A story that shows we can triumph over life's hardships and come out strong if we have love, compassion and hope.

A large helping of literary protein. Unflinching in the face of everyday ugliness and mediocrity.

The protagonist has a rare voice. Her mental world is deep, so deep as to seem stark and barren at times. She is what someone might call a blind prophet. Amazing, beautiful insight, yet a little daft at the same time. She sees things other people can't, but her line of sight is narrow.

Some passages that slayed me:

"Sometimes, I feel that I'm only just ready to start my life. I know what I need to, to live it a hundred times better. As far as I can see, no one is out here waiting for me with a ticket that says, "Try it again." I'll probably really figure out exactly how to be alive right when I'm gasping for my last breath."

"Aunt Sid has a small book of children's proverbs , and I was reading them one day. I turned to the page where it says, "Come riddle me, riddle me, riddle me. None are so blind as they who won't see." Is it possible that even I could see and understand? I thought to myself. The words leapt up to me, a challenge. I began, in the damned black mood I was in, to dare everyone, Ruby, May, the dead and the living, to continue spinning their riddles, and then watch me make sense of their tangles. "Just don't put no time limit on me," I whispered. Then I said out loud, "Come riddle me some more, all of you."

Great book. A page-turner. Ms. Hamilton is very adept with creating her characters and conveying their stories. Highly recommended.

This book is a bit difficult to read, but really so worth it. I liked the characters and the depth Hamilton created in them. Not a light read, but again, so worth it.

Interesting story but very depressing

The book was ok. Not quite sure what all the hype was about or why it was even on Oprah's bookclub or my high school summer reading list (I'm trying to catch up on all the things I was supposed to read back then). It keeps you reading because you want to find out where's she going with her story but at the end I'm still not sure what the point was. I caught glimpses of the concept of perception through Matt's letter to Aunt Sid but there was not conclusion to the "new" information this brought to the table, Matt and Ruth didn't have a moment of reckoning. Are we to assume that our perception of Ruth is wrong since she was the storyteller and she was really more like her mother? With the pivoting moment coming so close to the end of the book you're also not able to see her metamorphiisis, even there was even to be one. Again, just not sure what I was to get out of this story. Oh well, on to the next book!

Overall the book read really slow and there wasn't enough building conflict for me. I was under the impression by the end, all we would have is May and Ruth and Ruby just typical family beefing as nothing was escalating. Many anecdotal scenes and stories throughout that I thought would build and create more obvious tension. I had accepted nothing large was going to happen and thought that would have been a 4 star book. If the small tiffs would have continued, I would thought it decent and just a nod to all families have their drama and different dynamics between individuals and more a reflect piece than anything. But finally on page 290 of 330 we get an absolute atomic bomb. They delay was agonizing and the bomb itself was unexpected. It seemed to come from no where which I understand is meant to be one of the morals but any right minded person could have anticipated it in real time but after so many "cry wolves" I was caught off guard. It read similar to Little Women and was definitely written a while ago as it's not PC but not one I'll be recommending for my fellow readers.

This book is about pwt people: pathetic, witless, and traumatized people.

I was halfway through when the narrator, who remains nameless until the last chapter, marries the man who raped her on their first outting.

Ruth does have a unique way of coping with her situation and she seems to be very intelligent even though her family, and many of the people at her school, think of her as a moron. Then, she marries Reuben and things go downhill for the rest of the tale.

I liked the style, but the story is past tragedy, more like melodrama of poverty, and I didn't find it to be a good read.

i guess this was one of the first Oprah Book Club books. it was ok– very sad.

here is a summary from Google:

The country folk in Hamilton’s first novel lead plain, hard, impoverished lives–on a good day. When things get bad, there’s brutality, bestiality, and no small amount of bloodshed. These are the same raw ingredients used by Flannery O’Connor and Carolyn Chute, but Hamilton does not share their sharp, tragicomic vision. Her rural Illinois characters are blunted by the meanness of their lives. Some escape, others just wait it out until they die. Ruth, the narrator, is caught somewhere in between. Suffering through a thoroughly rotten childhood–she’s abandoned by her father Elmer, verbally lacerated by her mother May, and constantly compared, unfavorably, to her prodigy brother Matthew–she finds comfort in carrying on a secret correspondence with her beautiful Aunt Sid, who believes in her. Later, while employed as a helper to a blind neighbor, Ruth gets hooked on good books while listening to recordings of the classics, and things bode well–she’s going places. But, somehow, it never happens. Ruth goes to work at the dry cleaners, along with May. She takes up bowling. And then she marries Ruby, a sweet, confused former gas-station attendant who likes to spend his days smoking dope and adoring her. They live with acid-tongued May for a few long, hard winters and, finally, inevitably, violence erupts, shattering Ruth’s life. Hamilton’s writing is strong and clear, even if her intentions are a trifle obscure. She gives Ruth plenty of spark but then lets her fizzle, surprisingly, before our eyes. Whatever the message is, it’s not bright with hope. Still, this is an affecting first novel, dark and knowing.

I really didn't expect the story to end the way it did and was happily surprised with the development of the characters at the end AND with the ending itself. I'm sort of ambivalent about recommending the book because the first 95% is a little hard to believe with one-dimensional characters, but, all the same, oddly compelling to read.

The diffrences what Ruth says and how people infer is she doesn't see what's wrong with the family EX: ruby, may.Halmiliton achives that by telling detail descriptions of the characters then discribing how Ruth feels about them.
It think Ruth's naivet'e is not extraoridinary it's relatable to me and probally many others. The lack of understanding the people in her life is far from frustrating but common as we all don't clearly see the people in our life, her "innocence" does not define her as sympethetic.
May is mean and a "monstrous" character but very much human because her husband died and she just settled, she was not happy with her choice and took it out the wrong way. May and Ruth were similar as in they both just settled.
Ruth is in-between May and Ruby trying to please her mother and her husband who do not get along. Her son being born only makes matters worse because of the contral issues with May.
Daisy's friendship is important to Ruth because I believe she looks up to her and her life, her character didn't show up as much.
I think building the climax made it even more shocking.
Ruth's additude toward Ruby is not justified in the end, after all that, she still cares what happens. Love is REALLY blind.

An oldie but a really great book.