In “Where Moral Authority Begins: Part II,” I am curious about what truth costs a child and her family in Dorothy Allison’s Appalachian literary fiction, Bastard Out of Carolina. I have obsessed over this novel for years, not only the story but also the language—authentic, textured, defined in place and socio-economics to which I am particularly drawn having grown up as a young girl in northern Appalachia. I am also in love with my paperback copy. French flaps and deckle edges. I have written about my love of French flaps. The French flap and deckle edge makes this paperback Bastard something more than a book. It is really an experience. I am always looking for books like Bastard Out of Carolina.
Allison set the novel in South Carolina but the textures are familiar to me, the way Cincinnati chili tastes of cinnamon and southern chili Tex-Mex. The spices are different but the feel is home. And so is the trauma.
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Rae Cline is the author of the story collection The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, North American Review and StoryQuarterly. She is the founding editor of Eckleburg and lives in New York City. Precious Ugly, a work of Appalachian literary fiction, is her debut novel….
PRECIOUS UGLY
Bookshop | The Center for Fiction | Amazon
For Largehearted Boy’s Book Notes series, I created and discussed the music playlist behind Precious Ugly.
