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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Not the easiest read for several reasons: first, the subject matter (which - semi-spoiler alert - includes sexual molestation and incest) and second, the writing style.
The subject matter was difficult because it highlights a version of America that we don't always want to admit exists, or (given that this is written sometime in the past) existed. There are people like this out there - I went to public school with the upstate New York version of some of them. It's still easy for entire families to slip through the cracks, to not be caught (or want to be caught) by the so-called safety net. Teens getting pregnant and not having abortions? It still happens. Ditto teens keeping those children and starting families way too early.
As for the writing style, it was difficult in an elliptical fashion, as sometimes we were in the present, other times in the past. It would have worked better had the writing matured as Rory matured. The redacted pages were powerful, more powerful than any explicit language could have been, and a good choice.
Copy provided by publisher.
The subject matter was difficult because it highlights a version of America that we don't always want to admit exists, or (given that this is written sometime in the past) existed. There are people like this out there - I went to public school with the upstate New York version of some of them. It's still easy for entire families to slip through the cracks, to not be caught (or want to be caught) by the so-called safety net. Teens getting pregnant and not having abortions? It still happens. Ditto teens keeping those children and starting families way too early.
As for the writing style, it was difficult in an elliptical fashion, as sometimes we were in the present, other times in the past. It would have worked better had the writing matured as Rory matured. The redacted pages were powerful, more powerful than any explicit language could have been, and a good choice.
Copy provided by publisher.
Update: just finished reading it again. It is simply gorgeous. I could start right over.
I'm jealous of the writing style in this book. Usually I'm lonely when I finish a book, but I feel like I'm still coiled inside the words in this one.
I'm jealous of the writing style in this book. Usually I'm lonely when I finish a book, but I feel like I'm still coiled inside the words in this one.
Right from the first few pages, I got the impression this was going to be an interesting book, reading like a memoir, and with lots of trauma thrown in. I was not wrong in the least.
Rory's a great character to get inside of. She has an extensive vocabulary as our narrator, with almost a poetic bent to the moments in her life (both good and horrible) that defy words. Her existence is guided by an old Girl Scout Handbook she found in the school library, more or less gifted to her by the librarian, and she learns more about what life should be from this book than from her mother. Girlchild doesn't get to preachy about the Girl Scout Way, really, but parts of the book are more like a repetend to ground us in Rory's inside thoughts when the outside stuff is getting a little too heavy. It was cleverly done, and I give kudos to Hassman for bringing Girl Scouting into a fictional narrative respectfully.
The things Rory lives through, learns, discovers, and deals with are horrible for the most part, but like House on Mango Street, Rory's story ends on a hopeful note and I couldn't help but smile for her in the end. Hassman's final historical note was an unexpected gut punch that led me on an hour-long rabbit hole search online with no real resolution.
One thing I want to mention is that this book is mostly Rory's narrative, but it includes case notes on the county official checking on Rory and Jo, an obituary (or two?) and a few other multi-modal ways of telling the story without using Rory's words. I wish there were more of them, perhaps some of Rory's school papers, or more local news articles about the goings-on around the Calle.
Rory's a great character to get inside of. She has an extensive vocabulary as our narrator, with almost a poetic bent to the moments in her life (both good and horrible) that defy words. Her existence is guided by an old Girl Scout Handbook she found in the school library, more or less gifted to her by the librarian, and she learns more about what life should be from this book than from her mother. Girlchild doesn't get to preachy about the Girl Scout Way, really, but parts of the book are more like a repetend to ground us in Rory's inside thoughts when the outside stuff is getting a little too heavy. It was cleverly done, and I give kudos to Hassman for bringing Girl Scouting into a fictional narrative respectfully.
The things Rory lives through, learns, discovers, and deals with are horrible for the most part, but like House on Mango Street, Rory's story ends on a hopeful note and I couldn't help but smile for her in the end. Hassman's final historical note was an unexpected gut punch that led me on an hour-long rabbit hole search online with no real resolution.
One thing I want to mention is that this book is mostly Rory's narrative, but it includes case notes on the county official checking on Rory and Jo, an obituary (or two?) and a few other multi-modal ways of telling the story without using Rory's words. I wish there were more of them, perhaps some of Rory's school papers, or more local news articles about the goings-on around the Calle.
It was fine. Seems like a sort of typical first novel. Retreads themes found in Bastard Out of Carolina, etc.
Rory and The Calle remind us someone we've known or borne witness of. We wondered why and now we know.
Rory would have been a promising Girl Scout in any other family or neighborhood. Even in The Calle she uses what she can glean from the G.S. Handbook and finds the strength she needs most when she must be strong.
There is disgust, humor, pity, empathy, sympathy, sadness, regret, forgiveness and most of all hope...in The Calle.
A very good read from the perspective of one in an interesting and overlooked/forgotten subculture. There's something to learn here and even more to feel.
Rory would have been a promising Girl Scout in any other family or neighborhood. Even in The Calle she uses what she can glean from the G.S. Handbook and finds the strength she needs most when she must be strong.
There is disgust, humor, pity, empathy, sympathy, sadness, regret, forgiveness and most of all hope...in The Calle.
A very good read from the perspective of one in an interesting and overlooked/forgotten subculture. There's something to learn here and even more to feel.
An okay story of a sad, lonely girl growing up in a trailer park
Trailer Park girl growing up, wants stuff that others are doing, never quite clicks and gets you on her side.
This book was more intense than I was expecting, especially at the beginning. In fact, there was this U-shaped intensity curve through the narrative that had me breathing a sigh of relief in the middle just to be hit again toward the end. I like the Girl Scout Manual frame (as a devoted consumer of the same manual from multiple different time periods starting in the 50s-80s). I also enjoyed the other narrative tools (documents, “math problems,” etc) All in all a very innovative book that used a fantastic voice to deal with really difficult topics.
I hold onto my Handbook because nothing else makes promises like that around here, promises with these words burning inside them: honor, duty and try. Try and duty I hear all the time, as in "try to get some sleep," and "get me some duty-free cigarettes from the Indian store," while honor's reserved solely for the Honorable Joseph A. on The People's Court, as in, "Your Honor, I was just trying to get my wallet out for the duty-free cigs when my gun went off," but these words never ever show their faces together and much less inside a promise.
Rory Hendrix is not a registered Girl Scout in any sense of the word. She doesn't have a troop or any badges, but she's obsessed with the Girl Scout Handbook. She checks it out of the library over and over to serve as her guide to surviving her childhood in the Calle de los Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother. This book has a narrator and a clear plot, but it is told in part through journal entries, social worker reports, letters, the family mythology, and court documents so it meanders a bit. Also, the interspersed bits from the Girl Scout Handbook are totally surreal in the context of Rory's life -- like, this girl navigating her very difficult life very much needs advice about The Right Use of Your Body and Finding Your Way When Lost, but maybe the Girl Scouts had something different in mind...
This book is well-written, although sometimes it got a little too "writerly" for my tastes. The story will twist your heart around in a very painful way. The characters of the Calle are tangible, despicable and real. Rory is an wise, sassy, terrified and brave girl. If you like to read about difficult, working-class childhoods with hardscrabble heroines who suffer many painful moments that will make you shudder, you would probably enjoy this book. I mean, who doesn't cheer for the smartypants underdog from a line of "imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom"?
And, of course, I loved the power and magic that Rory lends to the Girl Scouts. Even if it was surreal and strange, it was a desperate kind of survival magic that genuinely helped her. It was touching. It was about kids' abilities to survive and flourish.
Also, I hate to be so precious, but here's a quote from Rory.
“I may not have been born captain of this boat, but I was born to rock it.”
Picked it up because it a) had a library pocket on the front and b) suggested Girl Scouts. While of both of those are (somewhat) parts of the story, they are much more subtle than I expected. Still a very good read! For those of us who live relatively comfortable lives, it is a tough glimpse into a hard life. I also expected it to be YA... if it is, it is very mature YA.