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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Unexpectedly complex, thought-provoking, deeply affecting novel about a "trailer trash" girl and how she grows up in poverty and abuse, without becoming an Oprah novel.
I wasn't sure about this book at first. It was hard to read, process and at times, fathom. It's subject matter is really dark, and disturbing. That doesn't really get any better as the book continues. But, once I got through about page 50, the chapters started taking on more of a poetic/spoken word quality, and I got "used to" the narrator's voice. There were some passages that were so beautifully written, and so thoughtful and true that it made me have to stop reading and chew on it for a while.
Definitely not a light or easy read, because of it's content, but I would recommend it for sure.
Definitely not a light or easy read, because of it's content, but I would recommend it for sure.
Girlchild is a pretty fast read about a girl growing up poor in a trailer park just outside of Reno in the 1970’s and 80’s, and a bit about her mother’s life as well through anecdotes and old Child Protective Services reports. She’s a smart loner, there’s no money, and there’s abuse involved too, for at least three generations, so the whole story is very sad. The book ends in an open-ended way and I wish I could know what happens to her in the end, although this is just fiction. It was good, but not great, because I wanted more to draw me in. At the same time, I think part of the reservedness on the part of the characters was on purpose to show their culture and upbringing. The book seemed realistic and I would have believed it if it someone said it's a memoir.
I didn't finish this one. I couldn't, it was more graphic than I thought it would be.
The synopsis was more intriguing than the actual story. I liked Rory but I felt so much was left unexplained and undetailed. I realize authors often do this for a reason but I don't enjoy trying to figure out their interpretation of what I'm supposed to understand because I feel like "what if I'm not actually getting it?" and then the whole story gets confusing. Of course I understood that rory was sexually assaulted as a child but other details were more confusing. I gave this a three bc I liked the characters. I just wish I was given the chance to get to know them more.
I heard about this book on NPR. I was so excited about it, I talked about it for months before I finally got my hands on it. I have been a Girl Scout for 30 years, I worked for DCFS for five..it would not have taken that much for me to fall in love with this book. The bar was really low.
I HATED IT! It was choppy, hard to follow, it was trying to make clever analogies and just failed. I was so disappointed in this book.
I also thought the book portrayed Girl Scouts in a bad light. This was really a side note to my hatred of the book. But never the less, still a point to be made. I was trying to place how old the handbook she had actually was..
"Girl Scouts learn useful stuff. Proficiency badges can be earned in all kinds of fields. Except Academics. There's nothing in the Handbook's index under Science or History,no listings for English or Math, but there's loads to do under Arts and Crafts and there's much good work to accomplished in, say Child Care or Nutrition that would lead the dedicatied Girl Scout into just the type of vocational training progream V. White mentions in her inital report on Mama."
This is a sterotype that is unfair to Girl Scouts..especially with the intensive work they do in STEM and writing. She might as well added how she would have loved to sell cookies too.
Now on the books behalf, my nanny is loving it. The writing reminds her of Ellen Hopkins.
And at the end what in the world were the Alligators suppose to represent, and was the girl naked by the pond real or imaginary?
I HATED IT! It was choppy, hard to follow, it was trying to make clever analogies and just failed. I was so disappointed in this book.
I also thought the book portrayed Girl Scouts in a bad light. This was really a side note to my hatred of the book. But never the less, still a point to be made. I was trying to place how old the handbook she had actually was..
"Girl Scouts learn useful stuff. Proficiency badges can be earned in all kinds of fields. Except Academics. There's nothing in the Handbook's index under Science or History,no listings for English or Math, but there's loads to do under Arts and Crafts and there's much good work to accomplished in, say Child Care or Nutrition that would lead the dedicatied Girl Scout into just the type of vocational training progream V. White mentions in her inital report on Mama."
This is a sterotype that is unfair to Girl Scouts..especially with the intensive work they do in STEM and writing. She might as well added how she would have loved to sell cookies too.
Now on the books behalf, my nanny is loving it. The writing reminds her of Ellen Hopkins.
And at the end what in the world were the Alligators suppose to represent, and was the girl naked by the pond real or imaginary?
The first half of the book was amazing, the discussion of poverty, class and child sexual abuse was really well done but then the story got sparser and sparser until it felt almost non-existent to me, while the metaphors got more heavy-handed and I didn't see justification for most of narrative choices. Overall I think this could've been a masterpiece with better editing and more development. If you enjoyed Bastard Out of Carolina this is very much in the same vein.
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 told in short snippets. The longest chapter is 3 pages, I think. I read about 2/3 of it in one sitting, and I wish I'd been able to read it all in one go. The ending felt a little rushed in a way. Seemed like she went from being 10 to 15 in one paragraph, and it was hard for me to settle into reading Rory as an "adult." (15 is the year you grow up, in this book. Which is a nice little tie, maybe, to a quinceanera?)
I will say this book handles subtext incredibly well, and Rory has a clear voice, and you gotta love her.
I will say this book handles subtext incredibly well, and Rory has a clear voice, and you gotta love her.
Well, well, well…finally, after two months of all-right-but-not-great reading I’ve been knocked off my feet. Not by a new release, but by a 2013 novel from my Goodreads to-read list. I’m not going to quibble; I’m just thrilled to have read something I loved so much that it’s hard to find the best words for it. Tupelo Hassman’s Girlchild is a piercing novel of childhood with Rory Dawn Hendrix, a seven-years-old, living in Reno, Nevada in a trailer park with her mother, a bartender who likes to drink and date the wrong men. She is such a supernova spirit that she is not so much being written as being let loose. Things like no Girl Scout troop to be found or friends to join one with don’t stop Rory. Instead, she starts her own troop with herself as the only member. She introduces herself as the
Feebleminded daughter of a feebleminded daughter, herself the product of feebleminded stock,
when really the women in her family just seem to be blessed with pretty faces and the inability to make good choices about men. Still, the feeble minded label sticks even though there’s little proof of it, especially in Rory’s case.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2017/01/girlchild-by-tupelo-hassman/
Feebleminded daughter of a feebleminded daughter, herself the product of feebleminded stock,
when really the women in her family just seem to be blessed with pretty faces and the inability to make good choices about men. Still, the feeble minded label sticks even though there’s little proof of it, especially in Rory’s case.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2017/01/girlchild-by-tupelo-hassman/