Fabulous Fiction Firsts #316

Wed, 02/29/2012 - 2:54pm by muffy

Debut novelist Tupelo Hassman's Girlchild * will not fail to elicit strong emotions in the reader. You will feel pain, rage, sadness, fear, and despair but it is the small measures of joy, love, and indestructible sense of optimism that will bear you through. In the meantime, you will fall in love with our young narrator, the "girlchild" Rory Dawn - "Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified".

Calle de las Flores, a trailer park of dilapidated double-wides and single-wides at the outskirts of Reno is home to three generations of Hendrixes. Grandma Shirley Rose had 4 babies before she turned 21. Mama, a hard-luck bartender didn't fare much better. The men are mostly absent. The ones that drift in and out are likely predators. Rory Dawn had been told that she is sure to follow the road to whoredom, but she is determined to prove the county and her own family wrong.

From diary entries, social workers' reports, half-recalled memories, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and her grandmother's letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world even as she searches for the way out of it. Her only compass - a well-used copy of the Girl Scouts Handbook that dispenses surreal advice like: The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost.

"A heart-stopping and original debut". Beautifully written, you will find yourself lingering to admire the powerful language, keen insight and clever page-layouts. Not an easy book to read but one you are not likely to forget. Readalike to National Book Award winner Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.

* = starred review