Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

So, I also started (and finished) Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell. This one’s about Ree Dolly, a tough 16-year old girl living a life of poverty in the Ozarks with her two younger brothers’ and her mentally unstable mother. She’s dropped out of school in order to raise her brothers in her father's absence and her mother's mental illness. Her father is often absent due either to jail sentences (he’s a meth cooker) or because he’s simply absent and living the life of a drug dealing loser. Recently, however, Ree’s father has been arrested and stupidly put his land and house up as collateral then skipped bail. Ree has a week to find her father and bring him back dead or alive in order to keep the family from becoming homeless. Sounds good (it was good) and I’ll let you know in my next post.

Update:  Okay, so Winter’s Bone: I really, really liked this book and read it in about a day and a half (a really quick read). The only redeeming character really, is Ree Dolly. At the same time, however, I know she’s a person who in real life would kick my ass (if she ever came across me in, say, her own stomping grounds, the Ozarks). She’s such a tough, no-nonsense person and fiercely loyal to her brothers and mother. She doesn’t strive for much in her life (for a while she toys with the idea of joining the army but the reader knows that without a high school diploma, this is just wishful thinking), just a place to call home and to keep the poverty of life from taking everything away. The language that Woodrell uses in his storytelling can only come from someone well-versed in the talk (he is from the Ozarks) and as an “educated” woman, it’s hard to grasp such a life. I absolutely recommend this book but prepare yourself for a different kind of “happy ending”.