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Jun 17, 2007

Robert rated it:

Bastard Out of Carolina is one of those books about which all of the hooplah surrounding it really baffles me. Allison basically plagiarizes herself by, instead of expanding what was a quite good short story she wrote and published in High Risk: An Anthology of Forbidden Writings, simply cutting and pasting sections of it throughout the book (I actually went through it and identified the sections because I could scarcely believe a serious author would do something so incredibly lazy). The final More...

13 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2008

Demisty rated it:

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0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2007

Ginny rated it:

On her web site Dorothy Allison says "What I am here for is to tell you stories you may not want to hear." Bastard Out of Carolina is definitely a hard story to hear.

It is a beautifully-written semi-autobiographical account of a childhood in 1950s-60s South Carolina. The protagonist, nicknamed Bone, is a victim of poverty and physical abuse, including sexual abuse. But she is also part of a big extended family, all of whom are poor, uneducated, loving, and protective. Alli More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Elaine rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2008

jo rated it:

i have no idea why this book gets so much love. the writing is mediocre, the story construction weak-linked, the point fudged by so much nonsense, it's blurry and romanticized and wrapped in cheap tin foil and smelling of county fair cotton candy. and the mistique of class: i like it just as much as i like the mistique of ethnicity, i.e. not at all.

17 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2008

Dusty rated it:

One thing I know for sure is that Bastard out of Carolina is, in the end, a very conservative book. Its focus is on the family. Ruth Anne Boatwright is a girl born the titular bastard to a teenage mother, Annie, and an absent father. The mother remarries after she has another kid with a man who dies, and this man she marries—Daddy Glen—turns out in what has now become a cliche in the memoir/autobionovel genre to be abusive. First it's verbal/emotional, then it becomes physical/sexual. All the wh More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2008

Lewis rated it:

A contemporary classic, this powerful novel is a disturbing tale of child abuse, told with wisdom and restraint. Allison brilliantly tells the story through the first-person narrative of Bone, a young girl who doesn’t want to believe what’s happening to her, so for the most part she reveals the truth sparingly—which makes the more dramatic moments that much more terrifying. Allison deftly captures the psychological nuances of the situation at the same time, making clear to the reader some thin More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2009

Mommalibrarian rated it:

A young girl tries to make sense of her life with a mom, without her dad, with a step-sister by a dead husband, with lots of very crazy relatives, with extreme poverty, and then with an new abusive stepfather. No conclusions = just that life is complicated. I enjoyed it which seems like a strange thing to say about such a mess as the characters make. I would like to read the sequel to find out what sort of person the girl, Ruth Anne Boatwright, becomes.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Peachy rated it:

The back of your throat burns as anger and hatred bubble over like the pots of fruit for canning on Aunt Raylene’s stove. Excitement and revenge consume you while you seek some semblance of justice through the iron fists of the endearing uncles. You cry until you’re stone-faced and numb, haunted by the sorrow of complete and utter loneliness in a county inundated with kin. Dorothy Allison forces the reader to commiserate with Bone’s anguish and despair as though they were living it. Brutal, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2008

Heather rated it:

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 03, 2007

Bethany rated it:

I tend to be skeptical when someone tells me that a book changed their life. I found a curriculum materials that talked about this book and how life-changing it was for the teacher who prepared the lesson. Although I didn't find it to be quite the experience she described, it was still an incredible book with complex characters, an engaging plot, and excellent writing.

The book is disturbing, at times, being an account of poverty, prejudice, violence, love and hatred, and family dyn More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 21, 2008

Blakely rated it:

awesome book, makes your heart ache. This was a Karina recommendation from years ago, and I loved it. There is an antique store in Darby, MT with the name Boatwright over the door and every time I'd drive by it on the way to the ranch I'd think of this book, my good pal Karina and her staggeringly good taste in literature. This is one of those books you don't remember reading specifically but the events and characters in the book appear in your mind like you remember a dream. Don't know if it' More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Darla rated it:

I heard about this book for years so felt as though I had no choice but to read it. It is everything it's cracked up to be: tough, unflinching, and raw. I liked it almost as well as I liked "Going Down Swinging," by Billie Livingston which also deals with class and mother child relationships. "Going Down Swinging" has a lot of dark humour though and the reader never doubts the mother character's love, though she IS self absorbed and addicted to men and booze. GDS is a bit mo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2008

Joe rated it:

dorothy allison has said that she tries to write about the working class much like how flannery o'connor wrote about the middle class, and that makes a lot of sense.

i only just read this even though it takes place in the region where i grew up, reading it mostly for setting as i am currently writing about the same place, although years later and in light of different circumstances and social spheres. even though this genre of thinly veiled autobiography has become somewhat cliche, an More...

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Oct 29, 2011

Book Concierge rated it:

This is a fine work of literary fiction centering on a young girl coming of age in 1950’s rural South, and fighting the label of “trash” attached to her.

Ruth Anne (“Bone”) is born to her extremely beautiful 15-year-old mother shortly after an auto accident. In the confusion at the hospital her grandmother and aunt can’t agree on her name and as a result her birth certificate bears the label “Illegitimate.” Her grandmother insists this makes no difference; the baby is still part of More...

1 comment like

Oct 07, 2011

Buffy rated it:

This was a well written book and a well told, albeit painful story. I don't like reading books like this, perhaps that is why it only got three stars. If I was more into reading the backs of books, I probably wouldn't have read it. However, it is always interesting to me when an author can present such a different socio-economic culture in such a vivid and real way. I suppose that is why I read, so that I can better understand situations and people that I will hopefully never actually have t More...

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Apr 30, 2011

Kake rated it:

Okay, it's been a looong time since I read this but I do remember enough to say a few words. It has definitely stuck in my mind in the 10-15+ yrs or so since I originally read it, to the extent that certain aspects/plot points/strengths/etc, are vivid in my memory, which to me, is a huge test that a) it made an impact, b) is good enough that it's extraordinarily memorable and c) considering I still hold it in high regard after so many years, stands the test of time. It's raw, poignant, harrowing More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 03, 2010

Tatum rated it:

Greenville County, South Carolina is a “lushly” green southern speck of hometown that is shared by author Dorothy Allison and her young representation of self, Ruth Anne Boatwright; her family calls her Bone. A Bastard out of Carolina is a semi-autobiographical text of Dorothy Allison’s personal fight for self in a world of ignorance, violence, and alcoholism. Growing up as an illegitimate child in the eyes of Greenville is harder than it sounds. With no name, Bone is an outsider of not only the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 08, 2010

Ashleymatney rated it:

Don't waste your time on authors who put their therapy on a shelf. It's a sad, depressing story that inspires rage in anyone who reads it; however, at some point I stopped feeling terrible for this girl and started berating her (or the author... it really is autobiographical). No one spends nearly a decade being sexually abused and still questions whether or not what is happening to them is abuse. But that is only the plot (and one small element of the plot that doesn't make sense), the style More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 19, 2010

Sharon rated it:

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2 comments like

Jan 13, 2012

Dania added it

When I read the last words of this book I was speechless. This is a very interesting novel. I have to say that I never want to read this book ever again, but I do not regret reading it. It is by far one of the most disturbing novels I have read. It talks about a small girl who everyone calls bone because she is skinny. Her mom is very pretty and had her when she was 15 years old; her name is Anney. She has no dad and her family is devastated when “illegitimate” is marked on her birth certificate More...

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Sep 22, 2010

Dennis rated it:

"Bastard Out of Carolina" is a powerful, frightening book. The characters are deep and complex, full of contradictions, but they come across as authentic people. The story is driven hard by these characters and the complex ways they interact with each other. Despite their flaws and bad decisions, they are characters that cry out for compassion and concern.

There are many disturbing scenes throughout the story, especially the scenes where Daddy Glen is abusing Bone. Frankly, More...

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Jun 10, 2010

Loretta rated it:

This book is very compelling and captivating. Despite what is clearly painful subject matter (something I think everyone should take into consideration prior to reading, as I believe there might be some triggers for more sensitive readers), this book is quite a page turner.

The world-building is phenomenal. I've never been to Greenville County, South Carolina even in the present day, let alone in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Nonetheless, I feel intimately acquainted with the place More...

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Dec 21, 2009

Holli rated it:

I read a couple of reviews on this book before I committed to read it myself. That's usually the first step for me.. reading what other people have to say about the book. Next is reading the first paragraph. I think if you're bored after the first paragraph, it's pretty telling of how you'll feel about the rest of the book. (I totally proved myself wrong on that point, though, with the most current book I'm reading. The first paragraph was a drag but I didn't have an alternate with me on my More...

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Dec 15, 2008

Noel rated it:

A favorite quote of mine from the book discussing religion:

"They want you, oh yes, they want you. Till they get you. Ain't nothing in this world more useless that a hardworking religious fool. It ain't that you get religion. Religion gets you and then milks you dry. Won't let you drink a little whiskey. Won't let you do a damned thing except work for what you'll get in the hereafter. I live in the here and now, and I need my sleep on Sunday morning. But I'll tell you Bon More...

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Nov 09, 2011

Ammie rated it:

GodDAMN. I saw Dorothy Allison read recently, and she shed a little light on her own writing. She said she edits out about sixty percent of the violence from many of her scenes just to make them palatable enough that people will actually read them, then goes back through and lays bombshells for the reader so the cumulative effect remains potent. Then she looked up at the audience, smiled a big smile, and said "Ima fuck you up." And yeah, she will. I don't know if I've ever read an More...

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Nov 15, 2007

Laurel rated it:

I read this book many years ago but have kept it on my bookshelves through many moves (always a good time to edit one's collection)because I think it is such a well written, powerful story...although the subject matter is sometimes horrifying, it is a book I hope my daughter one day will want to read...the resiliency of children being one of my favorite themes. It is a book one learns from.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Renae added it

i absolutely and unequivocably loved this book. This book gives a voice to all of us who haven't had the "standard" suburbian childhood, and have instead fallen on harder times. Boone's struggles through childhood and adolescence are heart touching but never sappy. Doothy Allison isn't afraid to show gritty reality, without ever glorifying violence. I truely wish that we read this novel instead of The Great Gatsby in high school - I would have been a great deal reassured by reading abo More...

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Dec 13, 2009

David rated it:

Sentimental and unpleasant. It's not without some redeeming qualities, but they're not enough even to distract the reader from its more detestable aspects, let alone outweigh them in the final balance.

Good things: Allison does have a nice ear for the language of her characters, and an easy manner of portraying them.

Bad things: Each figure in the book is either an overworn stereotype or too flat and undeveloped to merit the label "character"; the latter's unav More...

1 comment like

Jul 15, 2011

J rated it:

(FROM JACKET)Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place of black walnut trees and weeping willow, of sweet tea served on shaded porches. It is also home to the Boatwright family-rough-hewn men who drink hard and shoot up each other's trucks, and indomitable women who marry young and age all too quickly. At the heart of this memorable family-and this astonishing novel-is Ruth Anne Boatwright, called Bone by her family, a South Carolina bastard with an annotated birth certificate to More...

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