tamaralgage1's review
4.0
We have all witnessed families that are nothing short of a 'train wreck'. If we are lucky we can stand off at a distance to avoid the splatter. I know that might be a bit too graphic. But I just finished this book and find it a fitting description. Although this is a fictional story told in first person by Ruth, I cannot help but think this is fairly representative in too many lives. Ruth is a young girl that struggles with understanding the world. Her mother is an angry bitter woman who rarely has a kind word for her daughter. At the same time, the mother lavishes love and affection for Ruth's brother. Empathy is in short supply in Ruth's world. This book is heart breaking and worth the read.
kaileycool's review
4.0
Read this for my independent study. Honestly, this book was engaging and the moral ambiguity of the characters as captured by the naive narrator was complex and human. It just didn't move me.
beardedandbookulent's review
3.0
It's been a while since I read this one, and honestly I don't remember much about it. I guess that says something about the book huh? I do remember that the characters were annoying. I guess that says even more about it. It's an ok book, but nothing to write home about.
dutchtineke's review
3.0
Finished it today. It was a good book. Horrifying and sad. I did guess part of what happened at the end. I had mixed feelings about all characters, but especially Ruby.
ljrr's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
thetomatowriter's review
3.0
This book was slow to get into. I mean, REALLY slow. It's also written a bit like a memoir and sometimes skips around a bit at the beginning, which can be a little challenging to follow. The setting doesn't really help much, the 1970s in a very small town that seems kind of out of touch with the rest of the country. One thing that DOES help, though, is that there's always a sort of ominous tone to the language, telling you, "Yeah, okay, this seems kind of simple and boring but keep reading because it's about to get intense." Every time I started to think I was losing interest, Ruth would hint that there was a part of the story that she was hesitant to talk about, and I was too curious to give up.
It was about halfway through the book that it really caught my interest, but it gets better from there. The final chapter is one of my favorite final chapters in terms of the writing, and the character's perspective by the end. It did make me uncomfortable at points how even in the last chapter, Ruth tried to defend a certain character, but I think that's very true to her character, and it's something that's addressed. There's actually a part of the last chapter in which she points out that Ruth means "compassion" and talks about how that suits her, because even after everything, she still pities and kind of loves them. A couple pages later, there's a passage that says "I looked up truth the other day. The word has a lot to do with seeing clearly, and with things that are honest and beautiful. Perhaps I should change my name to Ruth Truth. The combination of pity and compassion with honesty and beauty would be a real knockout," and I think that passage pretty much summed Ruth up perfectly.
My favorite part, besides the last chapter, was Ruth as a narrator. Most of the time, narrators of novels are soooo intelligent they're just tortured by having to live around common folk. Introspective, a little bit wanky, honestly. Ruth was the opposite of that. She's told throughout he novel that she's stupid, she struggles as a student and she misses a lot of things that the reader might thing ~everyone knows. I wouldn't call her stupid by any stretch of the imagination, though. Ruth is very observant, often noticing things about the world around her that others don't, or don't care about, and she has a thirst for learning, even if she doesn't learn as quickly as say, her brother. And one of my favorite things about her is how imaginative she is. I've never read anything quite like some of the mental images Ruth conjures up. Ruth is probably one of the most genuinely human fictional characters I've read in a while.
One thing you might want to be warned of, if you're anything like me, is that there is a very graphically violent scene towards the end that lasts for about 4-6 pages. I was warned about it at the start of the book, and that was good, because I don't handle being ambushed by that kind of thing very well, so if you're anything like me, you might want to watch out for that.
Overall, I liked the book. A lot than I thought I would when I started, or even before I read it (I was mostly irked because a reviewer said it was "Dickensian" which made me roll my eyes because not every book in which a child is mistreated by parents and teachers is ~Dickensian, but the reason for the comparison becomes a bit clearer as you read on). It wasn't my FAVORITE, and because of the slowness of it, I doubt I would reread it very often, but I think it's definitely a book that I will remember.
It was about halfway through the book that it really caught my interest, but it gets better from there. The final chapter is one of my favorite final chapters in terms of the writing, and the character's perspective by the end. It did make me uncomfortable at points how even in the last chapter, Ruth tried to defend a certain character, but I think that's very true to her character, and it's something that's addressed. There's actually a part of the last chapter in which she points out that Ruth means "compassion" and talks about how that suits her, because even after everything, she still pities and kind of loves them. A couple pages later, there's a passage that says "I looked up truth the other day. The word has a lot to do with seeing clearly, and with things that are honest and beautiful. Perhaps I should change my name to Ruth Truth. The combination of pity and compassion with honesty and beauty would be a real knockout," and I think that passage pretty much summed Ruth up perfectly.
My favorite part, besides the last chapter, was Ruth as a narrator. Most of the time, narrators of novels are soooo intelligent they're just tortured by having to live around common folk. Introspective, a little bit wanky, honestly. Ruth was the opposite of that. She's told throughout he novel that she's stupid, she struggles as a student and she misses a lot of things that the reader might thing ~everyone knows. I wouldn't call her stupid by any stretch of the imagination, though. Ruth is very observant, often noticing things about the world around her that others don't, or don't care about, and she has a thirst for learning, even if she doesn't learn as quickly as say, her brother. And one of my favorite things about her is how imaginative she is. I've never read anything quite like some of the mental images Ruth conjures up. Ruth is probably one of the most genuinely human fictional characters I've read in a while.
One thing you might want to be warned of, if you're anything like me, is that there is a very graphically violent scene towards the end that lasts for about 4-6 pages. I was warned about it at the start of the book, and that was good, because I don't handle being ambushed by that kind of thing very well, so if you're anything like me, you might want to watch out for that.
Overall, I liked the book. A lot than I thought I would when I started, or even before I read it (I was mostly irked because a reviewer said it was "Dickensian" which made me roll my eyes because not every book in which a child is mistreated by parents and teachers is ~Dickensian, but the reason for the comparison becomes a bit clearer as you read on). It wasn't my FAVORITE, and because of the slowness of it, I doubt I would reread it very often, but I think it's definitely a book that I will remember.
andrewmfriday's review
3.0
None are so blind as those who do not wish to see. Ruth, the unreliable narrator of this sad tale, lives this maxim throughout her life. "The book of Ruth" is an uncomfortable reminder of how we can be blind when we want something bad enough, even if that thing is an unwise choice. With success, Jane Hamilton places the reader in the mind of a disturbed young woman; somehow Hamilton creates sympathy for the undesirable characters in this novel. Definitely a triumph for the author's first book.
the2bex's review
3.0
This was the first book I read of 2012. I remember liking it ok, but it wasn't my favorite book. I found the quality of writing to be above average. I do not remember why, but I must have liked the way the author wrote. I did have a problem with the pace though. It was a slow moving book. If I really enjoy a book, I can read it in a day or two. This book took me 4 days and I wasn't working those 4 days. And I think it took me so long b/c it was hard to get into due to it being so slow paced. I kept waiting for something to happen (I had been told there was a big twist at the end) so I was waiting and waiting for it. And then it finally happened, so there was one intense chapter and then it was slow again.
I actually liked the characters. They were all very flawed and didn't try to hide it. They were uneducated and often mean, but most of them had their redeeming qualities. I did not like May. She was mean and didn't even attempt to change or see the effect she had on others.
I found the aspect of Christianity really interesting in the book: Ruth doesn't believe in Jesus, but still finds comfort in the Bible.
At the time, I rated it high in insightfulness, I don't really know why, but I think it may have made me put myself in the story and how I would react. How to deal with grace, forgive, consequence. I guess I really contemplated it at the time?
I actually liked the characters. They were all very flawed and didn't try to hide it. They were uneducated and often mean, but most of them had their redeeming qualities. I did not like May. She was mean and didn't even attempt to change or see the effect she had on others.
I found the aspect of Christianity really interesting in the book: Ruth doesn't believe in Jesus, but still finds comfort in the Bible.
At the time, I rated it high in insightfulness, I don't really know why, but I think it may have made me put myself in the story and how I would react. How to deal with grace, forgive, consequence. I guess I really contemplated it at the time?