I skipped through 10 pages towards the end because the most dreary boring stuff was happening and then all of a sudden everything gets wild and I had trouble sleeping afterwards because it was so sad.

Recommend !

The opening lines of Ruth's story are the perfect preamble: "What it begins with, I know finally, is the kernel of meanness in people's hearts." Ruth, in her hardscrabble upbringing in rural Honey Creek, IL, spends the years we spend with her reaching out for love and acceptance, all too often encountering that festering kernel. Hamilton gives Ruth such a strong voice and untapped intelligence, that I couldn't help but follow her through simple joys and myriad sorrows, always admiring her resilience and essential goodness.

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?

Very easy to fall headlong into this book, astonished and delighted that someone would take the time and care to get inside the head and heart of someone like Ruth and dwell there long enough to bring her to life in such a richly believable, meaningful way. It all resonates with so much recognizable, pure truth it made my toes curl. It also powerfully stoked my empathy by reminding me, painfully, that we so seldom KNOW what courses through the veins of another human soul.

I really like that this was written differently than a lot of books.

Unconvincing, relentlessly annoying characters and over-the-top situations. The author needs to spend some time in blue-collar bars. Her subject matter is clearly alien to her.

What the hell was that awards committee thinking? Oh, wait; they've probably spent as much time around salt-of-the-earth folks as Jane Hamilton has.

A family story of dysfunction, awakening, the possibility of change. Like Demon Copperhead, but less graphic, less hopeless, and still so well constructed.

I made it 21 pages in before deciding I don't care what happens to this child or her small town/farm/corner of hell. I can't deal with 300 more pages of pretentious prose that leads nowhere.

DNFed on page 21.

This book is beautifully written, but disturbing all the way through. Although Ruth has flashes of insight into her plight, she is seduced by the joys of being a mother and the fear of change and loneliness into staying in this hopeless relationship with her husband and her mother. The ultimate tragedy can be seen coming and it made it difficult to keep reading.

What a gradual build up to a horrifying reality. I saw it coming in so many passages, but didn't want to really see it, just like Ruth.

A beautifully written American epic. Raw, honest, naive and witty like Ruth herself., who has a weird sense of humor. At times it is a hard read, but Hamilton’s story telling never loses hope if you know to read between the lines.

The most unique thing about The Book of Ruth is that the entire book is written in Ruth's voice. You have a tyranical mother raising her children in poverty and she bascally worships her very smart son, and punishes her daughter for all the tragic things that happened in her own life, resulting in the emotional and social retardation of Ruth. The outcome is horrific and shocking, when I finised the book I wasn't ready to let Ruth go, and wondered how she was going to carry on without me in her corner.