When we first meet Ruby Reese she’s a spunky kid in a cowgirl hat, tap dancing her way through a slightly off-kilter 1950s childhood. With an...
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reviews
May 25, 2011
Bonnie
rated it: 
Lovely writing, a little unusual (always good) a little off kilter, breathtaking at times, achingly real. I look forward to more books from this author. LOVED the front cover, how could you not buy that book...
Now that this book had me awake half the night thinking and processing it, I thought I'd add: I love how many "writing rules" she broke writing this book. She would not receive a "good" grade from most professors but then there is that question, "can you te More...
Now that this book had me awake half the night thinking and processing it, I thought I'd add: I love how many "writing rules" she broke writing this book. She would not receive a "good" grade from most professors but then there is that question, "can you te More...
Nov 20, 2007
Tana
rated it: 
I really enjoyed the prose style of this author. She writes with a lyrical, poetic style that resounds with allusions and literary references. As a psueo-memoir, it was relevant and quirky enough to keep me reading.
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May 28, 2010
Agnes
rated it: 
Very strange story. Kept jumping around in time, from childhood to present to early adult; confusing. Crazy family, with main character being craziest. Was interested in location of story: central Pennsylvania and West Virginia, so some locations were familiar to me.
Don't know that I wuld recommend to anyone. Was winner of Bakeless Prize at the Breadloaf Writiers Conference????????
Don't know that I wuld recommend to anyone. Was winner of Bakeless Prize at the Breadloaf Writiers Conference????????
Jul 20, 2011
Susan
rated it: 
Objectively speaking, this was a very well-written novel. Sensitive. Insightful. Eloquent. Still, though I found Ruby Reese to be a very fascinating and likable character, I got a little depressed endlessly wallowing in the melancholy details of her life, what with the string of doomed romantic relationships and personal losses. ..but that's just me. What IS cool is the way she presents the story as if looking down on a time-line of her life, and the time-line is a jigsaw puzzle that is being pu
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Nov 26, 2009
Kori
rated it:
I really love Sara Pritchard - both the author and the lovely, lovely person I've gotten to know as a part of West Virginia University's M.F.A. program. This book is a delight - not just Ruby, but every character, is marvelously well drawn. Great stuff!
Feb 06, 2011
Beth
rated it:
I really enjoyed most of this book. It is chock full of some of the best similes I have ever read. If you do not know what a simile is you should upon finishing this book. Highly readable, funny and tragic, it did lose me in the end.
Jun 04, 2011
Patricia
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A great read, a novel that reads like a memoir. My favorite image. The insominac mother who walks the neighborhood streets playing her violin.
May 02, 2011
Nicole
rated it:
I gave Crackpots three stars, not because I didn't like it, but because it was a book I really had to think about. It wasn't the good quick summer read I was hoping for, but it was still a good book, none-the-less.
It jumps from different time periods making it slightly hard for me to keep straight. It was a book full of inside jokes and weird animals I wasn't quite getting into (I attributed it to the parts of West Virginia I didn't get to know in the four years I was there).
It jumps from different time periods making it slightly hard for me to keep straight. It was a book full of inside jokes and weird animals I wasn't quite getting into (I attributed it to the parts of West Virginia I didn't get to know in the four years I was there).
Dec 13, 2009
Ted
rated it:
Brief, beautifully written book about an awkward young girl being raised by an eccentric family. Note that there is no child abuse or other hot button stuff engineered in to make the book appeal to the Oprah book clubs, just a humorous and bittersweet novel of a girl, beset with any number of glum circumstances and embarrassments, maturing to a resilient adult with soft irony that gets her through the day. Pritchard is especially fine as prose stylist.
Aug 21, 2008
Erica
rated it:
I can't remember whether I read a review of this, or if it was a "library shelf proximity find." A quirky read -- that's really all I remember.
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