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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
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 awe. The writing was skillful but packed an emotional wallop. It was truly a messy book but put together so well. Kudos Tupelo!
2) The story of Rory Dawn Hendrix is heartbreaking. Because of her family she is described as one of the "third generation bastards surely on the road to whoredom". girlchild depicts a life in a trailer park outside of Reno and it's not a pretty life. It's not even an okay life. It's a sad, scary life that Rory Dawn tries to make sense of using the Girl Scout Handbook from the library.
The end is unresolved. You root for Rory Dawn but somehow you just aren't sure she's going to make it out of the life she was thrown in to.
Uncomfortable, heartbreaking, with an optimistic twist in there.
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 awe. The writing was skillful but packed an emotional wallop. It was truly a messy book but put together so well. Kudos Tupelo!
2) The story of Rory Dawn Hendrix is heartbreaking. Because of her family she is described as one of the "third generation bastards surely on the road to whoredom". girlchild depicts a life in a trailer park outside of Reno and it's not a pretty life. It's not even an okay life. It's a sad, scary life that Rory Dawn tries to make sense of using the Girl Scout Handbook from the library.
The end is unresolved. You root for Rory Dawn but somehow you just aren't sure she's going to make it out of the life she was thrown in to.
Uncomfortable, heartbreaking, with an optimistic twist in there.
i loved the voice/tone and non-structure of this novel. it's essentially a set of vignettes told from a child's(and then a teen's) point of view, but some of them are set up as test questions, some as girl scout badge instructions, some as social worker reports. i loved the obscure, sidelong way of describing really horrible difficult things. i loved that each vignette was slightly different from the last, that you never knew what kind of thing you'd be reading on the next page. the whole package is brilliant, and it sings of humanity's ability to persevere in the worst circumstances.
The review I read of Girlchild mentioned that it seemed like a stereotypical MFA graduate book - and in some ways that's true, but in a really well executed way. The book is structured around Rory's Calle-version of survival modeled after Girl Scout Handbook - which I thought was innovative at the time, but I could have done without the word problems. Though clever, they stopped the momentum of the story without much gain. This book is haunting and mysterious, a book that sticks with you as you try to figure out just what happened to Rory and if she's going to make it out whole.
Wowza. This was a very emotional read. I did love it, but it is not for everyone because the subject matter is very hard to expose yourself to.
I was impressed with the author's ability to yank me kicking and screaming into the story and make my heart ache for the character, who felt so real she could have been a friend.
Read this book--it's important. But be ready to cry for how bad the world can be.
I was impressed with the author's ability to yank me kicking and screaming into the story and make my heart ache for the character, who felt so real she could have been a friend.
Read this book--it's important. But be ready to cry for how bad the world can be.
This book will stir empathy in you for those caught in the poverty cycle. We all need mentors to show us the way.
Loved the style of writing! Unique way of building an interesting story.
4.5 stars. I loved this book. It was heartbreaking and beautiful and close. A narrative from a thoughtful little girl growing up from age 4 to 15 in a trailer park with her mom. The writing is visceral and almost poetic. The sentences so imaginatively crafted, I was awed to return and re-read many of them.
Very complex and real characters inhabit this story of generational poverty. What could have been a dark, depressing read is clever, amusing, hopeful and never maudlin.
Y’all. I have so. many. feelings. about this book. This one is going to stay with me for a long while.
Meet Rory Dawn Hendrix, the wise-beyond-her-years girlchild who’s the undisputed star of this story. RD is smart and brave, lonely and damaged, brash and sassy, vulnerable and terrified, cautiously hopeful, and possessing the sad wisdom of someone who’s seen way more than she should have. She’s everything I want in a character and she’s gonna break your heart.
RD lives with her mom, Jo, in the Calle de los Flores trailer park in Reno. It’s a community of hard workers, even harder drinkers, who share babysitting, cigarettes, and meals until the food stamps come in. She struggles with her mother’s alcoholism and habit of trusting the wrong men, not to mention her grandma’s fever for the slots.
RD has been told that she is “third-generation in a line of apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom.”
But she is hell bent to prove them wrong. Her secret weapon? The Girl Scouts Handbook, a book she’s checked out from her elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card. She’s a troop of one, determined to make good in a world that sees her as a lost cause.
This book is an unflinching look at generational poverty. Through RD’s eyes, we see the single mothers who bear all the responsibility for raising their children, the men who hurt them and their families, and how these folks intersect with the criminal justice and social work systems. Bad things happen, and it can be difficult to read, although there are no graphic details. I found it compelling and worthwhile.
The story is told by RD through a series of small vignettes, supplemented by social work reports, diary entries, arrest records, Supreme Court opinions, letters from her grandmother, and family lore. At times parts of these reports are redacted, leaving big black spaces on the page. The writing is beautiful, with hints of poetic prose that contrast nicely against the starkness of the official documents presented.
Be forewarned, the timeline is nonlinear, shifting back and forth through RD’s short life, and everything comes together in the end. It’s creative and purposeful, but if you find this sort of literary device unappealing, this is definitely not the book for you.
CW: domestic violence, child sexual abuse, addiction
Meet Rory Dawn Hendrix, the wise-beyond-her-years girlchild who’s the undisputed star of this story. RD is smart and brave, lonely and damaged, brash and sassy, vulnerable and terrified, cautiously hopeful, and possessing the sad wisdom of someone who’s seen way more than she should have. She’s everything I want in a character and she’s gonna break your heart.
RD lives with her mom, Jo, in the Calle de los Flores trailer park in Reno. It’s a community of hard workers, even harder drinkers, who share babysitting, cigarettes, and meals until the food stamps come in. She struggles with her mother’s alcoholism and habit of trusting the wrong men, not to mention her grandma’s fever for the slots.
RD has been told that she is “third-generation in a line of apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom.”
But she is hell bent to prove them wrong. Her secret weapon? The Girl Scouts Handbook, a book she’s checked out from her elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card. She’s a troop of one, determined to make good in a world that sees her as a lost cause.
This book is an unflinching look at generational poverty. Through RD’s eyes, we see the single mothers who bear all the responsibility for raising their children, the men who hurt them and their families, and how these folks intersect with the criminal justice and social work systems. Bad things happen, and it can be difficult to read, although there are no graphic details. I found it compelling and worthwhile.
The story is told by RD through a series of small vignettes, supplemented by social work reports, diary entries, arrest records, Supreme Court opinions, letters from her grandmother, and family lore. At times parts of these reports are redacted, leaving big black spaces on the page. The writing is beautiful, with hints of poetic prose that contrast nicely against the starkness of the official documents presented.
Be forewarned, the timeline is nonlinear, shifting back and forth through RD’s short life, and everything comes together in the end. It’s creative and purposeful, but if you find this sort of literary device unappealing, this is definitely not the book for you.
CW: domestic violence, child sexual abuse, addiction