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Product Description
From Amazon
Oprah Book Club® Selection, October 1997: Kaye Gibbons is a writer who brings a short story sensibility to her novels. Rather than take advantage of the novel's longer form to paint her visions in broad, sweeping strokes, Gibbons prefers to concentrate on just one corner of the canvas and only a few colors to produce her small masterpieces. In Gibbons's case, her canvas is the American South and her colors are all the shades of gray.
In Ellen Foster, the title character is an 11-year-old orphan who refers to herself as "old Ellen," an appellation that is disturbingly apt. Ellen is an old woman in a child's body; her frail, unhappy mother dies, her abusive father alternately neglects her and makes advances on her, and she is shuttled from one uncaring relative's home to another before she finally takes matters into her own hands and finds herself a place to belong. There is something almost Dickensian about Ellen's tribulations; like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or a host of other literary child heroes, Ellen is at the mercy of predatory adults, with only her own wit and courage--and the occasional kindness of others--to help her through. That she does, in fact, survive her childhood and even rise above it is the book's bittersweet victory.
From Publishers Weekly
The appealing, eponymous, 11-year-old orphan heroine of this Southern-focused debut survives appalling situations until she finds safe harbor in a good foster home. "Some readers will find the recital of Ellen's woes mawkishly sentimental," PW remarked, "but for others it may be a perfect summer read."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not for everyone, but a good book.,
By
This review is from: Ellen Foster: A Novel (Paperback)
If you want a book that will fit into a nice little box with a label, this ain't the book for you. However, if you like to challenge what you THINK you know, then give this a try. Excellent for a discussion group, just as good read on your own, this is a book that asks you to suspend your own experiences and try to see the world from another vantage point. The plot was interesting, the narrator's voice was appealing. I cared about what happened. A short read. But what's short on quantity is not short on substance.
5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved this book---you will also,
This review is from: Ellen Foster: A Novel (Paperback)
The conundrum---what to do? The book is told from the perspective of an eleven-year-old girl (think along the lines of Sue Monk Kidd's SECRET LIFE OF BEES). I was thinking, "Oh, no. Not again." But as usual the author handles the material expertly. But what do you do when the main character is the one telling the story, yet her grammar is terrible? Do you leave in the bad English, or do you clean it up and have the "realistic" element taken out? This is a difficult question, and a few authors get around this in various way---I'm thinking of THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD with its precocious seven-year-old who spouts the Latin names for plants. So much for bad grammar. But in ELLEN FOSTER, that couldn't have been done. I only found this "realism" mildly distracting as the story itself is good. Read in one day, it was a not-too-emotional telling by a very talented author who deserves much more respect and admiration that she is getting. Also try her ON THE OCCASION which, I believe, is her best book.
3.0 out of 5 stars
seemed dated,
By
This review is from: Ellen Foster: A Novel (Paperback)
I appreciated the humor and wisdom in Ellen's voice. I applauded her spunk. The subject matter is enormous in its own right, so I was mystified by what seemed a twist in focus at the end. Almost as though Ellen's living hell needed more weight to be of import. Possibly I'd have been more moved in 1987, when this book was first published.
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