Reader response to Rule of the Bone by Russel Banks
Inside cover reads:
"Chappie, the precociously wise narrator of rule of the bone, is a punked out teenager living in an upstate NY trailer park with his mother and abusive stepfather. Almost accidentally he slips into drugs and petty crime. Rejected by his parents, out of school and in trouble with the police, he drifts through crash pads, doper squats, and malls. With his best friend, Russ, he gets a crossed bone tattoo on his arm and takes the name "Bone," inventing and claiming for himself a new identity as a permanent outsider. But there's no safe have in contemporary America for a 14 year old on the lam. He takes dangerous refuge with a group of biker thieves: then hides in the boarded-up summer home of a professor and his wife: and finally settles in an abandoned school bus wiht Rose, a child he has rescued from a slick, fast talking pedophile. There Bone meets I-Man, an exiled Rastafarian who will dramatically change hils life. Together they begin a second adventure that takes the reader from the towns and malls of Middle America to the ganja growing mountains of Jamaica, an amazing, unforgettable journey of self discovery through a world of magic and violence, betrayal and redemption."
My Rxn:
ok, i normally don't like to swear anymore on this site because i know students will be reading it, but i don't know what the hell kind of crack this reviewer was smoking, but it must have been pretty whacko judging from the words.
What really piqued my interest was the back of the book: "The new rule was basically don't bother your parents and don't bother the cops or one of them will sic the other on you, because to them, to all of them you're just another homeless stoned dropout dealing small-load boom to the locals."
i was just like, "yeah! another awesome novel about street punks! sweet!" i was sorely mistaken. the first 100 pages were kind of interesting because chappie talks like the protagonist in rats saw god... it's more of a "rambling 14 year old telling a story... and it's a style that gets old super fast. The book is a total of 390 pages, and it just starts getting good around page 284, but then dwindles back to nothingness. Needless to say, i'm very disappointed.
it's also a very slow read.
It's a waste right up there with hoot and torn skirt.
Inside cover reads:
"Chappie, the precociously wise narrator of rule of the bone, is a punked out teenager living in an upstate NY trailer park with his mother and abusive stepfather. Almost accidentally he slips into drugs and petty crime. Rejected by his parents, out of school and in trouble with the police, he drifts through crash pads, doper squats, and malls. With his best friend, Russ, he gets a crossed bone tattoo on his arm and takes the name "Bone," inventing and claiming for himself a new identity as a permanent outsider. But there's no safe have in contemporary America for a 14 year old on the lam. He takes dangerous refuge with a group of biker thieves: then hides in the boarded-up summer home of a professor and his wife: and finally settles in an abandoned school bus wiht Rose, a child he has rescued from a slick, fast talking pedophile. There Bone meets I-Man, an exiled Rastafarian who will dramatically change hils life. Together they begin a second adventure that takes the reader from the towns and malls of Middle America to the ganja growing mountains of Jamaica, an amazing, unforgettable journey of self discovery through a world of magic and violence, betrayal and redemption."
My Rxn:
ok, i normally don't like to swear anymore on this site because i know students will be reading it, but i don't know what the hell kind of crack this reviewer was smoking, but it must have been pretty whacko judging from the words.
What really piqued my interest was the back of the book: "The new rule was basically don't bother your parents and don't bother the cops or one of them will sic the other on you, because to them, to all of them you're just another homeless stoned dropout dealing small-load boom to the locals."
i was just like, "yeah! another awesome novel about street punks! sweet!" i was sorely mistaken. the first 100 pages were kind of interesting because chappie talks like the protagonist in rats saw god... it's more of a "rambling 14 year old telling a story... and it's a style that gets old super fast. The book is a total of 390 pages, and it just starts getting good around page 284, but then dwindles back to nothingness. Needless to say, i'm very disappointed.
it's also a very slow read.
It's a waste right up there with hoot and torn skirt.
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