The Book of Ruth - Hardcover

Hamilton, Jane

3.86

67,594 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786210516 ISBN 13: 9780786210510

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 1997

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General FictionLarge Print EditionMs. Hamilton gives Ruth a humble dignity and allows her hope but its not a heavenly hope. Its a common one caked with mud and held with gritted teeth . . . probably the only hope worth reading about. New York Times* A New York Times Bestseller* Dec. 96 Selection of Oprahs Book ClubWinner of the Pen/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award and acclaimed by Oprah Winfrey, The Book of Ruth is the story of a young girl who grows up in poverty and in the shadow of her brilliant brother. With few options of her own, Ruth clings to her semi-crazy mother and marries and supports one of Honey Creeks losers. When the precarious household erupts in violence, Ruth is the only one who can piece the story together and she gets at the truth in a manner at once ferocious, hilarious, and heartbreaking.

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Review:

Oprah Book Club� Selection, November 1996: 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.

From the Publisher:

"An extraordinary story of a family's disintegration... Will be compared to Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres. Astonishingly vivid and moving." -- People.

An enthralling tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying ways our lives" -- Entertainment Weekly.

Unforgettably, beat by beat, Hamilton maps the best and worst of the human heart and all the mysterious, uncharted country in between." -- Kirkus Reviews.

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