Girlchild: A Novel

By Tupelo Hassman

Rory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn't got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she's checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Uniforms, disposing of outgrown; The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost) for tips to get off the Calle: that is, the Calle de las Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop.

Rory's been told that she is one of the "third-generation bastards surely on the road to whoredom." But she's determined to prove the county and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother's habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social workers' reports, half-recalled memories, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and her grandmother's letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world even as she searches for the way out of it.

Tupelo Hassman's Girlchild is a heart-stopping and original debut.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Feb 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466801455

Tupelo Hassman

Tupelo Hassman’s debut novel, Girlchild, was the recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Harper’s Bazaar, Imaginary Oklahoma, The Independent, Portland Review, and ZYZZYVA, among other publications. She is the recipient of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Silver Pen Award and the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award, and is the first American to have won London’s Literary Death Match. She earned her MFA at Columbia University.

Book preview

teeth

Mama always hid her mouth when she laughed. Even when she spoke too gleefully, mouth stretched too wide by those happy muscles, teeth too visible. I can still recognize someone from my neighborhood by their teeth. Or lack of them. And whenever I do, I call these people family. I know immediately that I can trust them with my dog but not with the car keys and not to remember what time, exactly, they’re coming back for their kids. I know if we get into a fight and Johnny shows up we’ll agree that there has been No problem, Officer, we’ll keep it down.

I know what they hide when they hide those teeth. By the time Mama was fifteen she had three left that weren’t already black or getting there, and jagged. She had a long time to learn how to cover that smile. No matter how she looked otherwise, tall and long-legged, long brown hair, pale skin that held its flush, it was this something vulnerable about the mouth and eyes too that kept men coming back to her. The men would likely say this was due to her willingness to welcome them back, and Mama may have been an easy lay, but I’m cool with that because any easy lay will tell you, making it look easy is a lot of work. Still, no matter how fine she looked, especially after she got herself a set of fine white dentures for her twenty-fifth birthday, Mama never forgot how ugly she felt with those snaggly teeth. In her head, she never stopped being a rotten-mouthed girl.

It’s the same with being feebleminded. No matter how smart you might appear to be later with your set of diplomas on their fine white parchment, the mistakes you made before the real lessons sunk in never fade. No matter how high you hang those documents with their official seals and signatures, how shining and polished the frame, your reflection in the glass will never let you forget how stupid you felt when you didn’t know any better. You never stop seeing those gaps in your smile.

hope chest

Here are two things of mine: a glass unicorn with golden hooves, the body broken in several pieces, and what looks like a broken necklace. Did I break these? I stroke the horse’s thigh, this yes, but the necklace, no. The necklace came to me like this, links of smooth, small pebbles in shades of underwater. Each stone has clasps of metal on its ends or hardened bits of glue from where the clasps, once upon a time, connected. What is missing, what I do not have, is the letter that explains these stones, and what it is I’m to do with them now. The letter was written from my grandma to me on a late Christmas, written on onionskin paper (as she always wrote) and in black felt-tip (as she always wrote) with all of her usual underlines and emphasis, and I remember at least these words … these stones are like the women in our family, some disconnected, some lost, but each part of a greater chain and each beautiful in its own way. There were once many strands, but here are all that remain. It will be up to you to keep them together. I also know that these words were said better, so much better, by Grandma Shirley Rose. But she’s not here. What’s here are these stones, this broken horse, stacks of letters in felt-tip and onionskin, a tattered Girl Scout Handbook, a welfare file copied from carbon paper, burnt-out votives, shotgun shells, tennis shoes, one green thumb, and me. My name is Rory Dawn Hendrix, feebleminded daughter of a feebleminded daughter, herself the product of feebleminded stock. Welcome to the Calle.

boomtown

Just north of Reno and just south of nowhere is a town full of trailers and the front doors of the dirtiest ones open onto the Calle. When the Calle de las Flores trailer park was first under development on the rum-and-semen-stained outskirts of Reno, all of its streets were going to glow with the green of new money and freshly trimmed hedges and Spanish names that evoked the romance of the Old West. At the first curve off the I-395 a promise was erected of what was to come, bold white letters against a gold background, CALLE DE LAS FLORES—COME HOME TO THE NEW WEST. But soon after the first sewer lines were laid down and the first power lines were run up, the investors backed out because the Biggest Little City in the World was found to be exactly that, too little. With its dry, harsh climate and harsher reputation, Reno could not support suburbs of a middle-class kind, and the new home buyers needed to make the Calle’s property values thrive never arrived. Once the big money figured that out, the big money said adios and Calle de las Flores ended before it’d begun.

Broken in half during the first Sierra winter, what remains of the sign still stands at that first curve off the interstate. Warped by the weight of too much snow and disappointment, beat down by too many punches from the fists of Calle boys, the DE LAS FLORES have scattered to the winds. All that’s left to speak for the neighborhood that grew up around it is the word CALLE, its two Spanish L’s asking why on a desert-bleached sign.

roll call

Mama says my brothers were the only reason she’d not followed Grandma to the Calle years before, so when the boys left home to free fish from the ocean with their delinquent dad, we left Santa Cruz and the man who was my father in the rearview. Mama had come to Reno the first time years before that, when she was getting divorced from my brothers’ daddy. She’d had to stay here for six weeks to make it legal, and even in that short time was able to find a job, so she knew she could find work here again, running keno or making change, and Grandma Shirley agreed. Grandma used to live in California too but she moved here before I was born, moved for good after living here temporarily to finally escape marriage to Grandpa John, Mama’s dad. She found she could escape his memory easier here too. Not only that, the pay was higher and the rents were lower, so Grandma gave up the wet and wild nature of Santa Cruz for the death and dirt of Reno’s high desert in order to make a fresh start, and four years later so did we. By then, Grandma had put in her time, marking tickets behind one keno counter after another from Boomtown to the Strip before she eventually got a job tending bar at the Truck Stop right at the end of the Calle. The desert sand of the Calle couldn’t be more different from the sandy beaches of Santa Cruz, but the cement and glass and ringing slots of Reno’s downtown still felt more like home than anywhere else because this was the first place that ever delivered what both Hendrix women wanted—freedom from their husbands. The Biggest Little City in the World took them in and set them free, and after Mama had paid her own casino dues, she spent months of long nights picking up shifts for the bartenders that came and went at Grandma’s side until she finally got called down to the Truck Stop to talk about working a regular shift.

Mama parks next to the Four Humors Ice-Cream Truck, and inside the Truck Stop, the Ice Cream Man himself is parked on a barstool. Mama says that the Ice Cream Man spends a lot of time at her bar but it’s the first time I’ve seen him here, and as we walk past him all I can think about is all that ice cream sitting out in the sun while he sits in here in the dark. Mama sits me at a table by the jukebox and turns my head away from the bar, points me toward the toys she’s put on the table. Stop staring now, R.D., she says, and keep your fingers crossed.

My favorite toys are ones Grandma made, crocheted and stuffed: a polar bear with green scarf and hat, a family of mice, the littlest one holding a red lace heart with Grandma’s careful I love Rory D. stitched across its front, a yellow chick inside a cracked egg bright with spring flowers. Every day I bring a different one to show-and-tell, and today Mama had Grandma Mouse and Mama Mouse in the car with her when she picked Baby Mouse and me up from first grade. At first we four just sit facing each other and pretend not to be nervous for Mama over at the bar, but then I start looking through the labels on the front of the jukebox and forget I was nervous at all. There’s Silver Threads and Golden Needles and Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue and Mama always has quarters for Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain and I like Me and You and a Dog Named Boo and I like that I can watch the people at the bar reflected in the jukebox’s glass case. There are two regulars I know, the Ice Cream Man and Dennis, but Mama is talking with a dark-haired woman I don’t know and can barely see, she is so short and tucked away on the other side of the bar.

I see Dennis has a pile of toilet paper in front of him and I know what he’s doing. Every time we come in to say hi to Grandma, Dennis gets up from his place at the very end of the bar, goes into the bathroom, and comes out a minute later. He takes toilet paper back to his seat where he sits squishing and turning and rolling it into the shape of a rose. It’s always a rose and it’s always for me. The first time he gave me one, he put his empty hand out for me to shake and I felt Mama go stiff and dangerous beside me. Grandma spoke up, soothing, Jo, Dennis has been here longer than the Truck Stop has. And to me, R.D., would you look at that flower. I shook Dennis’s big hand, which felt too rough to grow a flower out of TP, and said thank you and he went back to his seat. There are ten toilet-paper flowers on the shelf by my bed, and number eleven is interrupted when the Truck Stop door opens and in walks Timmy’s mom. I know Timmy from sometimes when we get babysat together so I know his mom too, but today the Hardware Man is hanging on his mom’s arm and I forget what I’m doing and drop Baby Mouse down the side of the jukebox remembering how the Hardware Man brought Mama in one night after driving her home from the Truck Stop. I watched his shadow over Grandma’s shoulder when she leaned down to hug me and whisper goodnight, but he didn’t whisper at all when he offered too many times to tuck Mama into bed. He kept offering even after Grandma left until Mama told him loud and clear, Thanks for the ride, Jack. She said ride like a car door slamming, quick and hard enough to break a finger, and that must’ve been what convinced him it was actually time to go; besides, his name isn’t Jack.

I push my cheek against the wall to where I can see Mouse caught against the jukebox in the dark. I kneel down and scrunch up as close as I can, reach my hand through cobwebs and cigarette butts, stretch my fingers, feeling for a leg or whisker, and finally, mouse tail. I hold tight with thumb and finger, and pull. She sticks but she comes out. The heart is unstitched from one paw but Mouse held on to it with the other and I am dusting her off when Mama comes over and says, "Friday and Saturday nights, Ror. Come meet my boss."

At the end of the bar, Dennis finishes flower number eleven and messes my hair, and I wish my thank-you smile was loud enough to cover the Hardware Man’s voice saying, Another jailhouse bouquet, Dennis. And to me, One day a real man’ll bring you a real bouquet, hon.

The Hardware Man says bouquet like it looks, bow-ket, and I don’t think before I say, "It’s bouquet, Jack. Like okay."

From the corner of my eye I see the Ice Cream Man swivel away on his barstool like he just remembered he’s there to drink, but Dennis laughs loud and slaps the bar. I figure that’s going to make the apology I’ll have to say worth it when the Hardware Man starts laughing too, even though there’s not much funny in his voice: O-kay, bou-quet! Got a smart one here, boys, look out! O-kay! Bou-quet! He hits his knees and says it over and over, O-kay! Bou-quet! until Timmy’s mom puts her hand on his arm and says to me, Why Lori, you’ve got such a pretty face, without caring if I’m pretty at all. Her bright blond hair is in big silky curls and they bounce when she turns and says to Mama, This must be the first time I’ve seen Lori’s nose out of a book, and she sure cares how pretty Mama is because her eyes move up and down and get narrow like her voice, but Mama’s voice rolls right back at her, growling with r’s, "Rory is the best reader in three grades."

Timmy’s mom’s face goes white and dumb and my face goes pink as mouse ears with the hot shame of being smart and rubbing the Hardware Man’s nose in it and I’m still burning when up comes Pigeon. Pigeon is the tiny lady with dark hair who gave Mama weekend shifts we can count on, and she cuts right through all the laughter and growling, bends down, and takes my hand. She says my name right, like if she’s been saying it all her life, I expect I’ll be seeing a lot more of you, Rory Dawn, and we shake on it, like grown-ups.

anthropologize

The basic subsistence pattern on the Calle is commonly referred to as living paycheck to paycheck. Welfare and disability checks, payroll checks, and the ever rare child-support check are all spent long before they arrive. These checks are supplemented with a collection of surplus or government food, such as peanut butter and certain cheeses. In instances where fresh food is particularly desirable but unattainable, a family eats its way through frozen potpies bought on sale for nineteen cents apiece and waits for better days. Gambling is important to Calle residents, both during and after their shifts at the various downtown casinos, and can be accomplished in several ways, including via lottery tickets, blackjack, and drunk driving. In addition, Calle men hunt and trap everything from birds to stray hubcaps to small girls, using slingshots, shotguns, and the rustle of candy wrappers.

The Calle’s economic system is one of generalized reciprocity and enforces the interdependence of the group. Whoever has cigarettes left over after everyone else has smoked theirs is expected to share, with payback assumed on the following first or fifteenth. Whoever is caring for children, their own or another’s, is expected to be able to add another child or children to that number at a moment’s notice, with little or no talk of compensation. Whoever has gas left in the tank after everyone else is on empty is expected to drive others to the grocery, the cigarette store, the propane fill, or the parole office. This system acts to stabilize the Calle economy and has other important benefits. If the bounty is not shared, for example, the nicotine cravings of one father could cause him to beat his son and the police might be called; if children are left without supervision, even if spotty, or in cases of missing an appointment with a probation officer, the police might also be called. A market exchange system would not succeed here, as all substances, once shared, are considered gifts, and on the Calle it is taboo to calculate the worth of gifts and, indeed, to calculate at

Reviews for Girlchild

[rdra1962 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was attracted to this book by it's cover; remember the old library cards, you could see who had read the book before you....I loved that. This is a first novel by a writer with a distinct voice. The book reads partly as a novel, partly as a scrapbook. Some may find this disjointed or jarring, I found the interspersed math problems, letters and reports allowed me to understand the characters and their circumstances even more. The writing is poetic and brutal, I found myself rereading paragraphs to absorb their beauty.

"Reno is just like Tahoe, only without anything beautiful, Tahoe but without the fresh air and fir trees, without fathers and sons out for their first fishing trip. Tiptoe up behind Tahoe and put a hand over it's mouth. Bear down slowly until it doesn't fight the developers pawing it's land. That's Reno."

This is not a happy, or even a hopeful book, but as a reader I was able to admire the multi-dimensional characters even as they failed each other. I read this book as slowly as possible, savouring the writing, knowing I would miss the characters once I was done.

[lilacwolf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

From Lilac Wolf and StuffThe cover caught my eye. A trailer that looks like it would feel at home in my trailer park but set in the desserts of Nevada.I started reading and it knocked me over to read a story that followed my own childhood eerily close. It didn't hide how common child sexual abuse is, but it didn't go into painful detail either. I think it was the perfect balance on such a difficult topic for so many (too many) women.This story is not an easy read. It deals with those living in poverty for generations as their own counter-culture. I thought it was brilliant because so much of it range true. Especially how anyone from the government (including or and especially police) is not to be trusted.How very hard people work just to get by. During a time when the stereotype of the welfare abusers is running rampant, we see that is stupid because even with welfare, life is hard and lean.I thought this was such a sad read, and so well written I literally couldn't put it down. It's not going to be for everyone. The story is written almost like a diary, with the time-frame and memories jumping all over the place without a lot of hints about where you are currently at in Rory Dawn's life. But I absolutely loved it, the story was completely captivating.

[loveatfirstbook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman is one of those books, that after reading other people’s reviews, I was dying to read. And luckily, this book fell into my hands after a library book sale (those are always the best, aren’t they?).Girlchild is a book about Rory Dawn Hendrix, a girl who lives in the trailer park in Reno with her mother and near her grandmother. Her life is not beautiful, not wonderful, not uplifting in any way at all.But Rory finds a connection with the Girl Scout Handbook, which is her bright shiny way out of the trailer park.For the full review, visit Love at First Book

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman was a difficult read as it is a coming of age story that deals with both sexual abuse and family dysfunction. Rory Dawn Hendrix is growing up in the Calle de Las Flores trailer park on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada where the inhabitants barely make ends meet and the police are regular visitors. Rory’s single mother is a hard drinking bartender at the Truck Stop. While at work Rory is entrusted to teenage babysitter Carol. It soon becomes obvious that Carol’s father has been molesting Carol and has now turned his attentions onto Rory. When his abuse is discovered, he spirits himself and his daughter away while Rory is left to recover as best as she can. Rory takes her inspiration from a battered copy of “The Girl Guides Handbook” and pretty much raises herself. Although Rory scores amazingly well on IQ tests and is an excellent student, she struggles with both low self-esteem and, at times, self-loathing.Girlchild unfolds through diary entries, social worker’s reports, memories, story problems, arrest records and family tales. Although the subject matter is grim, the author adds plenty of dark humor to tell this heartbreaking story of one young American have-not. I found this book to be a powerful and original read.

[booklove2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

'Girlchild' is the story of what it means to a little girl when men find boredom in a trailer park near Reno, when all that they can see is the desert. This is told from the point of view of Rory Dawn Hendrix (from her name I envisioned her parents as a Gilmore Girl and a rock star.) Most of the chapters are less than three pages, and some of the story is told through social service reports or pages of a Girl Scout handbook. I was a bit wary when I heard the story was about abuse. It is certainly one of the tougher subjects a book can have, and in no way entertaining -- a quality I usually look for in a book. Thankfully, the abuse doesn't go into too much detail and remains vague and hinted at. Rory's mother unknowingly puts her in harms way while being haunted by her own trauma and trying to keep her daughter away from that, thus giving her less options in raising her daughter. Her harm perpetuates her daughter's harm. Even the most well-meaning parents who try so hard make mistakes. Rory's only guidance in her desolation is her Girl Scouts handbook. Rory is such a sweet innocent voice -- you really want her to make it out of that trailer park and be strong, as her grandma says "someone has to". 'Girlchild' is less mystical and magical than Karen Russell's 'Swamplandia' but also less raw, more delicate than a book by Dorothy Allison. Hassman has some admirable writing skills, I just wish those skills wouldn't go to such a dark place. It seems like every female in this book is abused and you never get to see the happy times of any of the characters, like before Rory has to grow up quick. Rory seems to find an answer, but I don't think it is that easy. Not very fun or escapist, but it is good at what it is supposed to be doing -- telling the story of abuse, when not many people tell that story for themselves.

[craneflat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was at times hard to read, but it was worth it since it was so beautifully written. Looking forward to seeing more from this author.

[district13_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A beautifully-written story, told in vignettes, about a girl growing up in a desert trailer park in the late '70s and early '80s. It's difficult to say that I "enjoyed" this book, as the girl, Rory Dawn, and her single mom experience quite a few devastating and dehumanizing events, but the tale is told through Rory Dawn's eyes, and so we get to see firsthand her resilience and her fight against everything that tries to destroy her.My favorite part about this book is the fact that Rory repeatedly checks out a Girl Scout handbook from her local library and uses it to guide her through the rough parts of her life.

[lilibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rory Dawn lives in a trailer with her mother who tends bar at a truck stop. Poverty and violence have defined the lives of women in their families for generations. Rory, using the girl scout handbook as her guide, tries to learn how to navigate the world.

[foolplustime · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are many reasons why I pick a book up and this one was brought home because of the praise from Heather O'Neill, whose Lullabies for Little Criminals I read last year, on the front. The fact Ms O'Neill praises it will give you a better idea of what you're in for with this book than the blurb does:"Rory Dawn Hendrix is in a Girl Scout troop of one.She lives in a trailer park called the Calles de las Flores near Reno.And she's determined to leave, childless, before her sixteenth birthday. Easier said than done."Given the events in the book, that blurb is rather distasteful in addition to being wildly inaccurate. This is a book which covers Rory Dawn's life from age 5 through to 16. It is that rare thing: a female book about female lives and the problems and conflicts men - through no fault of their own - do not have to think about, worry about, or even give daily thought to. It is one of the books to hold up when detractors claim women authors are equal these days (look at the Granta list! Why are you still complaining?!). You'll know we've reached literary equality when you can hold a book like this up and somebody in the room has read it.So, yes. I liked it very much and I especially liked the style - short chapters, almost vignettes.

[timbazzett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Tupelo Hassman's debut novel, GIRLCHILD, quite simply: Blew. Me. Away.Rory Dawn, or R.D., Hendrix and her hard-luck bartender mom, Johanna, live on the Calle, short for Calle de las Flores, a dead-end trailer park on the fringes of Reno. The fact is the only flowers Rory can depend on are the toilet-paper flowers fashioned for her by one of the regulars at the Truck Stop, the bar where her mother works. The Calle instead brought to mind another street I read of many years ago, STREET WITHOUT JOY, the title of Bernard Fall's landmark history of the Vietnam conflict. Indeed, Hassman's young heroine-narrator describes her street thusly:"And the Calle is a kind of war zone, the enemy is all around us, the enemy is us. We're so pent up we can't even trust ourselves, let alone each other ... there's wounded everywhere, and that's what the bars are for, to house the wounded. Tending bar is a triage all its own."So yeah; there are no real flowers on the Calle, only misery, sexual predators, dashed dreams and ruined lives. R.D.'s own misery is meticulously recorded in short bursts of powerful prose, although some events so painful they can only be described in long lines of blacked-out words, leaving the physical and emotional carnage to the imagination of the reader. But there is hope for Rory. She reads. And sometimes there is salvation in books - a way out. A superior student in a mediocre school system, she stands out, even while she endures unspeakable horrors in her home life.Fatherless and victimized by sexual predators, she takes comfort in TV shows like "Family Ties" ("because the dad's beard is soft like his voice and the mom's teeth are crooked and she smiles sweet anyway...") and "M*A*S*H" ("because of Hawkeye ... Hawkeye doesn't quit. Even when he's up to his elbows in blood and bombs are falling, and the lights won't stay on, he doesn't walk away. Hawkeye will save your life no matter where you come from ..."). Again, you will note that R.D. may be just a kid, but she can obiously relate to war.Her other refuge on this street without joy is her grandmother, who does manage to coax some flowers from the arrid desert soil. And although both Grandma and Mom are fallible - imperfect and beaten down by lives wracked with sexual abuse, poverty and hopelessness - Rory clings desperately to their love, even to the point of shielding them from what is happening to her, afraid they'll be disappointed.She also has her own personal bible, a dog-eared copy of THE GIRL SCOUT HANDBOOK, which, unfortunately offers no chapter with advice on becoming a woman, so she writes her own chapter: "Proficiency Badge: Puberty," which is guaranteed to bring a rueful mix of tears and laughter.It's been a while since I last read such a powerful coming-of-age novel. One I can think of is Alicia Erian's TOWELHEAD. But nah; Hassman's Rory Dawn Hendrix is one-of-a-kind. I could say so much more about this book, but I don't want to spoil it. I will give it my by-now trademark highest praise: "HOLY CRAP THIS IS A GOOD BOOK!" VERY highly recommended.

[laurieae · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not exactly an uplifting book and the 2nd coming of age novel with a young girl narrator I have finished in a week. Despite the ultimately depressing story in Age of Miracles, Girlchild was much more thought-provoking for me and more bleak. I knew a lot of kids who lived in trailer parks when I went to high school and I saw most of those kids, boys and girls, end up exactly as their parents had, just like in this book. Generational poverty is hard to escape and when you throw in early pregnancy, unreliable relationships, and lack of educational attainment, for many in our society, their entire lives are already proscribed.
I enjoyed this book but I think I will be searching out a less bleak, perhaps happier books for my next choice.

[justablondemoment · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While I didn't find this to be mind-blowing book it certainly grabbed at my heart. Rory was just an incredible look at how strong young children can be. Much stronger than they should have to be, but there none the less. For the most part, I really enjoyed Tupelo's writing style,however at times I confess to being rather confused at what was trying to be said. Some of the short chapters I know had meaning beyond the print but, my understanding failed. Very good book though and I would recommend.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a moving story about a young girl, Rory Dawn, who is bright, curious and empathetic. Growing up with her mother in a trailer park north of Reno, Rory's life is one of sexual abuse, neglect and Social Services. But Rory is a survivor, with a strength that allows her to stay well adjusted through it all. And she dreams of escaping the multigenerational legacy of poverty, teen pregnancy and addiction. Although this book deals with heavy themes, Rory's narration provides humour and insights that lessen the gloom. Until you stop to think. It is a sad commentary on life where a major indicator of your success in life is your address.

[kimpiddington · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Spirited, self-aware narrator that readers will really root for. Difficult and gritty situations handeled beautifully.

[zmagic69 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well written story, but the subject matter is very intense at times. The story is about Rory Dawn, a young girl growing up with a single mother in a trailer park north of Reno. While the book is funny at times it is mostly sad with a very mature subject matter, and description of multiple generations making bad decisions and lifestyle choices including; alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic violence, poverty, teen pregnancy and child molestation. Heavy themes that are very well written by an excellent author.

[fulner · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This story was quite different than what the description gave it. From the description I expected some poor girl who couldn't afford her Girl Scout Dues being sent off on some world wind adventure where she had to live off the land and fight bears to survive. Like a modern day "Hatchet". Instead I got a story about a poor girl who had to fight child abuse, sexual abuse, broken families, and stupid government employees. It was dark. The story also frequently jumps between the "present' and reading old letters, old social work reports etc. It’s hard to follow on the audio book. My guess is that there would be better hints in the actual book, maybe a different font, or intentions or something. I also really found the voice of the reader annoying, which seems frequent when I hear audio books read by women. That may say more about me than about female readers, I’m not certain. Regardless if you are into dark stories about girls fighting sexual abuse by local child care providers, I recommend the actual book, if you aren't into that kind of thing, skip this one.

[susanbeamon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Our hero wants to be the star of her life, but she has to find the rules and her path without much help. Her family is not very functional, her mother means well but isn't all that connected with the world any more. The rest of her family is scattered. Social services checks in but doesn't do much else. So, our girl uses an old edition of the Girl Scout Manual as her guide. Growing up can be very interesting.

[eenerd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Overall a really great story. This was hard to rate because it was very good 95% of the way through, but I felt it fizzled a little at the end. Follows a young girl, Rory Dawn Hendrix, through the difficulties of life in a decrepit trailer park outside Reno, through interweaving the trials of the previous two generations of women throughout the book. Ragged, gritty, and very honest look at the realities of growing up poor and female, and how hard it is NOT to perpetuate the cycles of poverty + violence in these families. The voice was really amazing throughout, until the end when it goes into the aftermath of a particular situation with Rory Dawn's mother (I don't want to spoil it!), I just thought it was kind of anticlimactic and lame. Maybe it was like this purposefully, but I don't think so. I would still totally recommend this book though, the good far outweighs the bad here, and Tupelo Hassman is certainly an author worth keeping an eye on.

[lahochstetler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rory Dawn Hendrix is growing up poor in a trailer park in Nevada. The women in her family have all moved from early pregnancy to lives of poverty and drudgery. Rory is determined to get away from her trailer park, the Calle. The Calle conforms to every stereotype of lower-class white America. Adults move from mindless jobs to bars and casinos where they drown themselves in alcohol and dreams. Little is expected of children and little attention is paid to them. Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse are the norm. Rory's guide to life is her Girl Scout Handbook. With this she sets about tasks of survival and discovering what information county officials are harboring about her family. Undoubtedly this is an unusual book. It is written as Rory's diary, from childhood through her teenage years. Her youthful observations give voice to the desperation of poverty, and the sense of futility that pervade the Calle. The book is intriguing, it is also depressing.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The character of Rory quite quickly won me over and I found myself just wanting to grab her and get her out of there. She is also the narrator and tells her story in a matter of fact tone of voice in relatively short musings. Parts of this were hard to read but I just found myself wanting something good to happen for her. The writing is unique as is this first book by a new author. Can't wait to see what she does next.

[scratch_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Widely praised, this debut novel reads like a cross between Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina and "J.T. Leroy's" Sarah. If you've read a lot of misery lit, especially coming-of-age misery lit, you won't find anything new here. Trailer park, sexual abuse, addiction, check check check.

[alexann_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rory isn't your typical Girl Scout. For one thing, she belongs to a troop of one. She always "does her best", but in fact, the Girl Scout Handbook is not of much help to Rory in dealing with the issues life throws her way. Living in the high desert just outside Reno, Rory's home is a double-wide in a trailer park in a neighborhood that locals call The Calle. Her mom works the bar at the truck stop across the street, and Rory is left to do much of her growing up on her own--or with the help of careless babysitters who unwittingly leave her in dangerous situations from which she may never recover. Told in her own voice (with the help of letters from Grandma and documents from an unseen social worker, Rory's story is by turns hysterical and heart-breaking. First novelist Tupelo Hassman has created an unforgettable heroine in Rory Dawn Hendrix, strong as steel, delicate as a lace doily--this reader won't be forgetting her soon! A wonderful debut!

[smileydq · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Creatively written, the story is at times funny, realistic, and yet horrifying in its tragedy. The story is told in short chapters in a wide variety of styles, tied together loosely by Rory, the girl, reading from the Girl Scout Handbook and trying to model her life through the outdated and often irrelevant advice she reads there. There are also letters, parts of files from the state, pages that are mostly blacked out words and more - enough style that at times it overwhelms the plot, though for the most part I think the unique style was what carried the story. The reader gets a real sense of Rory and her life, from childhood through adolescence. There is a plot but the book is almost more about human resilience, the character of a family and a town and the nature of intelligence than it is about the story itself. I found the book sad and I didn't find the end uplifting in the same way as many other reviewers, but I did think the author managed to wrap up the tragic story with a little bit of hope.

[coolmama_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a heartbreaking, and beautifully told debut novel.Narrated by Rory Dawn Hendrix, the child of a single mom, who lives on a trailer park called the Calle in Reno, NV. She tells the story of her life through self-narrated diary-like entries, SAT-like questions, sections of the Girl Scout Handbook, and transcriptions of her mom's past Welfare reports (which she stole). Rory lives on the wild-west like, rule free Calle and attends school where she is so intelligent, the spelling bee is her ticket out of there. Her mom works at the local truck stop bar and she is cared for by the Hardware Store Man, his daughter Carol, and her grandmother.Tupelo transforms us to this world in her direct, heartwretching descriptions of life that is hard to survive, and even harder to get out of.

[klburnside · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like others said, this book is really depressing. It is about a girl growing up in a trailer park outside Reno as she struggles with poverty and sexual abuse. While the story isn't always engaging, the writing is so impressive, I think the book is deserving of four stars. I enjoyed the author's clever way of putting words together to tell the story.

[Lynda Rodriguez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this. I found it slow going at first but it really picked up and I truly enjoyed Rory

[steve02476 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Powerful, beautiful, wrenching, sad, funny in spots. I'm looking forward to her next book, if she has another one in her.

[dairyqueen84 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't going to finish this book because it was so sad but when I read reviews here on Goodreads, I was convinced to continue. It was still a sad read but with a glimmer of hope at the end.

[carriewuj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hassman is a powerhouse of a writer with beautiful imagery, description and reflection about the ugly subject of child abuse/molestation. Set in Reno, NV in the 70s, this fictional story is told from Rory D.'s point of view about her white trash upbringing and the legacy of her "feeble-minded" Mama and Grandma who were both children having children in part due to ignorance and in part due to circumstances. Hassman's poetic writing allows for short chapters that can stand alone as essays, much like Cisneros' House on Mango Street but for a more mature audience. The abuse itself isn't as vivid as Mary Karr's memoirs, but the after-effects are chilling and heart-breaking. Tragedy is a fact of life on the Calle (the neighborhood where Rory grows up), but the ending is hopeful and promising.

[mandarella-337035 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is why I love reading so much; this book is like nothing I've ever read before and it took me to a place I've never been.

"My name is Rory Dawn Hendrix, feebleminded daughter of a feebleminded daughter, herself the product of feebleminded stock. Welcome to the Calle."

Rory Dawn comes from a liniage of bad news - both her mother and grandmother were teenage moms, sexually abused, alocholics, gamblers, smokers, and most importanly they have been stuck in Calle de las Flores - the trailer park. While it is clear that history seems to repeat itself, Rory's Grandma instills these expecations into Rory - "Someone’s got to make it and it has to be you.” Does she?

The writing style of Tupelo Hassman is unique - maybe not for everyone - very short chapters (sometimes in the form of a letter or social worker's report) at times poor grammar and very choppy. However in the end, it creates such a tragic, beautiful and original story. I loved it from the beginning.