about finding your own voice, trust, and healing. Highly recommended.
Jan 09, 2012
Cindypbarnard
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I have been a Roland Merullo fan for a few years with "Breakfast with Buddha" being my favorite.
But it just slipped down to #2 because "The Talk-Funny Girl" is now #1. A page turner.
Read it!
But it just slipped down to #2 because "The Talk-Funny Girl" is now #1. A page turner.
Read it!
Oct 17, 2011
Roz
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This was a truly original story. Sometimes hard to read because it was dark, but it was fascinating at the same time. I gave it four stars, but readers need to know it can be tough at times.
Aug 15, 2011
Kristin
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Just an amazing book! I haven't read something this good in a long time. Parts of this book are haunting; they stay with you after you put it down. I find that a good thing! Enjoy!
Jun 22, 2011
Ms. A
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A short summary:
Marjorie is a teen girl living in a small town. Her parents are a weird couple who isolate themselves from society and develop a funny dialect of English language. Marjorie goes to school but her parents are very strict. Because of the way she speaks kids in school make fun of her. Her father ordered her to get a job to support the family. That job is what saved her and took her off a crazy roller coaster she has been living in.
This book is a heartfelt novel ab More...
Marjorie is a teen girl living in a small town. Her parents are a weird couple who isolate themselves from society and develop a funny dialect of English language. Marjorie goes to school but her parents are very strict. Because of the way she speaks kids in school make fun of her. Her father ordered her to get a job to support the family. That job is what saved her and took her off a crazy roller coaster she has been living in.
This book is a heartfelt novel ab More...
Nov 12, 2011
Marcia
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This book rattled me. Set in deep rural New England poverty, amongst characters so well drawn that you feel you would recognize them on the street, it tells the story of how one 17 year old girl survives. It's hard to say I loved it, because that seems to imply I enjoyed the horrific events of this book. But, I couldn't put it down and I know this story and the character of Marjorie will stay with me for a very long time. In the end there is hope and resilience and love, but it is a long road t
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