Bastard out of Carolina - Dorothy Allison
“The South” summons a plethora of dualities: sweet tea and segregation; warm weather and weary hands; pleasant people and abject, unapologetic poverty. Contained in the pages of Bastard Out of Carolina are these distinctly though not uniquely southern conflicts and more, rendered strikingly brilliant through the author’s keen yet soft prose. Bone, the narrator of this tale, is a little girl grown up too fast. It is through her intuitive eyes that we watch her mom and step-fathers, aunts, uncles and cousins fight for their lives day in and day out in a world where, to everyone else in their town, they are “trash.” Bone emerges as brave, resourceful, and willing to battle demons both concrete and intangible to establish her integrity.