The Book of Ruth - Hardcover

Hamilton, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395866502 ISBN 13: 9780395866504

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1996

Synopsis

The black sheep of her troubled family, Ruth struggles to keep the peace between her mother, her young son, and her slightly off-the-wall husband and to put the pieces back together when a heated situation boils over

About this title

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0395866502
• ISBN 13: 9780395866504
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328