BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA by Dorothy Allison.
In this powerful book of suffering, strength, and grace, family love provides all of the above.
The most powerful aspect of Allison’s book for me is her ability to remain loyal to truth, and Bone’s ability to remain loyal to a family ripped through with flaws, and that family’s ability, finally, to remain loyal to Bone and back her with all their strength, flaws and all.
As a candidate for my masters degree in English literature at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in the early 1970s, I co-edited the literary journal there, “Sou’Wester.” One of my poems that appeared there (juried of course by my co-editor) was “Under Mama’s Yew Tree.” Somehow it came to William Stafford’s attention across the country…
I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. This is the first stanza of one of my favorite poems “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston Hughes (from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes,…
Here’s a follow-on to my March 22, 2007 post “The Secret: Packaged In America.” Burying the Secret, by Carol Rutter Within the framework of responding to Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret,” Carol Rutter’s “Burying the Secret” weaves autobiography, expose, searching cultural commentary, and an analytical compendium of helpful books on important psychological and spiritual issues. If…
It was a long Harry Potter Weekend, even out here in the Midwest. On Friday I read about the pirating of “Deathly Halllows” and Scholastic’s countermeasures in the Wall Street Journal as I sat down for a “Fish in a Boat” lunch at a bohemian cafe near the City Museum where I’d gone to watch…
My guest on Riehlife today is Junot Diaz whom I was lucky enough to hear speak at my local library branch in the Central West End in St. Louis before he went to Rome for a year to write. I found him funny, refreshing, and frank. Here are some of his thoughts on his work,…
Blackberries “en bushed” Sign of the times: Google “blackberry” and what comes up is a mechanical device, not a fruit. To find the fruit on Google, you must type in “blackberry fruit.” Vis: more people have likely held Blackberry devices in their hands these days than have gone berrying and experienced the pleasures Kinnell describes…