The sheriff's deputy at the front door brings hard news to Ree Dolly. Her father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. Ree's father has disappeared before. The Dolly clan has worked the shadowy side of the law for generations, and arrests (and attempts to avoid them) are part of life in Rathlin Valley. With two young brothers depending on her and a mother who's entered a kind of second childhood, sixteen-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. She has grown up in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks and learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But along the way to a shocking revelation, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost. "A piercing, intense tale told from way inside, WINTER'S BONE is stark evidence that Daniel Woodrell is a writer of exceptional originality and importance." -Thomas McGuane "In prose both taut and lyrical, WINTER'S BONE vividly evokes the spirit of one little woman warrior." -Edna O'Brien
Winter's Bone: A Novel
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From Publishers Weekly
Woodrell flirts with—but doesn't succumb to—cliché in his eighth novel, a luminescent portrait of the poor and desperate South that drafts 16-year-old Ree Dolly, blessed with "abrupt green eyes," as its unlikely heroine. Ree, too young to escape the Ozarks by joining the army, cares for her two younger brothers and mentally ill mother after her methamphetamine-cooking father, Jessup, disappears. Recently arrested on drug charges, Jessup bonded out of jail by using the family home as collateral, but with a court date set in one week's time and Jessup nowhere to be found, Ree has to find him—dead or alive—or the house will be repossessed. At its best, the novel captures the near-religious criminal mania pervasive in rural communities steeped in drug culture. Woodrell's prose, lyrical as often as dialogic, creates an unwieldy but alluring narrative that allows him to draw moments of unexpected tenderness from predictable scripts: from Ree's fearsome, criminal uncle Teardrop, Ree discovers the unshakable strength of family loyalty; from her friend Gail and her woefully dependant siblings, Ree learns that a faith in kinship can blossom in the face of a bleak and flawed existence. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–In the poverty-stricken hills of the Ozarks, Rees Dolly, 17, struggles daily to care for her two brothers and an ill mother. When she learns that her absent father, a meth addict, has put up the family home as bond, she embarks on a dangerous search to find him and bring him home for an upcoming court date. Her relatives, many of whom are in the business of cooking crank, thwart her at every turn, but her fight to save the family finally succeeds. Rees is by turns tough and tender. She teaches her brothers how to shoot a shotgun, and even box, the way her father had taught her. Her hope is that these boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life, empty of kindness, boiling with mean. A male friend feeds her hallucinogenic mushrooms and then assaults her. But, like Mattie Ross in Charles Portis's True Grit (Penguin, 1995), Rees beats the odds with spunk and courage. In spare but evocative prose, Woodrell depicts a harsh world in which the responsibilities for survival ultimately give Rees meaning and direction. He depicts the landscape, people, and dialects with stunning realism. A compelling testament to how people survive in the worst of circumstances.–Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, Va
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By J. Cameron-Smith
TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Life is tough for sixteen year old Ree Dolly. While she dreams of escaping the Ozarks by joining the Army as soon as she can, for now she is looking after her mentally ill mother and her two younger brothers. The last time Ree saw her father, he promised he'd be back with food and money. He said:
`Start lookin' for me soon as you see my face. `Til then, don't even wonder.'
That was in the autumn, when the walnuts were falling. Now it's winter.
When Deputy Baskin turns up one winter's day, she learns that if her father doesn't appear in court the next week, her and her family will lose their home. Her father has signed over the family home and the timbered acres behind as bond for his bail. Ree knows that she needs to find her father in order to save her family, and she knows that this won't be easy.
It is a daunting task made more difficult by the clannish nature of the community with a long-standing tradition of protecting their own and closely guarding dark family secrets. Nothing sways Ree from attempting to ferret out what happened to her father in a tragedy that involves drug labs, lies and family ties. What she discovers is truth, not only about the whereabouts of her father but about herself as well.
In many ways this is a depressing novel. The picture of poverty and disadvantage, the mostly poisonous family ties create a bleak picture. Ree's strength and determination provide some hope for a different future, but it seems unlikely that she will escape. I found myself caught up in this novel, haunted by the situation Ree finds herself in, and admiring her ability to adapt.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
`Start lookin' for me soon as you see my face. `Til then, don't even wonder.'
That was in the autumn, when the walnuts were falling. Now it's winter.
When Deputy Baskin turns up one winter's day, she learns that if her father doesn't appear in court the next week, her and her family will lose their home. Her father has signed over the family home and the timbered acres behind as bond for his bail. Ree knows that she needs to find her father in order to save her family, and she knows that this won't be easy.
It is a daunting task made more difficult by the clannish nature of the community with a long-standing tradition of protecting their own and closely guarding dark family secrets. Nothing sways Ree from attempting to ferret out what happened to her father in a tragedy that involves drug labs, lies and family ties. What she discovers is truth, not only about the whereabouts of her father but about herself as well.
In many ways this is a depressing novel. The picture of poverty and disadvantage, the mostly poisonous family ties create a bleak picture. Ree's strength and determination provide some hope for a different future, but it seems unlikely that she will escape. I found myself caught up in this novel, haunted by the situation Ree finds herself in, and admiring her ability to adapt.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Format:Paperback
Reason for Reading: I enjoyed The Death of Sweet Mister so much I wanted read another book by the author right away.
Brilliant! A dark tale of a dirt poor Ozark family. Ree Dolly is 16, with hopes of escaping this life by joining up with the army when she comes of age, but her future plans are turned around when her meth lab running father skips out on his bail with his house and land as collateral leaving Ree alone with two young brothers and a mother who lost her sanity years ago. Ree must find her father before his court date and this takes her over to the other mountain clans who are by blood distantly related but more separated by clan than having any feeling as kin. Her entrance into this ruthless world where secrets to her father's whereabouts lie bring her as close to the ugly, scary truth she's ever been. Beaten and broken with the court date past, Ree has thirty days left to prove her father is dead and couldn't attend the trial, bring forth in her a country girl warrior she never knew she possessed.
A book written with beautiful, lyrical words as it describes a life of brutal kill or be killed life. A life where children (especially the boys) are groomed to become criminals from their earliest days with no chance to ever become anything more. In a way this book is a companion piece to The Death of Sweet Mister, where that tells the story of a boy's coming of age in these circumstances without any hope "Winter's Tale" tells the story of a girl's coming of age in more or less the same sort of circumstances and yet she does have hope as her femaleness gives her an edge over her male peers and even though her world is brutal and violent there is also a close family love that exists within that framework which Sweet Mister never got to experience.
A sad, dark story of a world where one lives by the unspoken code; where the consequences are to kill or be killed. A gut-wrenching ending that takes some characters down the road to the point of no return while giving others redemption and a chance to break the mold. A tale that is both ugly and beautiful at the same time.
Brilliant! A dark tale of a dirt poor Ozark family. Ree Dolly is 16, with hopes of escaping this life by joining up with the army when she comes of age, but her future plans are turned around when her meth lab running father skips out on his bail with his house and land as collateral leaving Ree alone with two young brothers and a mother who lost her sanity years ago. Ree must find her father before his court date and this takes her over to the other mountain clans who are by blood distantly related but more separated by clan than having any feeling as kin. Her entrance into this ruthless world where secrets to her father's whereabouts lie bring her as close to the ugly, scary truth she's ever been. Beaten and broken with the court date past, Ree has thirty days left to prove her father is dead and couldn't attend the trial, bring forth in her a country girl warrior she never knew she possessed.
A book written with beautiful, lyrical words as it describes a life of brutal kill or be killed life. A life where children (especially the boys) are groomed to become criminals from their earliest days with no chance to ever become anything more. In a way this book is a companion piece to The Death of Sweet Mister, where that tells the story of a boy's coming of age in these circumstances without any hope "Winter's Tale" tells the story of a girl's coming of age in more or less the same sort of circumstances and yet she does have hope as her femaleness gives her an edge over her male peers and even though her world is brutal and violent there is also a close family love that exists within that framework which Sweet Mister never got to experience.
A sad, dark story of a world where one lives by the unspoken code; where the consequences are to kill or be killed. A gut-wrenching ending that takes some characters down the road to the point of no return while giving others redemption and a chance to break the mold. A tale that is both ugly and beautiful at the same time.
By Lou
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Purchased the book and DVD as a gift for my 15 yr old Grandaughter she heard so much about it from her friends.She has not let me borrow it however she thought it was fantastic
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