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Girlchild
Rory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn’t got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she’s checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Disposal of Outgrown Uniforms; The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost) for tips to get off the Calle: that is, Calle de los Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop.
Rory’s been told she is “third generation in a line of apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom.” But she’s determined to prove the County and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother’s habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social worker’s reports, half-recalled memories, story problems, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and her grandmother’s letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world while she searches for the way out of it. Girlchild is a heart-stopping and original debut.
Rory’s been told she is “third generation in a line of apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom.” But she’s determined to prove the County and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother’s habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social worker’s reports, half-recalled memories, story problems, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and her grandmother’s letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world while she searches for the way out of it. Girlchild is a heart-stopping and original debut.
275 pages, Hardcover
First published February 14, 2012
166 people are currently reading
8257 people want to read
About the author
Tupelo Hassman
6 books165 followersTupelo Hassman's first novel, girlchild, was published in 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, Paper Street Press, The Portland Review Literary Journal, Tantalum, We Still Like, ZYZZYVA, and by 100WordStory.org, FiveChapters.com, and Invisible City Audio Tours. More is forthcoming from The Arroyo Review Literary Journal, Harper's Bazaar, and This Land. Tupelo collected footage of girlchild's book tour for a short documentary, Hardbound: A Novel's Life on the Road, and the jury is still out on whether or not this was a terrible idea.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,060 reviews
October 9, 2012
I kept telling everyone I liked this book. And, then I realized that it took me over two months to read it--which it certainly shouldn't have, given its relatively unassuming length and short chapters. I think that I wanted to like this book-- I ALMOST liked this book.
The prose-poem style made it an interesting read, but I think that sometimes that same style also got in the way. The protagonist is likable enough, and the world that Hassman has created is believable. You can see the Calle in towns throughout America-- it could be in your city.
The book is poignant--at times--and gritty at others. Hassman does a good job of combining the two, but sometimes it feels lacking, perhaps because of the seemingly non-sensical additions (mostly within the realm of prose-poem like additions). Overall, it's a good read. With interesting, flawed characters, that you root for (and sometimes hate) all at once. It's a commentary on the cyclical nature often experienced by those in poverty, and the drastic ways out that everyone tries to find.
I enjoyed it-- it is not an addition to my favorites, nor will I revisit it to revel in it. For a first attempt, it is bold and relatively solid.
The prose-poem style made it an interesting read, but I think that sometimes that same style also got in the way. The protagonist is likable enough, and the world that Hassman has created is believable. You can see the Calle in towns throughout America-- it could be in your city.
The book is poignant--at times--and gritty at others. Hassman does a good job of combining the two, but sometimes it feels lacking, perhaps because of the seemingly non-sensical additions (mostly within the realm of prose-poem like additions). Overall, it's a good read. With interesting, flawed characters, that you root for (and sometimes hate) all at once. It's a commentary on the cyclical nature often experienced by those in poverty, and the drastic ways out that everyone tries to find.
I enjoyed it-- it is not an addition to my favorites, nor will I revisit it to revel in it. For a first attempt, it is bold and relatively solid.
April 15, 2017
I'm still kinda unsure what to rate this but I'll just give it four stars for now.I think the story and the message is good and the author successfully managed to capture the gritty reality of certain areas in America or the lives of certain individuals.However, despite the grittiness Hassman still managed to reveal the beauty behind this reality and how hard these people work to better their environment and make something better for themselves.Also,I liked how the stereotype of people in trailer parks are all 'dumb and wasters' was torn down through the character of Rory Dawn and her mother.Rory Dawn is presumed to be dumb because of her background but is actually incredibly smart and her mother also breaks the stereotype as despite her learning disability she still pushes through it and enjoys reading.She also tries to make a better life for herself and her daughter while teaching her how to avoid the mistakes she made.The strength in both characters despite what they both endured was refreshing to find.
An unusual narrative is used which I can't really explain but at times it work but other times it didn't.This unusual narrative made the story confusing at times and took away from scenes because they didn't link.Also, there were a few pages of just black lines,I got the message but it still seemed pointless.
An unusual narrative is used which I can't really explain but at times it work but other times it didn't.This unusual narrative made the story confusing at times and took away from scenes because they didn't link.Also, there were a few pages of just black lines,I got the message but it still seemed pointless.
July 9, 2015
So I read the blurb for Girlchild - the one that says Tupelo Hassman's debut 'crafts a devastating collage' of her protagonist's world - but I didn't expect the book to literally feel like a collage of only loosely interconnected scenes, which is essentially what it is. The narrative flips back and forth through time as it recounts the life of Rory Dawn Hendrix and her working-class family, stuck in a trailer park on the outskirts of Reno. Touching on the cycle of abuse and failure the characters are trapped in, the narrative skirts a lot of subjects but never really gets to the heart of any of them. There's too much hyperbole and theorising, not enough plot, and this doesn't feel at all believable as the voice of a trailer-park teenager. I cared about Rory, but not as much as I should/could have done, and I found Hassman's prose beguiling, but lacking in emotional impact and occasionally a bit confusing. This could have been a really meaningful, significant story but it felt curiously inconsequential.
August 10, 2012
From
The cover caught my eye. A trailer that looks like it would feel at home in my trailer park but set in the desserts of Nevada.
I started reading and it knocked me over to read a story that followed my own childhood eerily close. It didn't hide how common child sexual abuse is, but it didn't go into painful detail either. I think it was the perfect balance on such a difficult topic for so many (too many) women.
This story is not an easy read. It deals with those living in poverty for generations as their own counter-culture. I thought it was brilliant because so much of it range true. Especially how anyone from the government (including or and especially police) is not to be trusted.
How very hard people work just to get by. During a time when the stereotype of the welfare abusers is running rampant, we see that is stupid because even with welfare, life is hard and lean.
I thought this was such a sad read, and so well written I literally couldn't put it down. It's not going to be for everyone. The story is written almost like a diary, with the time-frame and memories jumping all over the place without a lot of hints about where you are currently at in Rory Dawn's life. But I absolutely loved it, the story was completely captivating.
The cover caught my eye. A trailer that looks like it would feel at home in my trailer park but set in the desserts of Nevada.
I started reading and it knocked me over to read a story that followed my own childhood eerily close. It didn't hide how common child sexual abuse is, but it didn't go into painful detail either. I think it was the perfect balance on such a difficult topic for so many (too many) women.
This story is not an easy read. It deals with those living in poverty for generations as their own counter-culture. I thought it was brilliant because so much of it range true. Especially how anyone from the government (including or and especially police) is not to be trusted.
How very hard people work just to get by. During a time when the stereotype of the welfare abusers is running rampant, we see that is stupid because even with welfare, life is hard and lean.
I thought this was such a sad read, and so well written I literally couldn't put it down. It's not going to be for everyone. The story is written almost like a diary, with the time-frame and memories jumping all over the place without a lot of hints about where you are currently at in Rory Dawn's life. But I absolutely loved it, the story was completely captivating.
March 21, 2012
True story: my first job out of college was working as a juvenile probation officer. One of my clients was 13 years old. She lived in a trailer park. She was molested by several of the men there. She had three older brothers. During the year that I knew her, her mother died, one of her brothers was also placed on probation, and another brother was assigned to a long-term stay at a regional youth detention center. When I visited her in her trailer, roaches -- of all sizes -- would climb my clothes and crawl into my purse. I do not know what became of this young lady. Her IQ was almost qualified her as mentally disabled. Her mother called me shortly before she died, crying because she had no money for Christmas gifts for her family.
I kept looking for this girl in girlchild -- which tells a very similar story, but I couldn't find her. The conditions and life the child I knew faced were horrifying, grimmer than anything I've ever experienced. Girlchild's collage-like writing style (a math problem here, a social worker's report there, excerpts from the Girl Scout handbook, some personal narrative, a letter) made for a very choppy read. (Note that I am someone who loves Ali Smith, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Kathryn Davis' Versailles -- all with similarly creative approaches.) Time and time again I found myself going back and rereading sentences and trying to figure out what happened.
But maybe that's the point. When you live in a trailer park, when you're molested, when your future often seems hopeless -- maybe your story is a patchworked jumble of disorganized thoughts and moments.
This was a very hard read, and it was definitely influenced by the personal bias I brought to the story. Hassman's portrayal of trailer park life is very accurate. Perhaps it's the glimmer of hope she offers that I had a harder problem reconciling personally.
I kept looking for this girl in girlchild -- which tells a very similar story, but I couldn't find her. The conditions and life the child I knew faced were horrifying, grimmer than anything I've ever experienced. Girlchild's collage-like writing style (a math problem here, a social worker's report there, excerpts from the Girl Scout handbook, some personal narrative, a letter) made for a very choppy read. (Note that I am someone who loves Ali Smith, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Kathryn Davis' Versailles -- all with similarly creative approaches.) Time and time again I found myself going back and rereading sentences and trying to figure out what happened.
But maybe that's the point. When you live in a trailer park, when you're molested, when your future often seems hopeless -- maybe your story is a patchworked jumble of disorganized thoughts and moments.
This was a very hard read, and it was definitely influenced by the personal bias I brought to the story. Hassman's portrayal of trailer park life is very accurate. Perhaps it's the glimmer of hope she offers that I had a harder problem reconciling personally.
March 1, 2018
A fine lettura mi sento come se mi avessero shakerato il cuore in un negroni.
Per Rory, per sua madre, per sua nonna, e per tutte le donne che resistono:
Per Rory, per sua madre, per sua nonna, e per tutte le donne che resistono:
May 21, 2021
American Dream
A parlare è Rory Dawn, di anni dieci (ma le età del suo racconto sono differenti) e la sua famiglia sono gli Hendrix di Santa Cruz, ma anche di Sacramento, ma anche di altri luoghi della California, una famiglia fatta di donne sole con tre, quattro o cinque figli avuti da padri diversi a partire dall’adolescenza - quindici, sedici, diciassette anni - da uomini che perlopiù sono finiti in galera o che le tradivano o tradivano con loro altre donne con tre o quattro figli, etc.
Donne con i denti cariati, donne che vivono di sussidi e lavori occasionali, che a un certo punto, per liberarsi o per fuggire da quegli uomini, negli anni Ottanta se ne sono andate a Reno, nel Nevada, a vivere nella Calle del Las Flores: la tua casa nel nuovo West, come citava la vecchia insegna piena di ambizioni, spezzata dal freddo al primo inverno insieme al sogno di costruire una piccola città modello nella “Più Grande Piccola Città del Mondo”: Reno, appunto, con la sua periferia e le sue case mobili, “i trailer park”, dove in due case mobili, le altisonanti, almeno nei nomi, Nobility e Regal, vivono Rory Dawn e la sua bella e inaffidabile mamma Joanna, che fa la barista al Truck Stop, e la nonna Shirley Rose, che per R.D. è punto di riferimento per i suoi sogni, le sue scoperte, i suoi segreti.
«Mamma si nascondeva sempre la bocca quando rideva. E anche quando parlava con troppa allegria e dilatava quei muscoli felici, scoprendo troppo i denti. Ancora oggi io sono in grado di riconoscere una persona del mio quartiere dai denti. O dal fatto che non ne ha. E quando mi capita di riconoscerle, queste persone le chiamo «famiglia». So subito per esempio che posso affidargli il cane, ma non le chiavi della macchina, e so che non posso essere sicura che ricordino l’ora esatta in cui devono tornare a prendere i figli. So che se cominciamo a litigare e a un certo punto arriva la Madama, diremo di comune accordo «Non si preoccupi agente, è tutto sotto controllo.»
E poi c’è la famiglia acquisita, quella della Calle, fatta di "Gelataio", “Proprietario del ferramenta” e di righe nere sulle pagine che cancellano fatti che non possono essere né descritti né raccontati, della bibliotecaria e dei concorsi scolastici, dell’amica Viv e di un manuale delle “girl scout” che non si sa bene come sia finito nelle sue mani e dal quale cerca di cogliere gli insegnamenti per trovare la stella polare da seguire che la porti sulla giusta strada: che poi, alla fine, come spesso ci troviamo a scoprire in questi romanzi che raccontano di povertà assolute e di assenza di opportunità, è sempre quella dell’istruzione, l’unica che può offrire la possibilità di emergere, di staccarsi, di andarsene.
«Lo schema di sussistenza che vige nella Calle è comunemente conosciuto come «vivere in attesa del prossimo assegno». L’assegno - quello per il sussidio di disoccupazione, quello di invalidità, gli assegni dei salari e i sempre più rari assegni per gli alimenti dei figli - viene speso ancora prima di essere incassato. Questi assegni sono integrati da una serie di collette alimentari o alimenti forniti dallo Stato, come il burro d arachidi e alcuni tipi di formaggio. Le famiglie che desiderano cibi freschi ma che non se li possono permettere mangiano piccole porzioni di sformato in offerta a diciannove centesimi l’una, in attesa di giorni migliori. Il gioco d’azzardo è importante per gli abitanti della Calle, sia durante che dopo i loro turni nei vari casinò della città, e si esplica in varie forme: biglietti della lotteria, black-jack e guida in stato di ebbrezza.»
Perché è essenzialmente una storia di povertà e candore, quella che Tupelo Hassman (vissuta a Reno dai quattro ai dodici anni) racconta, di fantasmi e di speranze vissute al ticchettio delle slot machine e di roulotte, che ogni giorno che passa, a dispetto della loro possibilità di muoversi, sono sempre più immobili, una storia di resistenza e di abusi che fra pensieri, lettere e resoconti di assistenti sociali - che solo in superficie si preoccupano del benessere dei minori e delle possibilità di sopravvivenza delle famiglie -, descrive uno spaccato sociale desolante, racconta del fallimento del welfare, evidenzia l’assenza di opportunità offerta ai figli dei poveri, di fatto condannandoli a ripetere gli stessi errori, a vivere delle stesse privazioni.
«Un romanzo durissimo, privo di compiacimento, con una cifra letteraria alta, una scrittura capace di alternare al duro realismo di una situazione sociale degradata il lirismo della voce di una ragazzina innocente e visionaria, la cui breve felicità consiste in quelle due parole, bambina mia, che ogni tanto, quando è sobria, la madre le rivolge.», come leggo in questa bella recensione, ma anche un romanzo in cui la tenerezza del legame fra questa bambina, la ragazzina del titolo originale, e le due donne della sua vita, è di quelli capaci di scardinare convinzioni e convenzioni su cosa sia veramente “casa”, su cosa significhi veramente “famiglia”».
Dopo e (ancora in lettura), un romanzo che descrive un’altra realtà abitativa a noi parzialmente sconosciuta: quella delle tante persone che vivono in case mobili, roulotte e camper nei , vere città di lamiera, vere città di case senza fondamenta, le prime ad essere aggredite e rase al suolo in caso di tornado.
«Fare la madre non è il punto forte di questa famiglia. Ne sono una prova i posti vuoti a tavola. Mamma ha quattro sorelle con cui non vuole parlare, un fratello di cui non vuole parlare, e io ho quattro fratelli grandi che si fanno vivi solo quando sono in crisi o si sentono in colpa, con gli occhi rossi per il tempo passato a fissare le strisce dell’autostrada. I miei fratelli risalgono all’epoca in cui mamma era sposata e, come tutti gli uomini della sua vita, sono poco più che un ricordo per lei, confusi come i timbri postali sugli occasionali bigliettini di Natale o per la festa della mamma che spedivano da Sacramento o da San Francisco e dalle altre città in cui potevano stare lontani e al sicuro da tutto quello che gli poteva succedere sotto il tetto di mamma. Conosco gli aneddoti sui fallimenti di nonna in campo materno e per quanto riguarda mia madre posso raccontarne alcuni di prima mano, ma i racconti dei miei fratelli li battono tutti.
Eppure, per quanto io ci abbia riflettuto, servendomi di questi errori per respingere l’idea di mettere al mondo altri Hendrix, la nonna riesci a ricordarmi una cosa, una piccola cosa che mi fa sapere che, in fondo, in questa lettera una verità la sta dicendo. Che c’è una tenerezza che scorre piano, ma scorre, nel nostro sangue e arriva sempre puntuale come l’ora della buonanotte. È il ricordo di mamma che mi rimbocca le coperte di notte, il nome con cui mi chiamava al buio. La mattina quando mi svegliava per andare a scuola, io ero sempre il suo sole splendente, ma di notte ero sempre la sua bambina.
[...] E mentre la nonna iniziava le lettere con «carissima R. D.» e «dolce Ror» e «Rory Dawn luce del mattino”, le lettere che mi scriveva la mamma non contenevano alcun saluto, ma cominciavano tutte con quelle due parole, le sue, «bambina mia».»
«Questo classico cocktail ha subito alcuni cambiamenti dalla sua prima comparsa. Inizialmente era composto da ambizione e sudore in parti uguali, con una buccia di mela tagliata a spirale come guarnizione, mentre il sogno americano moderno propone come creativo sostituto fortuna incontaminata allo stato puro al posto della storica buccia di mela.
Sudore e irresponsabilità in parti uguali
Una spruzzata di amarezze
Colpo di fortuna
Mescolare. Filtrare. Guarnire.
Variazione: Per un American Dream ultra dry, sostituire una fortuna economica alla fortuna generica.»
A parlare è Rory Dawn, di anni dieci (ma le età del suo racconto sono differenti) e la sua famiglia sono gli Hendrix di Santa Cruz, ma anche di Sacramento, ma anche di altri luoghi della California, una famiglia fatta di donne sole con tre, quattro o cinque figli avuti da padri diversi a partire dall’adolescenza - quindici, sedici, diciassette anni - da uomini che perlopiù sono finiti in galera o che le tradivano o tradivano con loro altre donne con tre o quattro figli, etc.
Donne con i denti cariati, donne che vivono di sussidi e lavori occasionali, che a un certo punto, per liberarsi o per fuggire da quegli uomini, negli anni Ottanta se ne sono andate a Reno, nel Nevada, a vivere nella Calle del Las Flores: la tua casa nel nuovo West, come citava la vecchia insegna piena di ambizioni, spezzata dal freddo al primo inverno insieme al sogno di costruire una piccola città modello nella “Più Grande Piccola Città del Mondo”: Reno, appunto, con la sua periferia e le sue case mobili, “i trailer park”, dove in due case mobili, le altisonanti, almeno nei nomi, Nobility e Regal, vivono Rory Dawn e la sua bella e inaffidabile mamma Joanna, che fa la barista al Truck Stop, e la nonna Shirley Rose, che per R.D. è punto di riferimento per i suoi sogni, le sue scoperte, i suoi segreti.
«Mamma si nascondeva sempre la bocca quando rideva. E anche quando parlava con troppa allegria e dilatava quei muscoli felici, scoprendo troppo i denti. Ancora oggi io sono in grado di riconoscere una persona del mio quartiere dai denti. O dal fatto che non ne ha. E quando mi capita di riconoscerle, queste persone le chiamo «famiglia». So subito per esempio che posso affidargli il cane, ma non le chiavi della macchina, e so che non posso essere sicura che ricordino l’ora esatta in cui devono tornare a prendere i figli. So che se cominciamo a litigare e a un certo punto arriva la Madama, diremo di comune accordo «Non si preoccupi agente, è tutto sotto controllo.»
E poi c’è la famiglia acquisita, quella della Calle, fatta di "Gelataio", “Proprietario del ferramenta” e di righe nere sulle pagine che cancellano fatti che non possono essere né descritti né raccontati, della bibliotecaria e dei concorsi scolastici, dell’amica Viv e di un manuale delle “girl scout” che non si sa bene come sia finito nelle sue mani e dal quale cerca di cogliere gli insegnamenti per trovare la stella polare da seguire che la porti sulla giusta strada: che poi, alla fine, come spesso ci troviamo a scoprire in questi romanzi che raccontano di povertà assolute e di assenza di opportunità, è sempre quella dell’istruzione, l’unica che può offrire la possibilità di emergere, di staccarsi, di andarsene.
«Lo schema di sussistenza che vige nella Calle è comunemente conosciuto come «vivere in attesa del prossimo assegno». L’assegno - quello per il sussidio di disoccupazione, quello di invalidità, gli assegni dei salari e i sempre più rari assegni per gli alimenti dei figli - viene speso ancora prima di essere incassato. Questi assegni sono integrati da una serie di collette alimentari o alimenti forniti dallo Stato, come il burro d arachidi e alcuni tipi di formaggio. Le famiglie che desiderano cibi freschi ma che non se li possono permettere mangiano piccole porzioni di sformato in offerta a diciannove centesimi l’una, in attesa di giorni migliori. Il gioco d’azzardo è importante per gli abitanti della Calle, sia durante che dopo i loro turni nei vari casinò della città, e si esplica in varie forme: biglietti della lotteria, black-jack e guida in stato di ebbrezza.»
Perché è essenzialmente una storia di povertà e candore, quella che Tupelo Hassman (vissuta a Reno dai quattro ai dodici anni) racconta, di fantasmi e di speranze vissute al ticchettio delle slot machine e di roulotte, che ogni giorno che passa, a dispetto della loro possibilità di muoversi, sono sempre più immobili, una storia di resistenza e di abusi che fra pensieri, lettere e resoconti di assistenti sociali - che solo in superficie si preoccupano del benessere dei minori e delle possibilità di sopravvivenza delle famiglie -, descrive uno spaccato sociale desolante, racconta del fallimento del welfare, evidenzia l’assenza di opportunità offerta ai figli dei poveri, di fatto condannandoli a ripetere gli stessi errori, a vivere delle stesse privazioni.
«Un romanzo durissimo, privo di compiacimento, con una cifra letteraria alta, una scrittura capace di alternare al duro realismo di una situazione sociale degradata il lirismo della voce di una ragazzina innocente e visionaria, la cui breve felicità consiste in quelle due parole, bambina mia, che ogni tanto, quando è sobria, la madre le rivolge.», come leggo in questa bella recensione, ma anche un romanzo in cui la tenerezza del legame fra questa bambina, la ragazzina del titolo originale, e le due donne della sua vita, è di quelli capaci di scardinare convinzioni e convenzioni su cosa sia veramente “casa”, su cosa significhi veramente “famiglia”».
Dopo e (ancora in lettura), un romanzo che descrive un’altra realtà abitativa a noi parzialmente sconosciuta: quella delle tante persone che vivono in case mobili, roulotte e camper nei , vere città di lamiera, vere città di case senza fondamenta, le prime ad essere aggredite e rase al suolo in caso di tornado.
«Fare la madre non è il punto forte di questa famiglia. Ne sono una prova i posti vuoti a tavola. Mamma ha quattro sorelle con cui non vuole parlare, un fratello di cui non vuole parlare, e io ho quattro fratelli grandi che si fanno vivi solo quando sono in crisi o si sentono in colpa, con gli occhi rossi per il tempo passato a fissare le strisce dell’autostrada. I miei fratelli risalgono all’epoca in cui mamma era sposata e, come tutti gli uomini della sua vita, sono poco più che un ricordo per lei, confusi come i timbri postali sugli occasionali bigliettini di Natale o per la festa della mamma che spedivano da Sacramento o da San Francisco e dalle altre città in cui potevano stare lontani e al sicuro da tutto quello che gli poteva succedere sotto il tetto di mamma. Conosco gli aneddoti sui fallimenti di nonna in campo materno e per quanto riguarda mia madre posso raccontarne alcuni di prima mano, ma i racconti dei miei fratelli li battono tutti.
Eppure, per quanto io ci abbia riflettuto, servendomi di questi errori per respingere l’idea di mettere al mondo altri Hendrix, la nonna riesci a ricordarmi una cosa, una piccola cosa che mi fa sapere che, in fondo, in questa lettera una verità la sta dicendo. Che c’è una tenerezza che scorre piano, ma scorre, nel nostro sangue e arriva sempre puntuale come l’ora della buonanotte. È il ricordo di mamma che mi rimbocca le coperte di notte, il nome con cui mi chiamava al buio. La mattina quando mi svegliava per andare a scuola, io ero sempre il suo sole splendente, ma di notte ero sempre la sua bambina.
[...] E mentre la nonna iniziava le lettere con «carissima R. D.» e «dolce Ror» e «Rory Dawn luce del mattino”, le lettere che mi scriveva la mamma non contenevano alcun saluto, ma cominciavano tutte con quelle due parole, le sue, «bambina mia».»
March 6, 2012
The disjointed narrative, made up of flashbacks, legal documents, court proceedings, and bits of the present, didn't work for me in this book because it never allowed Rory to have a voice. And while the fact she doesn't have a voice makes sense in the story, I couldn't connect with her for a long time and couldn't put together the pieces of why she was so broken, hurt, and silenced. I found the Girl Scout story line thinly developed until the end when it suddenly had a lot more page time.
That said, the ending was fantastic. Rory got what she deserved and did so in a way that felt redeeming and almost hopeful. I just wish more of Rory would have come through sooner in the story so the payoff would have made me cheer a little harder and I would have rooted for her a little more throughout. As it was, there were too many secondary, unimportant threads running through to really allow her story to work for me. It tried a little too hard to be literary and sacrificed other elements because of that. It ultimately wasn't that literary, either.
The setting in a trailer park was unique and a well-executed setting that didn't come off as convenient nor contrived (which it could have easily done).
That said, the ending was fantastic. Rory got what she deserved and did so in a way that felt redeeming and almost hopeful. I just wish more of Rory would have come through sooner in the story so the payoff would have made me cheer a little harder and I would have rooted for her a little more throughout. As it was, there were too many secondary, unimportant threads running through to really allow her story to work for me. It tried a little too hard to be literary and sacrificed other elements because of that. It ultimately wasn't that literary, either.
The setting in a trailer park was unique and a well-executed setting that didn't come off as convenient nor contrived (which it could have easily done).
October 26, 2013
I bought this book based on Fresh Air's book critic Maureen Corrigan's glowing review. Today, the book made her top 10 list of 2012. Let me say two things: 1) I have not finished the book and, 2) I do not like this book. I continued to hope it would get better, but my hope lagged as the book became more and more focused on the severe sexual abuse of the protagonist. If I want to read a redacted copy of severe childhood abuse I'll pick up a police report. I could not understand the point of this novel. Perhaps it all comes together in the end, but I doubt I'll be able to suffer along with the Girl Child long enough to know. Not recommended.
August 10, 2012
Girlchild is a novel that is unlike almost anything else I've ever read. It is like opening the pages of a young girl's diary and finding the most beautiful poetry. It's funny, tragic, hopeful, devastatingly sad, naive and wise and ultimately glorious. Rory Hendrix lives in poverty with her single mother in a single wide trailer in the desert of Nevada. She has everything working against her but she always seems to find the good in life anyway. Her story will pull you in and make you want to know this child and to save her, but then you realize she is saving herself because it's what she has to do in order to survive. Tupelo Hassman's writing is truly radiant in this novel. She goes back and forth between narrative by Rory to strange word problems describing the most unimaginable situations to just bits of paragraphs showing through blacked out lines on the page. All of it fits perfectly to show the reader who Rory Dawn is and to make us feel what she is feeling. It is told in single to 3 page length chapters which keeps the novel moving at a very fast pace.
January 25, 2019
I loved this novel. It's been a few years since I read it, but I'll do my best to tell you why I loved it so much. To start with, both the substance and the style were top-notch. Some of the things the author did - such as redacting prose was brilliant (so brilliant, I may have to steal the idea for something I write). It didn't feel like a gimmick, it felt authentic. I won't say why it was redacted, but you'll get it when you get there. You won't just get it, you'll feel it to your core. This wasn't the only stylistic thing she did that was fascinating.
The external broad strokes as I recall: a girl in a trailer park coming of age using a girl scouts handbook as her guide. I'm trying to remember how she came upon the handbook as she wasn't a girl scout - I think it was the library, a stolen book from the library perhaps. What I remember most was the protagonists strong desire to escape that trailer park and her life there. The protagonist was delightful in a punk rock sort of way. She had such a unique voice. Unforgettable. She was wise, but the kind of wise born out of necessity from having to fend for herself. One gets the feeling as one reads this novel that the child already has one foot out the trailer door and is telling the reader the inside scoop from a safe house. But one also senses that one foot is solidly in that trailer park because it feels dangerous. But the protagonist never tries to score pity points from the reader.
One can't help when reading first novels to wonder if it's autobiographical in some way. All novels have a piece of the author in there somewhere, even if those shards are put into the hands of fictional characters cut from whole cloth. Whether it is or isn't autobiographical, it is the kind of novel you know could only be written by this one author. For those of us that read a lot of novels, we all know that this cannot be said of most novels. This novel is special.
This is the kind of novel you won't forget. It stays with you. It's stayed with me since I read it. The protagonist's voice is indelible. I can still hear her talking about knowing what neighborhood someone is from by their teeth, or lack thereof. How she knows who to trust with some things but not with others. One is left with the feeling of having such empathy for the protagonist and such envy too for her being her own person in a place where no one seems to have any time to think about much else than surviving another day.
A hundred percent worth your time.
The external broad strokes as I recall: a girl in a trailer park coming of age using a girl scouts handbook as her guide. I'm trying to remember how she came upon the handbook as she wasn't a girl scout - I think it was the library, a stolen book from the library perhaps. What I remember most was the protagonists strong desire to escape that trailer park and her life there. The protagonist was delightful in a punk rock sort of way. She had such a unique voice. Unforgettable. She was wise, but the kind of wise born out of necessity from having to fend for herself. One gets the feeling as one reads this novel that the child already has one foot out the trailer door and is telling the reader the inside scoop from a safe house. But one also senses that one foot is solidly in that trailer park because it feels dangerous. But the protagonist never tries to score pity points from the reader.
One can't help when reading first novels to wonder if it's autobiographical in some way. All novels have a piece of the author in there somewhere, even if those shards are put into the hands of fictional characters cut from whole cloth. Whether it is or isn't autobiographical, it is the kind of novel you know could only be written by this one author. For those of us that read a lot of novels, we all know that this cannot be said of most novels. This novel is special.
This is the kind of novel you won't forget. It stays with you. It's stayed with me since I read it. The protagonist's voice is indelible. I can still hear her talking about knowing what neighborhood someone is from by their teeth, or lack thereof. How she knows who to trust with some things but not with others. One is left with the feeling of having such empathy for the protagonist and such envy too for her being her own person in a place where no one seems to have any time to think about much else than surviving another day.
A hundred percent worth your time.
December 30, 2011
Rory lives at The Calle de los Flores, a Reno Trailer park with her mother. While Rory knows what people think of her family and her future options or lack there of, she still dreams. For Rory part of that dream is being a girl scout. She's read the Handbook guide backwords and forwards since elementary. Girlchild follows Rory through her adolescent years. Hassman's writing and Rory captured my heart. There's a beauty and honesty to both that I loved. Hassman's style has a beauitful rhythmic freestyle musical quality to it. At times my heart broke for what Rory had to experience, at other times I laughed at her funny depth description of living in a trailer park. This is a ridiculosuly good debut. I never thought of myself as a girl scout type of girl but it Rory was troop leader I'd take the girl scout pledge with a quickness.
June 16, 2021
”How short the distance is between the haves and the have-nots, the cans and the cannots, how where you’re born is sometimes all that separates a sure thing from a long shot.”
Wow. What an absolute gut-punch.
Girlchild really hits its stride at the halfway point. Until then, I found the quick, vignette-style chapters to be disjointed and I had a hard time keeping up my interest in the story. I got there eventually, but it does suffer a bit from a lack of cohesiveness.
But my GOD can Tupelo Hassman write! There is a lot of variety here: social worker reports, metaphor-laden word problems, entire pages of blacked out text, five sentence chapters, and lots of time in little Rory Dawn’s head. All of it is great, but the sections in prose (the bulk of the novel) are so, so good. At times there was such literary depth that I’d find myself reading paragraphs over and over to try to absorb it all. I’m really resisting the urge to type out a whole section from a middle chapter (titled: hit and run) here, but I know I should just let people find the best parts when they read. But, damn! Really good stuff.
Wow. What an absolute gut-punch.
Girlchild really hits its stride at the halfway point. Until then, I found the quick, vignette-style chapters to be disjointed and I had a hard time keeping up my interest in the story. I got there eventually, but it does suffer a bit from a lack of cohesiveness.
But my GOD can Tupelo Hassman write! There is a lot of variety here: social worker reports, metaphor-laden word problems, entire pages of blacked out text, five sentence chapters, and lots of time in little Rory Dawn’s head. All of it is great, but the sections in prose (the bulk of the novel) are so, so good. At times there was such literary depth that I’d find myself reading paragraphs over and over to try to absorb it all. I’m really resisting the urge to type out a whole section from a middle chapter (titled: hit and run) here, but I know I should just let people find the best parts when they read. But, damn! Really good stuff.
June 6, 2012
"Girlchild" is about Rory Dawn, the self-proclaimed "feebleminded daughter of a feebleminded daughter," and yet the first word I'm filled with when thinking of how to describe this book is "smart."
And there is so much more: heartbreaking and honest, fearless and unique, well-written and interesting, unflinching and real.
I'll say two things here: 1.) I have a feeling that this book, and more Hassman's style is not for everyone and 2.) the first 1/4 of the book takes patience, mostly due to that style.
Rory's tale is told in short vignettes and flashes, often out of chronological order and often through stories that contain small truths in underlying metaphors. It's choppy at first, but the more I pulled at the layers and the deeper I traveled into the story, the more I was hooked.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates language or a turn of phrase. Hassman's writing is intelligent and cutting. She creates an interesting style with Rory, preserving an open, childlike air and yet commenting with so much wit on life at the Calle. There was a particular chapter than ended with a description of how karma caught up to the Hardware Man, and her words there made me audibly, "wow." Any book that elicits a reaction that makes the strangers around you think you are crazy has something to say for itself.
If you are the type of reader that needs a meaty plot to be happy, perhaps this isn't the book for you. "Girlchild" is propelled forward by the characters, and you could almost say that very little "happens" comparatively. Characters, writing and style are key here, and they are all done well.
I'd be lying if I said that every little chapter or flash story felt essential. There were a handful of times when I felt the drag of a particular chapter, but those moments were few, far between, and very outweighed by all that was good.
Overall, one of the best novels I've read all year. I know I'm pretty tenderhearted, but this did a good job breaking my heart. I'll miss Rory Dawn, now that I'm done reading, and really, I don't think there is a better compliment to a writer.
And there is so much more: heartbreaking and honest, fearless and unique, well-written and interesting, unflinching and real.
I'll say two things here: 1.) I have a feeling that this book, and more Hassman's style is not for everyone and 2.) the first 1/4 of the book takes patience, mostly due to that style.
Rory's tale is told in short vignettes and flashes, often out of chronological order and often through stories that contain small truths in underlying metaphors. It's choppy at first, but the more I pulled at the layers and the deeper I traveled into the story, the more I was hooked.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates language or a turn of phrase. Hassman's writing is intelligent and cutting. She creates an interesting style with Rory, preserving an open, childlike air and yet commenting with so much wit on life at the Calle. There was a particular chapter than ended with a description of how karma caught up to the Hardware Man, and her words there made me audibly, "wow." Any book that elicits a reaction that makes the strangers around you think you are crazy has something to say for itself.
If you are the type of reader that needs a meaty plot to be happy, perhaps this isn't the book for you. "Girlchild" is propelled forward by the characters, and you could almost say that very little "happens" comparatively. Characters, writing and style are key here, and they are all done well.
I'd be lying if I said that every little chapter or flash story felt essential. There were a handful of times when I felt the drag of a particular chapter, but those moments were few, far between, and very outweighed by all that was good.
Overall, one of the best novels I've read all year. I know I'm pretty tenderhearted, but this did a good job breaking my heart. I'll miss Rory Dawn, now that I'm done reading, and really, I don't think there is a better compliment to a writer.
February 8, 2018
Data la lunghezza di 2 lati qualsiasi di un triangolo rettangolo, è possibile ricavare la lunghezza del terzo. A, B e C sono i vertici di un triangolo rettangolo, con B che designa l'angolo retto. L'altezza da B ad A è pari all'ombra di un uomo e si ha così un nuovo triangolo. Se le gambe del nuovo triangolo misurano rispettivamente 30 e 21 cm e l'altezza di una bambina è la metà di quella dell'ombra dell'uomo a mezzogiorno, si utilizzi il teorema di Pitagora per rispondere alla seguente domanda: Che cosa sta accadendo all'interno del triangolo?
(Mostrare tutto il procedimento).
Hassman. Che sei vissuta a Reno (Nevada) dai quattro ai dodici. E Hassman dagli occhi caricati a salve che non hai potuto comunque lasciarmi intatta, non volendolo io e non volendolo tu.
Se tu fossi tentata di diventare gentile e molto vendibile e meno delicatamente convincente riguardo all'inevitabilità dei fondi ciechi percorribili e ai recinti di sangue, ecco, se tu fossi tentata, Tupelo Hassman, ovunque tu sia, non avresti pace.
Sappi che non sai di che cosa è capace l'ombra migrante di Rory Dawn. Di Reno (Nevada).
Sì, è una minaccia per procura.
(Mostrare tutto il procedimento).
Hassman. Che sei vissuta a Reno (Nevada) dai quattro ai dodici. E Hassman dagli occhi caricati a salve che non hai potuto comunque lasciarmi intatta, non volendolo io e non volendolo tu.
Se tu fossi tentata di diventare gentile e molto vendibile e meno delicatamente convincente riguardo all'inevitabilità dei fondi ciechi percorribili e ai recinti di sangue, ecco, se tu fossi tentata, Tupelo Hassman, ovunque tu sia, non avresti pace.
Sappi che non sai di che cosa è capace l'ombra migrante di Rory Dawn. Di Reno (Nevada).
Sì, è una minaccia per procura.
August 20, 2012
I have always admired Margaret Sanger and felt abortion should be available to any woman who wants to make that choice.
Tupelo Hassman's novel with the heartbreaking character Rory Hendrix should be required reading for those who oppose women's rights. Obviously her mother in the novel, Jo, didn't make that choice with Rory or the other four brothers that departed as soon as possible.
Jo is an alcoholic smoker, a bartender, and seemingly has no end of men friends over. They live in the Calle de las Flores, a Reno trailer park full of hard-drinking, hard-living people who have a code of conduct of sharing babysitting, food and cigarettes until the food stamps will be available again. Her grandmother is addicted to slots but is kind to Rory. The grandfather appears once and takes Rory to buy a doll. Jo throws it on the ground and insists the father leave before he does to Rory what he did to Jo. The Hardware Man, who is supposed to be her babysitter, does. It's THAT kind of book.
On the first page we know it will be painful when Rory says "[B]y the time Mama was fifteen she had three (teeth) left that weren't already black or getting there, and jagged."
Rory's one book she consults constantly for advice is The Girl Scout Handbook. At last another girl moves in and offers the Girl Scout salute, but she, too, moves along. Rory is a troop of one trying to cope with endless problems.
Rory is intelligent (as well as wise beyond her years in some ways, naive in others) and Jo puts on her best clothes to speak to the guidance counselor and hear that Rory is "college material." Rory's reply is "The only person we know going to college is Alex on Family Ties, but Mr. Lombroso sounds so happy that Mama tries to be happy too." She does well at the Washoe County Spelling Bee. She wins a set of Academic American Encyclopedias and the right to go to the Championship where she misses "Outliar."
Hassman does a fabulous job bringing Rory and her family to life through reports of social workers, addiction, fear, and the advice of the Girl Scout Handbook. It is so painful to read her (fictional) biography, but enlightening!
Tupelo Hassman's novel with the heartbreaking character Rory Hendrix should be required reading for those who oppose women's rights. Obviously her mother in the novel, Jo, didn't make that choice with Rory or the other four brothers that departed as soon as possible.
Jo is an alcoholic smoker, a bartender, and seemingly has no end of men friends over. They live in the Calle de las Flores, a Reno trailer park full of hard-drinking, hard-living people who have a code of conduct of sharing babysitting, food and cigarettes until the food stamps will be available again. Her grandmother is addicted to slots but is kind to Rory. The grandfather appears once and takes Rory to buy a doll. Jo throws it on the ground and insists the father leave before he does to Rory what he did to Jo. The Hardware Man, who is supposed to be her babysitter, does. It's THAT kind of book.
On the first page we know it will be painful when Rory says "[B]y the time Mama was fifteen she had three (teeth) left that weren't already black or getting there, and jagged."
Rory's one book she consults constantly for advice is The Girl Scout Handbook. At last another girl moves in and offers the Girl Scout salute, but she, too, moves along. Rory is a troop of one trying to cope with endless problems.
Rory is intelligent (as well as wise beyond her years in some ways, naive in others) and Jo puts on her best clothes to speak to the guidance counselor and hear that Rory is "college material." Rory's reply is "The only person we know going to college is Alex on Family Ties, but Mr. Lombroso sounds so happy that Mama tries to be happy too." She does well at the Washoe County Spelling Bee. She wins a set of Academic American Encyclopedias and the right to go to the Championship where she misses "Outliar."
Hassman does a fabulous job bringing Rory and her family to life through reports of social workers, addiction, fear, and the advice of the Girl Scout Handbook. It is so painful to read her (fictional) biography, but enlightening!
June 4, 2012
I've given this book 5 stars, but I can't honestly say I LIKED it. I'm very glad I read it. The characters will stay with me a very long time, but this was a very difficult story to read. I came to love the little girl who was struggling so hard to end up normal in spite of her upbringing and life and background. while She declares herself the feeble minded daughter of a feeble minded daughter of a feeble minded family, this is a very bright and astute little girl. She manages to carve her own way toward the end of generations living in substandard housing while waiting tables, bar tending or running Keno by checking out the Girl Scout handbook from the school library -- until the librarian gives her the bedraggled book. The short chapters are intertwined with excerpts from the handbook, from the social worker's journal recording the history of the family and other bits and pieces of family information.
I highly recommend the book -- it's so well written, but so difficult to view this life though the eyes of this tough little girl.
I highly recommend the book -- it's so well written, but so difficult to view this life though the eyes of this tough little girl.
May 9, 2012
4 1/2 stars.
*Please note that this review contains some profanity, all contained within quotes from the book.
Raw.
To love Girlchild as much as I did, you have to be willing to understand “raw.” Several times while I was reading this book, my husband looked at my face and asked me what was wrong. (I was alternating between tears brimming over and horror leaving my mouth agape.)
Rory Dawn suffers neglect, mistreatment and abuse at the hands of those trusted to care for her. Growing up in a Nevada trailer park outside Reno, Rory clings to her tattered copy of the Girl Scouts Handbook as the only set of rules that use “honor” and “obey” as positive edicts. She makes her own badges and creates her own troop.
Tupelo Hassman does not shy away from the anger, bitterness or shame that go with the broken down territory.
“You've done a thing you can't clean up, found a place you can't reach with mop or apology. The forever you've created branches like the hairline fracture in a pelvic bone, hides like a dirty Polaroid stored under a mattress, rises like hot blood to burn cheeks pretty with shame. Places you didn't even know you were signing your name will always be marked by your hand, but despite every new day's resolution to never do it again, you will. You'll look away from your own face in the mirror, pull the chain twice to hide from yourself in the dark, and when it's all over you won't say anything. You won't fucking say anything to anyone ever.”
So, if you can’t read books about children being hurt, you will miss out on a truly remarkable debut novel. Rory Dawn, despite being “third generation in a line of apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom,” inspired me. Her desire to embrace life, to live fully and to strive for more, may seem shocking given her circumstances; but that is the brilliance of Hassman’s writing. Instead of just feeling sorry for Rory Dawn, I marveled at her.
As if knowing how hard it would be for readers to stick with dark material, Hahesmman tells the story in very short chapters, some less than a page. She literally blacks out line after line to make us understand that Rory Dawn refuses to remember certain parts.
"In the fairy tales there's only one Big Bad Wolf and the little girl takes only one trip through the Dark Forest...But life on the Calle is real, not make-believe...So be prepared. We're not out of the woods yet."
In unveiling the whole truth this way, Hassman kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.
This book took me immediately back to Rebecca Gilman’s play, “The Glory of Living.” I was fortunate enough to be the Assistant Director for the world premiere production and remember well the pressure on the lead actress (my dear friend Deborah Puette) to be “raw.”
I haven't found a mirror yet that doesn't reflect the curves of the Calle back at me, my dirty ways, my fragile teeth and bad skin, my hands that won't stop picking at themselves." (Girlchild)
In live theatre there was no room to let the audience off the hook. The horror and evil and shame had to be palpable. But even more importantly, each character’s humanity and hope had to shine through at key moments.
Tupelo Hassman has achieved this same balance of horror and hope.
She has turned her talented skills on stories that many Americans would hope to keep hidden. She has done it beautifully.
*Please note that this review contains some profanity, all contained within quotes from the book.
Raw.
To love Girlchild as much as I did, you have to be willing to understand “raw.” Several times while I was reading this book, my husband looked at my face and asked me what was wrong. (I was alternating between tears brimming over and horror leaving my mouth agape.)
Rory Dawn suffers neglect, mistreatment and abuse at the hands of those trusted to care for her. Growing up in a Nevada trailer park outside Reno, Rory clings to her tattered copy of the Girl Scouts Handbook as the only set of rules that use “honor” and “obey” as positive edicts. She makes her own badges and creates her own troop.
Tupelo Hassman does not shy away from the anger, bitterness or shame that go with the broken down territory.
“You've done a thing you can't clean up, found a place you can't reach with mop or apology. The forever you've created branches like the hairline fracture in a pelvic bone, hides like a dirty Polaroid stored under a mattress, rises like hot blood to burn cheeks pretty with shame. Places you didn't even know you were signing your name will always be marked by your hand, but despite every new day's resolution to never do it again, you will. You'll look away from your own face in the mirror, pull the chain twice to hide from yourself in the dark, and when it's all over you won't say anything. You won't fucking say anything to anyone ever.”
So, if you can’t read books about children being hurt, you will miss out on a truly remarkable debut novel. Rory Dawn, despite being “third generation in a line of apparent imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom,” inspired me. Her desire to embrace life, to live fully and to strive for more, may seem shocking given her circumstances; but that is the brilliance of Hassman’s writing. Instead of just feeling sorry for Rory Dawn, I marveled at her.
As if knowing how hard it would be for readers to stick with dark material, Hahesmman tells the story in very short chapters, some less than a page. She literally blacks out line after line to make us understand that Rory Dawn refuses to remember certain parts.
"In the fairy tales there's only one Big Bad Wolf and the little girl takes only one trip through the Dark Forest...But life on the Calle is real, not make-believe...So be prepared. We're not out of the woods yet."
In unveiling the whole truth this way, Hassman kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.
This book took me immediately back to Rebecca Gilman’s play, “The Glory of Living.” I was fortunate enough to be the Assistant Director for the world premiere production and remember well the pressure on the lead actress (my dear friend Deborah Puette) to be “raw.”
I haven't found a mirror yet that doesn't reflect the curves of the Calle back at me, my dirty ways, my fragile teeth and bad skin, my hands that won't stop picking at themselves." (Girlchild)
In live theatre there was no room to let the audience off the hook. The horror and evil and shame had to be palpable. But even more importantly, each character’s humanity and hope had to shine through at key moments.
Tupelo Hassman has achieved this same balance of horror and hope.
She has turned her talented skills on stories that many Americans would hope to keep hidden. She has done it beautifully.
August 18, 2019
This book has been on my TBR for a couple years and it wasn't until after I read gods with a little g recently that I went directly to the library to pick up a copy finally.
Rory Dawn Hendrix lives in a Reno trailer park known as the Calle with her mama. Visits from a social worker are common, welfare helps them get by, and mama's graveyard shifts at the bar keep Rory in the care of a neighbor girl whose daddy runs the hardware store.
Rory's mama was just fifteen when she had her first child, the same age as her mama was. Both her mama and grandma want to break that cycle and hope for a bright future for Rory, who shows great promise in school.
Girlchild is told in a series of short chapters through diary entries, brief snippets of history and memory, reports from social workers, and letters from Rory's grandma. This collection of narratives makes for an original story that I breezed right through despite the heartbreaking subject matter. Rory shares her life with us while trying to escape it and my heart ached for her. The failures of social services and the justice system were handled brilliantly while allowing readers to see the obstacles faced by the generation attempting to break a cycle.
Like gods with a little g, Girlchild is also one of those interesting novels that fits easily into both the mature YA and adult fiction genres. Hassman has an original voice that shares strong characters living in bleak circumstances by balancing the grit and the beauty with honesty and hope.
Girlchild is a powerful and heartbreaking read. I recommend it to readers who appreciate coming of age stories, realistic fiction, and original prose.
*Trigger warning for sexual abuse.
For more reviews, visit
Rory Dawn Hendrix lives in a Reno trailer park known as the Calle with her mama. Visits from a social worker are common, welfare helps them get by, and mama's graveyard shifts at the bar keep Rory in the care of a neighbor girl whose daddy runs the hardware store.
Rory's mama was just fifteen when she had her first child, the same age as her mama was. Both her mama and grandma want to break that cycle and hope for a bright future for Rory, who shows great promise in school.
Girlchild is told in a series of short chapters through diary entries, brief snippets of history and memory, reports from social workers, and letters from Rory's grandma. This collection of narratives makes for an original story that I breezed right through despite the heartbreaking subject matter. Rory shares her life with us while trying to escape it and my heart ached for her. The failures of social services and the justice system were handled brilliantly while allowing readers to see the obstacles faced by the generation attempting to break a cycle.
Like gods with a little g, Girlchild is also one of those interesting novels that fits easily into both the mature YA and adult fiction genres. Hassman has an original voice that shares strong characters living in bleak circumstances by balancing the grit and the beauty with honesty and hope.
Girlchild is a powerful and heartbreaking read. I recommend it to readers who appreciate coming of age stories, realistic fiction, and original prose.
*Trigger warning for sexual abuse.
For more reviews, visit
March 5, 2012
I sat in my bed at 2:30 AM sobbing because while this book has that smart, determined and extremely damaged girl that turns up in nearly every novel discussing mother-daughter relationships and unstable childhoods, Hassman has that fiery wit that makes your belly and soul ache when she tells another joke about the bathroom stall lock or feeble-minded families with a grimace. The nonlinear narrative also helps add to the confusion and longing enmeshed in the novel. Incredibly memorable with lines that remind me why I read and what I look for in an author.
March 31, 2022
3.5 stars--GIRLCHILD is a uniquely-written story of the lost and forgotten on society's margins--those who are barely hanging on and are easy for everyone else to ignore. Rory is a bright, well-read child whose intelligence may or may not be enough to get her out of her circumstances.
January 20, 2022
I’m taking the stars very seriously this year. I’m trying to factor in more than immediate readerly satisfaction this year because that means if a book ended well it got all the stars.
Tupelo Hassman is a beautiful writer. I hope she will continue to write and I will continue to read.
As for me, I would wrap this book with giant swaths of yellow caution tape. I see the word resilience used over the reviews and the book flap.
I object.
What we have here is child sexual abuse and a child living through and around it. There is not one person that can convince me that a child that is experiencing this is resilient. A child living through this is in survival mode and probably has no idea how to fix any of what is going on.
Resilience comes later when as an adult the child realizes what has been done to them and seeks help. Learning that the cracks in our life is how the light gets in and choosing to live is resilience.
This book is very well done in its description of the hard scrabble hopeless life.
The writing style felt slightly inter-connected essays more than a novel with unusually short 1 paragraph chapters interspersed with other chapters that were one or a few pages along. I think this style didn’t allow me to love Rory Dawn the way I wanted to love her.
3 stars = the premise of the book did not match the writing between the covers. For me to recommend the book I would feel the need to throw caution all over it. However, this author IS an excellent writer thus not two stars.
Tupelo Hassman is a beautiful writer. I hope she will continue to write and I will continue to read.
As for me, I would wrap this book with giant swaths of yellow caution tape. I see the word resilience used over the reviews and the book flap.
I object.
What we have here is child sexual abuse and a child living through and around it. There is not one person that can convince me that a child that is experiencing this is resilient. A child living through this is in survival mode and probably has no idea how to fix any of what is going on.
Resilience comes later when as an adult the child realizes what has been done to them and seeks help. Learning that the cracks in our life is how the light gets in and choosing to live is resilience.
This book is very well done in its description of the hard scrabble hopeless life.
The writing style felt slightly inter-connected essays more than a novel with unusually short 1 paragraph chapters interspersed with other chapters that were one or a few pages along. I think this style didn’t allow me to love Rory Dawn the way I wanted to love her.
3 stars = the premise of the book did not match the writing between the covers. For me to recommend the book I would feel the need to throw caution all over it. However, this author IS an excellent writer thus not two stars.
June 24, 2015
3.5 stars. An excellent, skilful and compassionate read full of love for its trailer park characters who live just north of Reno and just south of nowhere. Where the men hunt and trap everything from birds to stray hubcaps to small girls, using slingshots, shotguns, and the rustle of candy wrappers.
Hassman uses all kinds of types of writing from Social Services reports on the family, revised pages from the Girl Scout Handbook (the main character is in a troop of one), school exercises (a reading comprehension test has the following questions - which of the following statements are true? a) science, governments, and your doctor should be trusted... C) the ugliest phrase used in this passage is "female"., instructions for making a cocktail: equal parts sweat and heedless disregard, dash of bitters... etc.
Most harrowingly the passages on child abuse are simply black censored lines amongst which the odd word appears.
So a book to stun, disarm and charm you all at once, and at any given point one that succeeds. It also has a great climactic ending. However I felt it was overlong - maybe as a short story writer and lover, I missed succinctness - and points were hammered home that had already been made. Even so, a good, edgy book, with patches of great writing.
Hassman uses all kinds of types of writing from Social Services reports on the family, revised pages from the Girl Scout Handbook (the main character is in a troop of one), school exercises (a reading comprehension test has the following questions - which of the following statements are true? a) science, governments, and your doctor should be trusted... C) the ugliest phrase used in this passage is "female"., instructions for making a cocktail: equal parts sweat and heedless disregard, dash of bitters... etc.
Most harrowingly the passages on child abuse are simply black censored lines amongst which the odd word appears.
So a book to stun, disarm and charm you all at once, and at any given point one that succeeds. It also has a great climactic ending. However I felt it was overlong - maybe as a short story writer and lover, I missed succinctness - and points were hammered home that had already been made. Even so, a good, edgy book, with patches of great writing.
May 14, 2012
The character of Rory quite quickly won me over and I found myself just wanting to grab her and get her out of there. She is also the narrator and tells her story in a matter of fact tone of voice in relatively short musings. Parts of this were hard to read but I just found myself wanting something good to happen for her. The writing is unique as is this first book by a new author. Can't wait to see what she does next.
March 12, 2025
Rory Dawn Hendrix is a young girl living in a trailer park in Reno, Nevada in the 1980s – 1990s. She has been told she is “feebleminded” (she’s not) and she longs to escape from poverty, alcoholic mother, gambling-addicted grandmother, and abusive neighbor. Though she is not a Girl Scout, she repeatedly checks out an old edition of The Girl Scout Handbook from the library and takes its mostly outdated advice to heart. She deals with stereotypes typically applied to those living in trailer parks and tries to make sense of her world.
This sad story is told in first person by Rory Dawn in short chapters of a prose-poetry blend. The protagonist’s voice is one of the strongest aspects of the novel. She comes across as an intelligent girl stuck in a situation that is extremely difficult to overcome. The downside is that it is uneven, partly due to the insertion of random snippets of information, such as social worker reports, letters, math problems, handbook quotes, and news clippings. A little of this is fine, but it is overdone here, and it interrupts the flow. So, overall, I ended up with mixed reactions. Content warning for
This sad story is told in first person by Rory Dawn in short chapters of a prose-poetry blend. The protagonist’s voice is one of the strongest aspects of the novel. She comes across as an intelligent girl stuck in a situation that is extremely difficult to overcome. The downside is that it is uneven, partly due to the insertion of random snippets of information, such as social worker reports, letters, math problems, handbook quotes, and news clippings. A little of this is fine, but it is overdone here, and it interrupts the flow. So, overall, I ended up with mixed reactions. Content warning for
January 20, 2018
This book was decent until midway through, and then it just fell apart. I cannot even guess what the purpose of the break from the storyline in the middle of the book was about. It was miserable to get through the rest of it, even if it did come together in the end.
It did remind me a little of Lullabies for Little Criminals, which I loved. Then it just got way, way out there. I do not recommend.
It did remind me a little of Lullabies for Little Criminals, which I loved. Then it just got way, way out there. I do not recommend.
June 7, 2012
I hold onto my Handbook because nothing else makes promises like that around here, promises with these words burning inside them: honor, duty and try. Try and duty I hear all the time, as in "try to get some sleep," and "get me some duty-free cigarettes from the Indian store," while honor's reserved solely for the Honorable Joseph A. on The People's Court, as in, "Your Honor, I was just trying to get my wallet out for the duty-free cigs when my gun went off," but these words never ever show their faces together and much less inside a promise.
Rory Hendrix is not a registered Girl Scout in any sense of the word. She doesn't have a troop or any badges, but she's obsessed with the Girl Scout Handbook. She checks it out of the library over and over to serve as her guide to surviving her childhood in the Calle de los Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother. This book has a narrator and a clear plot, but it is told in part through journal entries, social worker reports, letters, the family mythology, and court documents so it meanders a bit. Also, the interspersed bits from the Girl Scout Handbook are totally surreal in the context of Rory's life -- like, this girl navigating her very difficult life very much needs advice about The Right Use of Your Body and Finding Your Way When Lost, but maybe the Girl Scouts had something different in mind...
This book is well-written, although sometimes it got a little too "writerly" for my tastes. The story will twist your heart around in a very painful way. The characters of the Calle are tangible, despicable and real. Rory is an wise, sassy, terrified and brave girl. If you like to read about difficult, working-class childhoods with hardscrabble heroines who suffer many painful moments that will make you shudder, you would probably enjoy this book. I mean, who doesn't cheer for the smartypants underdog from a line of "imbeciles, feeble-minded bastards surely on the road to whoredom"?
And, of course, I loved the power and magic that Rory lends to the Girl Scouts. Even if it was surreal and strange, it was a desperate kind of survival magic that genuinely helped her. It was touching. It was about kids' abilities to survive and flourish.
Also, I hate to be so precious, but here's a quote from Rory.
“I may not have been born captain of this boat, but I was born to rock it.”
April 8, 2012
Most narrators that steal reader’s hearts don’t come from trailer parks, but Rory Dawn, or RD, Hendrix of the Calle de las Flores trailer park on the outskirts of Reno, is a character that is to damaged and yet beautiful to be forgotten. Tupelo Hassman’s debut novel Girlchild is a true work of art. While it deals with the more undesirable elements of society, and yes, there are many passages that are difficult to read, it is also a piercing look into the bonds of love between a mother and daughter, and the resiliency of the human spirit. RD is gifted and wise beyond her years, and both her mother and her grandmother pin their hopes on her one day breaking the cycle of poverty and abuse by making her way out of the trailer park. RD, and avid bookworm and library user, has checked out the Girl Scout Handbook so many times the check out card eventually only bears her name; and it with this handbook and her troop of one that she is able to navigate her difficult childhood. Hassman’s style is inventive, consisting of short chapters that include social services case files as well ingeniously crafted word problems, yet the writing is lyrical. The juxtaposition of such poetic prose with such edgy subject matter saves the book from being tragic, and instead provides the reader with a sense of hope. Unique in style and subject matter, Girlchild is a breathtaking read, and Hassman is a young writer to be watched.
January 18, 2013
Picked it up, thinking it was a young adult book, but discovered it was more than that. Surprising themes on worth and the cultural ramifications of court rulings on feeble-mindedness and eugenics---there are very few times where I see a piece of fiction subtly and artfully unravel these issues in ways more profound than reams of policy analysis. Prose was lyrical, and didn't always match the age of the narrator, Rory, the main character whose life we see through her eyes between 5 and 15. Growing up in a Nevada trailer park with a single mom, this book explores the painful realities of being poor and painfully bright.
I am glad that are more books like Girlchild that address the real hardships of poor Americans because it's a reality that one-fourth of our children currently live. I would have loved to read this book when I was younger for that reason---I often found most children and young adult books tedious because they didn't explore the issues dominating my life. When a book shows you that you are not alone in your life experiences, it is a powerful thing. My life has been saved over and over thanks to books brave enough to enter certain topics. Girlchild, I'm sure, will do that for many kids, like I was, who are trying to understand how our world could be so crazy and beautiful at the same time.
I am glad that are more books like Girlchild that address the real hardships of poor Americans because it's a reality that one-fourth of our children currently live. I would have loved to read this book when I was younger for that reason---I often found most children and young adult books tedious because they didn't explore the issues dominating my life. When a book shows you that you are not alone in your life experiences, it is a powerful thing. My life has been saved over and over thanks to books brave enough to enter certain topics. Girlchild, I'm sure, will do that for many kids, like I was, who are trying to understand how our world could be so crazy and beautiful at the same time.
March 2, 2012
Probably more like 3.5 stars; there were parts that I absolutely loved, but parts that floundered a bit. (The fake math/logic problems didn't do it for me; I've seen that trick done before to much better effect.) The publishers description really does this no justice. It's in almost no way about Girlscouts, aside from some vague metaphors. This book has a lot more in common with House on Mango Street, or even Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven than the jacket would have you believe. It's told in short snippets. The longest chapter is 3 pages, I think. I read about 2/3 of it in one sitting, and I wish I'd been able to read it all in one go. The ending felt a little rushed in a way. Seemed like she went from being 10 to 15 in one paragraph, and it was hard for me to settle into reading Rory as an "adult." (15 is the year you grow up, in this book. Which is a nice little tie, maybe, to a quinceanera?)
I will say this book handles subtext incredibly well, and Rory has a clear voice, and you gotta love her.
I will say this book handles subtext incredibly well, and Rory has a clear voice, and you gotta love her.
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