MARCH 19, 1993 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

ENTERTAINMENT

Riveting tale of poor white trash from lesbian author

Bastard Out of Carolina

by Dorothy Allison

Dutton/Plume, 1993. $10.00, paper.

Reviewed by Timothy Robson Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina is one of the most important books of 1992. Originally published in April last year, Dutton/Plume has recently released a trade paper reprint. It was finalist for the 1992 National Book Award (Allison was one of two queer writers nominated--Paul Monette's Becoming a Man won the award for best non-fiction). Allison's book was chosen by the American Library Association as one of the most significant books for young adults of 1992. It has received lavish praise from critics around the country.

Allison has recently become the center of a controversy in Oklahoma after being invited--and subsequently dis-invited, allegedly because of her sexual orientation-by the Oklahoma Center for the Book. The Center's officials deny that her lesbianism had any connection to the withdrawal of the invitation. The Advocate reports that Dutton is supporting Allison in the controversy by mailing copies of Bastard Out of Carolina to board members of the Oklahoma Center for the Book and libraries in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

Were not Dorothy Allison's prose so beautiful, Bastard Out of Carolina would be unbearable. She tells the horrific story of a young girl growing up with her whitetrash family in Greenville County, South Carolina. Ruth Anne Boatwright--Bone to her family--was born to her unconscious mother after her mother was thrown from a car driven by a drunken uncle. Bone became a certified bastard when her granny refused to tell the hospital authorities the name of Bone's father. Bone's mother's persistent efforts to have the birth certificate changed were to no avail.

This is a tale of poverty, drunkenness, violence and sexual abuse ("What's a South Carolina virgin?" "A seven-year-old who

can run fast."). But it is also a story of dreams and coming to terms with the life one has been dealt. Bone dreams of being a gospel singer and leaving her family behind (despite the fact that she can't carry a tune).

Bone befriends Shannon Pearl, the despised albino daughter of managers of touring gospel singers. They have their hate to share. (Allison's description of the picnic in which Shannon goes to meet her Maker is a stroke of comic-horror genius, combining a barbecue with an auto de fe.) Bone dreams of escaping the sexual advances of her stepfather Daddy Glen, constructing elaborate fantasies of killing him while in the act and watching him as life ebbed away. But even when confronted with the self-guilt of rape, like many other victims of sexual abuse, she refuses to betray her attacker.

Bone dreams of a life in the woods, just as her mysterious Aunt Raylene has created. She reads voraciously everything she can get her hands on; her books from the public library lift her out of her horror. One of the most striking passages in the book occurs when Bone reads Gone with the Wind and realizes that she identifies not with Scarlett O'Hara, but with the Slatterys, the trash family who live near Tara.

Dorothy Allison writes with respect for her characters and the natural beauty of South Carolina. She loves these people. In interviews she has revealed that she is one of them. One of her publicity photos shows Allison pictured with a shotgun, one of the central images of Bone's fantasies of getting rid of Daddy Glen. The easy lyricism of Allison's prose and the sensuality of her descriptions make this story compelling. She has captured the speech and spirit of poor southerners. Despite being beyond my realm of experience, Dorothy Allison convinces me that these people exist. This book must be counted as one of the major literary endeavors of our time, and I hope it is the first of many more from Dorothy Allison.

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