This short gem tugs at the heart with a same gritty focus on the messed-up human condition, and it wasn't until I flipped through the author information at the end that I realized why it felt so familiar. Kaye Gibbons is from Chapel Hill, NC, and her writing shares regional similarities with some of my favorite modern Carolinian writers (for example, Clyde Edgerton).
Unlike some of my far less favorite Southern writers (William Faulkner), Gibbons' writing is infused with a sense of hope. It's also comprehensible. But the hope is what really stands out. Young Ellen Foster starts life with a dying mother, a deadbeat, abusive dad, a demented grandmother, and very little support of any type. She persistently solves problems, and each obstacle teaches her a little bit more.
There seems to be a new genre of Female Under the Odds. Way back when, there was a Rags to Riches genre of hardworking, morally straight young men who prospered despite all odds. The current genre is far more depressing, and often rather hopeless. Ellen Foster makes this group a little better, a little more positive, and definitely more defiant.
Worth a read. I will eventually grab more of Gibbons' books.
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