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Search - The Book of Ruth
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The Book of Ruth Author: |
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Book Information
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Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover, Audio Cassette (Abridged), Audio Cassette, Hardcover
Book Description:
Winner of the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel, this exquisite book confronts real-life issues of alienation and violence from which the author creates a stunning testament to the human capacity for mercy, compassion and love. A passionate coming-of-age story of an uneducated small-town girl with far more romance in her soul than she can ever hope to express in her life.
"I learned slowly, that if you don't look at the world with perfect vision, you're bound to get yourself cooked." Having come within an inch of her life, Ruth Dahl is determined to take a good look at it -- to figure out whether, in fact, she's to blame for the mess. Pegged the loser in a small-town family that doesn't have much going for it in the first place, Ruth grows up in the shadow of her brilliant brother, trying to hold her own in a world of poverty and hard edges.
Matt's brain is his ticket out of Honey Creek. Ruth, without options, cleaves instead to her tough, half-crazy mother, May, and eventually to Ruby, the sweet but slightly deranged young man she loves, marries, and supports. When the precarious household erupts in violence, Ruth is the only one who can piece their story together -- and she gets at the truth in a manner at once ferocious, hilarious, and heartbreaking.
In this powerful, incandescent novel, Jane Hamilton has worked a miracle: she has given voice to a young woman you have passed on the street a thousand times. Perhaps you have never noticed her, but the next time you see her, you will know who she is.
"I learned slowly, that if you don't look at the world with perfect vision, you're bound to get yourself cooked." Having come within an inch of her life, Ruth Dahl is determined to take a good look at it -- to figure out whether, in fact, she's to blame for the mess. Pegged the loser in a small-town family that doesn't have much going for it in the first place, Ruth grows up in the shadow of her brilliant brother, trying to hold her own in a world of poverty and hard edges.
Matt's brain is his ticket out of Honey Creek. Ruth, without options, cleaves instead to her tough, half-crazy mother, May, and eventually to Ruby, the sweet but slightly deranged young man she loves, marries, and supports. When the precarious household erupts in violence, Ruth is the only one who can piece their story together -- and she gets at the truth in a manner at once ferocious, hilarious, and heartbreaking.
In this powerful, incandescent novel, Jane Hamilton has worked a miracle: she has given voice to a young woman you have passed on the street a thousand times. Perhaps you have never noticed her, but the next time you see her, you will know who she is.
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Top Member Book Reviews
Jean F. (
5 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.
4 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.
4 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.
Andy R. (
3 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.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Well written but depressing. From the back cover:
- "A sly and wistful, if harrowing, human comedy. Hamilton is a new and original voice in fiction and one well worth listening to."
Boston Sunday Globe
- "Ms. Hamilton gives Ruth a humble dignity and allows her hope - but it's not a heavenly hope. It's a common one, caked with mud and held with gritted teeth. And it's probably the only one that's worth reading about." New York Times Book Review
- "Hamilton's story builds to a shocking crescendo. Her small-town characters are as appealingly offbeat and brushed with grace as any found in Alice Hoffman's or Anne Tyler's novels." Glamour
- "Jame Hamilton's novel is authentically Dickensian...The real achivement of this first novel is not so much the blackness as the suggestion of resilience. At the end, Ruth begins to put together her shattered body, pirit and life. Her words are awkward, as they have been all along, but suddenly and unexpectedly they shine." Los Angeles Times
- "A disturbing and beautiful book." Hilma Wolitzer
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Very good story about recovery and hope.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Author Jane Hamilton leads us through the arid life of Ruth Grey, who extracts what small pleasures and graces she can from a tiny Illinois town and the broken people who inhabit it. Ruth's prime tormentor is her mother May, whose husband died in World War II and took her future with him. More poor familial luck has given Ruth a brother who is a math prodigy; Matt sucks up any stray attention like a black hole. Ruth is left to survive on her own resources, which are meager. She struggles along, subsisting on crumbs of affection meted out by her Aunt Sid and, later, her screwed-up husband Ruby. Hamilton has perfect pitch. So perfect that you wince with pain for confused but fundamentally good Ruth as she walks a dead-end path.
Bonnie (
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Great read...a peek inside the world of the poor,and possibly mildly retarded Ruth. Interesting look at her longings for a better life yet also her acceptance of the life she had. The author really lets you look through Ruths eyes as she grows up with a critical, distant mother.Your heart will ache for a better life for poor Ruth, and it will swell with hope from her aunt that truly cares. Definitely worth reading.
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Please Rate these Book Reviews
Wrenching story about the sad life of Ruth, but I found that I couldn't put it down.
This book started off slowly for me. I was also uncomfortable with the characters' life situation. The characters and their lives are unpleasant but they are beautifully written. The book remindes me of how often we write people off as ignorant, ugly, unsalvageable--when what separates us from them is often an accident of birth. I felt hopeful for Ruth at the end and the possibility that her sons will escape her fate. A must read, if for no other reason than to get in touch with your own prejudices.
Mary W. I love Jane Hamilton and I absolutely loved this book. Richly developed characters & very hard to put down. AND there's a surprise ending! I'm having a hard time letting it go so if you take it please love it as much as I did.
Ruth was one of the best, made me cry and laugh at just about the same time. I found my self wishing for the best for her as if I knew her.
A great book!
:)Zuphoto
This was a very strange book. Although the story teller is gifted in telling the details of the story and making you feel that you are there with the main characters, you have this ominous feeling that something bad will happen. You hope that the life of the main character will change for the best. I was hooked to the story but I did not care for the ending, without this being a spoiler. Well written but sad.
Christine B. (Excellent...Jane Hamilton has a unique way of story telling.
What a beautiful, sad, funny book. All the right stuff. Jane Hamilton does it best in this epic. You will worry about the characters even after you turn the last page.
Jane Hamilton uses the English language the way a painter uses a canvas. Great reading!
Read All Book Reviews of "The Book of Ruth"
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