6 member(s) found this review helpful.
This was an wonderfully written book with a shocking ending. I suggest you reread the first few pages after you finish the book.
5 member(s) found this review helpful.
This book was a very insightful account of a young woman who'd been "different" all her life. Made to feel unworthy and unwanted by her mother--especially when compared to her accomplished younger brother--Ruth embarks on life after high school at a dreary job in a dreary town. Her life is changed in many ways--not all positive-- when she meets, marries, and has a child with Ruby, an immature, impulsive boy in a man's guise. A tragic series of events changes Ruth's life forever and, it seems, puts her on a better path after all.
5 member(s) found this review helpful.
Our narrator tells a simple yet emotionally moving tale of a life filled with quiet desperation and infinite dreams. I was moved enough to write a review, which I never do. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys challenging their perception of what defines a normal family.
4 member(s) found this review helpful.
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.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
This book was horrible in the beginning. It was boring and hard to follow. The middle and ending were better, but still hard to follow. This is the first and probably last book that I will read by Jane Hamilton.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
This was a sad heart-wrenching book..well written. It is amazing that there are people that just don't get it.