Book 11 - The Book of Ruth

Originally posted 01-29-07! Read sometime within the months of December and January!

Title: The Book of Ruth
Author: Jane Hamilton
Pages: 328
Grade: B-

Summary: (The Oprah speaks…)
The Book of Ruth is a virtuoso performance and that's precisely why it can be excruciating to read. 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. The book ends with the prospect of redemption, thank goodness--but the tale is nevertheless much more bitter than sweet.

My thoughts: I didn’t really like this book…but I didn’t not like this book. The writing style didn’t exactly appeal to me. I never really felt I had a complete grasp of the time frame of this novel. And it focused for a long time on Ruth’s younger life…yet you never got a good look at her younger life. I connected with the story more once she became the adult who had been narrating from the beginning. I had a firmer grasp of almost all aspects of the story then. But it’s so very depressing. I don’t really feel a chance for redemption…and so much of her life was wasted by the non-interference of others. While in real life that is often how it goes, in this story it just made me all the more upset. Overall final thoughts…It was alright, just not what I expected.