Based on a true story in West Virginia in teh 1920's and '30's.
It's raw, blunt and keeps you riveted. Part of it are gross, but it's life and it's still a good book. ( )

This was a great book. The author calls it both a novel and a memoir; I can't believe that it is a true and exact telling of his life, but what memoir really is? What I can say is that the writing is vivid and alive with the characters in and around Curtiss Farm, the young narrator's home. This author was a true storyteller which made this a hard book to put down. ( )

#29, 2004

This book calls itself "A novel based on a true story of the Gothic south." This intrigues me, as I always wonder how much of it really happened, and what bits the author made up. In any case, it was a great book - an interesting story of a family in West Virginia during the Depression. Most of the story is told from the perspective of a seven-year-old boy, who is not always the nicest person, although that didn't really hit me until almost the end of the book. And the last page packed a massive punch that had me in tears. Wow. I enjoyed this book very much. ( )