Product Description

"I learned slowly, that if you don't look at the world with perfect vision, you 're bound to get yourself cooked "

Having come within an inch of her life, Ruth Dahl is determined to take a good look at it -- to figure out whether, in fact, she's to blame for the mess.

Pegged the loser in a small-town family that doesn't have much going for it in the first place, Ruth grows up in the shadow of her brilliant brother, trying to hold her own in a world of poverty and hard edges. Matt's brain is his ticket out of Honey Creek. Ruth, without options, cleaves instead to her tough, half-crazy mother, May, and eventually to Ruby, the sweet but slightly deranged young man she loves, marries, and supports. When the precarious household erupts in violence, Ruth is the only one who can piece their story together -- and she gets at the truth in a manner at once ferocious, hilarious, and heartbreaking.

In this powerful, incandescent novel, Jane Hamilton has worked a miracle: she has given voice to a young woman you have passed on the street a thousand times. Perhaps you have never noticed her, hut the next time you see her, you will know who she is.

Passionate in her commitment to life, Ruth is a stunning testament to the human capacity for mercy, compassion, and love. THE BOOK OF RUTH is a magnificent audio experience.

Copyright © 1997 by Jane Hamilton

Performance copyright 1997 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #765778 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 334 pages

Amazon.com
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 Publishers Weekly
"In her first novel, Hamilton takes on a challenge too large for her talents," said PW of this tale about a Midwestern woman who is loyal to her wounded and wounding family. "Hamilton evokes Ruth's character marvelously, but others as seen by her are incompletely rendered."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
When a Wall Street Journal writer observed that "simple tales of life and sorrow in the heartland are red hot," he wasn't writing about Hamilton's (A Map of the World, Audio Reviews, LJ 7/95) novel, but he might as well have been. Ruth, an Illinois farm girl, gives a first-person account of her life in an effort to make sense of what has happened to her and her tragedy-prone family. The language of this novel, by turns naturalistic, romantic, and occasionally humorous, has a freshness and originality of expression, and Mare Winningham's vital and poignant reading makes Ruth come alive. Recommended for public libraries.?Jacqueline Seewald, Red Bank Regional H.S. Lib., N.J.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A faint gleam of hope in a bleak landscape
What ever happened to that odd, quiet girl in your high school class? Ruth is that invisible girl, poor and proud, but curious, solid, and worth knowing all the same. She has a talent for bowling, a talent for loving, a gift for friendship, and a longing for understanding and truth. Her narrative looks at her bleak life unsparingly, tries to make sense of her suffering, and doesn't dodge her own culpability. We listen as she tries to make sense of tragedy, tries to understand the glib promises of faith, and tries to learn to be the mother her child needs. We count our blessings in comparison, but with a shudder, realize that "there but for grace, go I."

Soul riveting
A sad story about a girl woman who suffers low self esteem derived from a long suffering childhood of verbal sometimes physical abuse at the hand of her well meaning mother. She is the strong one (only she doesn't know it) who shows unconditional love for a pathetic man whom she only sees the good in when no one else can. Sometimes we all get trapped in these type situations.

Intimate portrayal of small town life
The Book of Ruth does a great job of examining family dynamics and everyday life in a small rural town. The relationships with the characters were realistic and the internal conflict of the heroine was poignant.