The Book of Ruth (Oprah's Book Club) | 
| Author: Jane Hamilton
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  288 reviews
Sales Rank: 51564
Media: Paperback
Edition: Oprah's Book Club
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0385265700
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385265706
ASIN: 0385265700
Publication Date: December 1, 1989
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Oprah Book Club Selection, November 1996: The Book of Ruth is a virtuoso performance and that's precisely why it can be excruciating to read. Author Jane Hamilton leads us through the arid life of Ruth Grey, who extracts what small pleasures and graces she can from a tiny Illinois town and the broken people who inhabit it. Ruth's prime tormentor is her mother May, whose husband died in World War II and took her future with him. More poor familial luck has given Ruth a brother who is a math prodigy; Matt sucks up any stray attention like a black hole. Ruth is left to survive on her own resources, which are meager. She struggles along, subsisting on crumbs of affection meted out by her Aunt Sid and, later, her screwed-up husband Ruby. Hamilton has perfect pitch. So perfect that you wince with pain for confused but fundamentally good Ruth as she walks a dead-end path. The book ends with the prospect of redemption, thank goodness--but the tale is nevertheless much more bitter than sweet.
Product Description
Winner of the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Awardfor best first novel, this exquisite bookconfronts real-life issues of alienation and violencefrom which the author creates a stunning testamentto the human capacity for mercy, compassion andlove.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 283 more reviews...
 A faint gleam of hope in a bleak landscape June 23, 2008
What ever happened to that odd, quiet girl in your high school class? Ruth is that invisible girl, poor and proud, but curious, solid, and worth knowing all the same. She has a talent for bowling, a talent for loving, a gift for friendship, and a longing for understanding and truth. Her narrative looks at her bleak life unsparingly, tries to make sense of her suffering, and doesn't dodge her own culpability. We listen as she tries to make sense of tragedy, tries to understand the glib promises of faith, and tries to learn to be the mother her child needs. We count our blessings in comparison, but with a shudder, realize that "there but for grace, go I."
Soul riveting October 31, 2007
A sad story about a girl woman who suffers low self esteem derived from a long suffering childhood of verbal sometimes physical abuse at the hand of her well meaning mother. She is the strong one (only she doesn't know it) who shows unconditional love for a pathetic man whom she only sees the good in when no one else can. Sometimes we all get trapped in these type situations.
 Intimate portrayal of small town life June 7, 2007
The Book of Ruth does a great job of examining family dynamics and everyday life in a small rural town. The relationships with the characters were realistic and the internal conflict of the heroine was poignant.
 riveting May 14, 2007
I found the book to be very riveting and could not put the book down. I do admit it was very depressing at times but life is that way. The thing I liked about this book was that it was sooooo realistic. You can go to any town in the usa and find somebody like that. And the truth is they do not know they are bad off for this is all they know. I think she did redeem herself at the end. It was one of the best books I have ever read.
Sad but Believable May 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very sad, but believable, account of a young woman growing up poor in a small town. She dreams of getting out of her current situation and away from her critical and demanding mother. To make her current situation worse, she marries a drug-addicted alcoholic.
The author, Jane Hamilton, writes beautifully and even a little comically. I found that I was looking forward to the times when I could get back to the book. I saw Jane Hamilton at an "author speak" recently and she said that her books do not have a plot so much as they draw characters and tell stories about them. This is evident in the "Book of Ruth" as nothing is really resolved in the end, but there is certainly a climax.
Highly recommended.
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