Allison, Dorothy. Bastard out of Carolina. New York: Penguin, 1993.
The only way I can describe how I felt after finishing Bastard is raw. Raw and used up. Maybe it’s because this is my second time reading it. Maybe it’s because I reread this in two days. I don’t know. There are a thousand different ways to describe the book itself: coming of age, looking for acceptance, southern, white trash poverty, motherhood gone by the wayside. It’s a nightmare of a mother loving a cruel stepfather (Pearl calls him “violent and predatory”) more than her own daughter. I could go on and on but that would only ruin the depression. Oddly enough, I loved it. I loved Bone’s defiant voice as she tried to make her way through life as the oldest daughter of young mother Anney. I loved her keen observance of her surroundings, “It was dangerous, that heat. It wanted to pour out and burn everything up, everything they had that we couldn’t have, everything that made them think they were better than us” (p 103).
The social commentary on men and women, men against women was poignant, too. “A man belongs to the woman who feeds him…the woman belongs to the ones she feeds” (p 157).
BookLust Twist: Bastard out of Carolina is mentioned twice in Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust. First, in the chapter called “Grit Lit” (p 106), and then in the chapter simply called “Southern Fiction” (p 222).
pps~ I was wondering if this was ever made into a movie and it has…back in 1996. Where have I been?
~*LunaSea*~ 
such a good book…I actually have a bunch of her books. Loved them all. Read them after we read this one for a class and then she came to speak/answer questions. 🙂
I should start a blog for all the books i’ve read. though i bet the only person who would read it is you. i’ve gone through at least 20 or 30 books this summer.
I would love it if you started a book blog! I would definitely read it…not sure I’d be the only one, though…I bet there would be others.
I’ll have to check “my list” to see if there are other Allison books I’ll be reading.