Bastard Out of Carolina

Bastard Out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison (1992)

Allison’s debut novel follows the Boatwright family, a group of rural dwelling ne’er-do-wells. The protagonist of the story is Ruth Anne—nicknamed Bone by an uncle—who is the bastard child of Anney, a diner waitress.

Allison’s characters work hard and live hard. The men of the Boatwright clan work dirty jobs in mills and factories by day. By night, they drink, fight, and chase women. Bone’s mother later meets Glen, a coworker and friend of the girl’s uncle Earle. After making her suitor wait for a time, Anney marries Glen.

Bone’s relationship with her stepfather is troubled almost from the start. Daddy Glen begins sexually abusing Bone shortly before his child Anney is to be born. When the mother suffers a miscarriage, an already tenuous situation only gets worse.

Glen’s temper gets him into trouble again and again as he loses jobs following violent altercations in the workplace. The family is forced to move many times and at home, Glen’s abuse of Bone escalates. While Anney doesn’t know about the sexual abuse, she blames the physical abuse of her daughter on Bone herself. Anney leaves Glen a number of times but always comes back, and the cycle begins anew.

Allison’s coming of age story has an authenticity that grabs hold of the reader early on and doesn’t let go until the very end. I was finally glad to read for myself what all of the talk was about. I highly recommend this book to adult readers.