So I read the blurb for Girlchild - the one that says Tupelo Hassman's debut 'crafts a devastating collage' of her protagonist's world - but I didn't expect the book to literally feel like a collage of only loosely interconnected scenes, which is essentially what it is. The narrative flips back and forth through time as it recounts the life of Rory Dawn Hendrix and her working-class family, stuck in a trailer park on the outskirts of Reno. Touching on the cycle of abuse and failure the character More...

Rory lives at The Calle de los Flores, a Reno Trailer park with her mother. While Rory knows what people think of her family and her future options or lack there of, she still dreams. For Rory part of that dream is being a girl scout. She's read the Handbook guide backwords and forwards since elementary. Girlchild follows Rory through her adolescent years. Hassman's writing and Rory captured my heart. There's a beauty and honesty to both that I loved. Hassman's style has a beauitful rhythmic fre More...

I bought this book based on Fresh Air's book critic Maureen Corrigan's glowing review. Today, the book made her top 10 list of 2012. Let me say two things: 1) I have not finished the book and, 2) I do not like this book. I continued to hope it would get better, but my hope lagged as the book became more and more focused on the severe sexual abuse of the protagonist. If I want to read a redacted copy of severe childhood abuse I'll pick up a police report. I could not understand the point of this More...

'Girlchild' is the story of what it means to a little girl when men find boredom in a trailer park near Reno, when all that they can see is the desert. This is told from the point of view of Rory Dawn Hendrix (from her name I envisioned her parents as a Gilmore Girl and a rock star.) Most of the chapters are less than three pages, and some of the story is told through social service reports or pages of a Girl Scout handbook. I was a bit wary when I heard the story was about abuse. It is certainl More...

Review originally posted here: http://fictionfinders.blogspot.com/20...

Set in the 1980s, Rory Dawn Hendrix is a young girl living with her mother in a Reno trailer park. Rory's maternal lineage includes a mother and grandmother who were both pregnant before turning 16. They are also high school dropouts, chain smokers, and welfare dependents. Rory's trailer park, the Calle de la Flores, is no safe place for a child to be raised. Violence and child abuse abound and children are often left alone w More...

Picked it up, thinking it was a young adult book, but discovered it was more than that. Surprising themes on worth and the cultural ramifications of court rulings on feeble-mindedness and eugenics---there are very few times where I see a piece of fiction subtly and artfully unravel these issues in ways more profound than reams of policy analysis. Prose was lyrical, and didn't always match the age of the narrator, Rory, the main character whose life we see through her eyes between 5 and 15. Growi More...

I kept telling everyone I liked this book. And, then I realized that it took me over two months to read it--which it certainly shouldn't have, given its relatively unassuming length and short chapters. I think that I wanted to like this book-- I ALMOST liked this book.

The prose-poem style made it an interesting read, but I think that sometimes that same style also got in the way. The protagonist is likable enough, and the world that Hassman has created is believable. You can see the Calle in to More...

I have always admired Margaret Sanger and felt abortion should be available to any woman who wants to make that choice.

Tupelo Hassman's novel with the heartbreaking character Rory Hendrix should be required reading for those who oppose women's rights. Obviously her mother in the novel, Jo, didn't make that choice with Rory or the other four brothers that departed as soon as possible.

Jo is an alcoholic smoker, a bartender, and seemingly has no end of men friends over. They live in the Calle de l More...

Girlchild is a novel that is unlike almost anything else I've ever read. It is like opening the pages of a young girl's diary and finding the most beautiful poetry. It's funny, tragic, hopeful, devastatingly sad, naive and wise and ultimately glorious. Rory Hendrix lives in poverty with her single mother in a single wide trailer in the desert of Nevada. She has everything working against her but she always seems to find the good in life anyway. Her story will pull you in and make you want to kno More...

From Lilac Wolf and Stuff

The cover caught my eye. A trailer that looks like it would feel at home in my trailer park but set in the desserts of Nevada.

I started reading and it knocked me over to read a story that followed my own childhood eerily close. It didn't hide how common child sexual abuse is, but it didn't go into painful detail either. I think it was the perfect balance on such a difficult topic for so many (too many) women.

This story is not an easy read. It deals with those living in p More...

Rory is one mighty young lady. Encouraged to break the cycle of dysfuntionality of her family while facing many personal challenges a child should never face - reading each vignette you wonder what will become of young Rory.

I found this story sobering. I imagine this story taking place in our world all too often and wonder what happens to the Rory's of the world and the Rory's that aren't as resilient as our main character.

I felt the story was written in an ambiguous manner. I feel that Rory d More...

I've given this book 5 stars, but I can't honestly say I LIKED it. I'm very glad I read it. The characters will stay with me a very long time, but this was a very difficult story to read. I came to love the little girl who was struggling so hard to end up normal in spite of her upbringing and life and background. while She declares herself the feeble minded daughter of a feeble minded daughter of a feeble minded family, this is a very bright and astute little girl. She manages to carve her own w More...

This is an extremely interesting read. Each chapter is very brief and is a snapshot of the main character's life. Often, the author leaves it to the reader to puzzle out what she is telling you which gives the writing an almost poetic feel. Obviously, you have to read very carefully.

This is a book that is driven by character and experimental style rather than plot. In fact, there really is no plot to this book. This is a story where we learn about the main character and her family through a seri More...

Most narrators that steal reader’s hearts don’t come from trailer parks, but Rory Dawn, or RD, Hendrix of the Calle de las Flores trailer park on the outskirts of Reno, is a character that is to damaged and yet beautiful to be forgotten. Tupelo Hassman’s debut novel Girlchild is a true work of art. While it deals with the more undesirable elements of society, and yes, there are many passages that are difficult to read, it is also a piercing look into the bonds of love between a mother and daught More...

I was going to write a review, but my mother's review was so much more intelligent... here it is:

I began the new book I found "Girlchild"and had to stop because it is so superb and not having anyone to share it with too frustrating.What Vonnegut began,that totally modern “thinking out loud writing” that now seems to have taken hold in so much work and I believe will become the defining style of the 21st century,possibly due to the absorption of Facebook,Youtube and such and those innovating publ More...

Probably more like 3.5 stars; there were parts that I absolutely loved, but parts that floundered a bit. (The fake math/logic problems didn't do it for me; I've seen that trick done before to much better effect.) The publishers description really does this no justice. It's in almost no way about Girlscouts, aside from some vague metaphors. This book has a lot more in common with House on Mango Street, or even Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven than the jacket would have you believe. It's More...

"My name is Rory Dawn Hendrix, feebleminded daughter of a feebleminded daughter, herself the product of feebleminded stock. Welcome to the Calle."

Despite the above quote, Rory Dawn is an intelligent and precocious girl who lives with her mother in the Calle, a trailer park in the middle of nowhere somewhere near Reno, Nevada. This first novel spans Rory's life from about four years old to about fifteen. The novel is very heavy and painful to read at times but Rory is, at heart, a strong and pass More...

Authentically-told story of a resilient "girlchild" who lives at the unfortunate confluence of multiple disadvantages that have afflicted her family for generations: poverty, parental neglect, sexual abuse, and the general lack of a healthy environment for children. The girlchild, Rory D., takes everything in stride as being just the matter-of-fact stuff of her life -- a narrative stance that rings true for children in even the most dire circumstances. I was disappointed that near the end of the More...

When I’d first heard of Girlchild, I left with the impression that it would be a story set in a harsh landscape with a resilient and quirky young protagonist—ala Susan Patron’s Lucky or Kate DiCamillo’s India Opal. But this is no children’s book. I should have read to the end of this Maureen Corrigan NPR review beforehand where it notes: “Rory endures sexual abuse, the death of loved ones, and everyday invisibility — all without playing for our sympathy.” The sexual abuse she endures is really d More...

True story: my first job out of college was working as a juvenile probation officer. One of my clients was 13 years old. She lived in a trailer park. She was molested by several of the men there. She had three older brothers. During the year that I knew her, her mother died, one of her brothers was also placed on probation, and another brother was assigned to a long-term stay at a regional youth detention center. When I visited her in her trailer, roaches -- of all sizes -- would climb my clothe More...

The disjointed narrative, made up of flashbacks, legal documents, court proceedings, and bits of the present, didn't work for me in this book because it never allowed Rory to have a voice. And while the fact she doesn't have a voice makes sense in the story, I couldn't connect with her for a long time and couldn't put together the pieces of why she was so broken, hurt, and silenced. I found the Girl Scout story line thinly developed until the end when it suddenly had a lot more page time.

That sa More...

An incredible read. Beautifully lyrical, but brutally heartwrenching at the same time. The story follows Rory Hendrix from girlhood to her teen years. She lives in the Calle, an impoverished area near Reno. It seems everyone expects her to eventually succumb to the hopelessness that permeates her corner of the world, where fathers are largely absent and mothers either scrap by with meager jobs or take in a string of questionable boyfriends (or, in Rory's mother's case, both. Addictions run like More...

Listening to a Books on the Nightstand podcast, one of the hosts talked about girlchild.

Basically he said:

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman – This is a book that truly blew me away. Uncomfortable and unbearably sad at times, this story of young trailer park resident Rory Dawn Hendrix features writing unlike anything I’ve read before.



I 100% agree. I couldn't sit and read this in one go, no matter how much I liked it.



Let's start somewhere here:



1) This is the author's debut novel and I'm amazed and in More...

I decided I liked the style more than the substance on this book. The story of Rory Dawn Hendrix is told through her own voice, court documents, social worker reports, imaginary, impossible multiple choice questions and through the influence of the Girl Scout Handbook. Her actual story is a little cryptic, but it is sad, with some signs of hope for the future. I read some of the review blurbs on the dust jacket and I am surprised that some reviewers found it comical. I would say ironic and sarca More...

3.5 stars would be more accurate, I liked a lot of things about this book, but I didn't love anything really. The flow, the quick chapters, Rory Dawn's perspective and voice, the poetic spin in parts, all creatively tickled me. The subject matter was heavy, being the mother of a young daughter it was quite a terrifying thing especially when read from a little girls pain. I knew it was coming, but I still wanted to vomit, still had to put the book down to breathe. For me, it was also difficult to More...

Character and writing style take the front seat in this book, to the point where plot is almost incidental; events are revealed in an indirect, sideways manner. I enjoyed it for its unique setting (a trailer park outside Reno, NV) and character, Rory Dawn Hendrix, a bright girl who'd be a "sure thing" if she was born in more advantaged circumstances, but who, in her current circumstances, is a "long shot." This would be a good book club discussion book.

Whatever she's got, that thing that can say More...

I hate giving it a 2 rating. The book was ok, but not great. I felt it middle of the road...but "it was ok" is a 2 according to Goodreads.

So where do I start...... I really wanted to like the book because I heard Girl Scouts was weaved throughout the book and I am very involved in Girl Scouts. Well thank goodness the book was a quick read otherwise I would have put it down.

I found the book very dark, sad and depressing. It was about a poor girl living in horrible circumstances. The book dealt More...

This one was on several lists of the "Best of 2012." It is the coming-of-age story of Rory Dawn Hendricks, a resident of a dangerous and run-down trailer park near Reno. Rory tries to do better than other female members of her family, and seeks guidance from The Girl Scout Handbook, since she receives little help from a struggling alcoholic mother. Unfortunately the handbook does not have all the answers to poverty, sexual abuse, alcoholism, promiscuity, self-loathing and techniques to avoid not More...

This is THE best writing I've experienced for awhile. I think i have a soft spot for Hassman's style because her writing is very similar to the thoughts and conversations I have spinning around my brain. It's what I would imagine my journal would look like, if I wasn't too lazy to keep one. The writing is disjointed and you often have to step back to figure out exactly where you are, but it all comes together perfectly at the right moment, and sparks the intense emotion I imagine the writer want More...