Customer Reviews

Girls In Trucks

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

Good writing, a page-turner, but there is no there there. After reading this book I feel I finally understand what the word slacker means. Sarah Walters, from Charleston, South Carolina, narrates this story about her girlhood through to her early thirties. She's into substance abuse and unkind men. The contrast of her affluent southern belle upbringing with her down and dirty lifestyle is handled with clever wit. But, the story is told too much on the surface, for me. It is a solipsistic tale, except there is no real tale--more a series of seemingly workshopped vignettes, or like a decoupage--a collage of scenes with a veneer of shellac. There are no interiors. It's as if Crouch takes the fiction writer's maxim "show don't tell" over the top and we have no idea, ever, what anyone is feeling. I found a riff on the Chinese to be offensive, even if it was triggered by Sarah's ex dating an Asian woman. One hopes it was meant to be ironic but because there is no reflection or interior expression, one can't know for sure. Equally, when Sarah and her boyfriend think it's hilarious to rent a car and drive onto the highway when they are both stoned, drinking beer and neither of them has driven in a year, it appears the reader is supposed to find this funny, too. There is writing talent here, but not enough sense of story or character. I'd be interested to see what Crouch does next, unless it's more of the same.

The author did an excellent job of bringing the reader into her world in the beginning of this book. However, about half way through, things started to fall apart, to the point where I had to wonder if I was indeed reading the same book, from chapter to chapter. I was disappointed that the freshness and pace dwindled into an aimless, disjointed mess of an end. Bottom line: I couldn't care less about any of the characters after reading the first half. Disappointing.

Sarah Walters grew up in Charleston trying to follow the rules. She attended Cotillion Training School to learn the dances and etiquette required of a debutante. As a member of the Camellia Society by birth, she will use these rules and skills all her enchanted life.

Sarah hears this from all directions, from her mother who drinks too much, from the Camellia Society mamas who always seem to be around, and from the other Camellias who attend Wednesday night classes.

Sarah's older sister, Eloise, is valedictorian and the most promiscuous girl in class, something she feels the need to share with Sarah. When Eloise goes away to Yale, Sarah's education also broadens. Charleston is no longer the place for her.

While Sarah learned how to serve tea, she never learned to respect herself. Sleeping around seems to be the norm, and while she feels like everyone knows the rules to this game but her, she stills wants to play.

A move to New York City with her friend Charlotte makes the game tougher as there is now more time to drink and party. Sarah spends time with the wrong men; men who are sick, or just cruel, and will let her turn herself inside out in order to keep them happy.

Tragedy in her family calls Sarah home where she realizes being a Camellia isn`t as pretty, or as safe, as it once seemed. Never the less, it is a constant-something and someone to depend on. Do the rules still apply? Can she be happy if she picks up where she left off in Charleston?

Told in a humorous voice, this is a dark tale of a young woman's endeavor to find true love and happiness. Women of all ages will identify with Sarah, if not in deed, at least in theory.

Armchair Interviews says: Well told, Girls in Trucks is a story that will keep you turning pages.

This book was perfect. I was enthralled and entertained from the title page to the last word. Katie Crouch's writing is truly next level. This is a book I will give as a gift, recommend to friends and read over and over again. As a poet, it is rare that I find prose that appeals to me the way "Girls in Trucks" did. The work is brilliant and accessible. In a word, it is perfect.

I LOVED this book. What a debut! Sarah Walters: hilarious, heart-broken, searching. She's just a beautiful, deep character. Her disappointments and her struggles and the solutions she finds are so intriguing. This book was addictive for me, partly because the writing is just fantastic (it has the two essential elements in fiction for me--humor and sadness) and partly because it is hard, I think, for any woman in America not to relate to some of this. It's like talking to my sister.

What is Katie Crouch writing now? That's what I want to know. Clearly this is a writer we haven't seen the last of, not by a long shot.

As an avid reader who enjoys books about smart, sassy southern women, I could not have been more disappointed in this book. The main character is a pathetic woman who achieves nothing and gives in to drugs and abusive relationships seemingly because she has nothing better to do. The storyline is muddled and often includes details that left me wondering, "why is this important?". I had to force myself to finish this book, and once I did I promptly returned it and got my money back. Save yourself some money and leave this one on the shelf.

*SO* disappointing. I was really, really, looking forward to reading this book. The level of disconnect between the book summary and the actual plot is so huge that I'm tempted to believe that someone just made up the summary based on a third-hand description of the book. When a book is billed as being having "more gasps, sobs, laughs, and surprises in [its] pages than in most people's entire bookshelves", then I expect it to deliver! Instead, I got depressing tripe.

The plot is poorly constructed, with a wafer thin premise. Plot lines are introduced and never mentioned again. The characters are ALL unlikable. The writing is almost unreadable at times, with multiple changes in voice, POV, etc. Now I'm mad I actually finished reading the stupid thing. I'm not quite at the White Oleander lever of hate yet, though it's pretty close. It's a waste of a good summary, good title and a great cover shot.

And do you know what my biggest pet peeve about is?? This books bills itself as being about a southern girl and "the south". The main character- and all of her friends- spend the entire book talking about how much they hate the south, their upbringing, figuring out ways to not be southern, as if it's a bad thing.

Is it wrong to say that I should have known something was up when I saw that the author was born and raised in Charleston, went to college in the north and now lives in San Francisco?

This was an odd and compelling book. On one hand I couldn't put it down, I had to know what was going to happen - on the other I was so tired of Sarah and her stubborn self-destruction; I couldn't figure out where it came from. It would have been nice to find out what finally caused the end of her relationship with Max. What happened to her sister's first marriage - that was an interesting episode. I was left with a lot of questions, like the book wasn't quite complete, some of the situations needed closure. When all is said and done, I honestly can't decided if I liked the book or not; I find myself thining about it though, so I guss that means that something about it worked.

As someone who has moved from the north to the south, and back (and back) again, I had high hopes for this book, as I enjoy reading about others changing regions. Unfortunately, the book did not meet my expectations, particularly given that the book jacket and reviews describe the main character's heritage as a fundamental part of the story. The basic premise of the story is this - Sarah, the main character, moves to New York for college after living in South Carolina her entire life. After she graduates, she moves to New York City, where she has a series of bad relationships and jobs. Two of her friends from childhood - Bitsy and Charlotte - also move to New York, and we see Bitsy marry a wealthy man and become even snobbier than before and Charlotte become a drug addict. Another friend, Annie, stays in Charleston and struggles to find someone for herself. Sarah returns to Charleston on occassion, but it is only at the end of the book, when she returns with her own daughter, that she is supposed to fully embrace her heritage.

A previous reviewer described the book as a "collage of scenes" and this is absolutely right. The book starts with Sarah's life in Charleston, takes us through her sleeping with an socially unacceptable farmer, spends about 4 pages on her college life, and then moves to New York City. Although there are some good descriptions of growing up in the South, there's no development beyond that point - we don't really see how that affects Sarah in her new life, other than the author repeatedly reminding us that Sarah got rid of her accent. Likewise, the scenes with Max - who is supposed to be the guy who just destroys Sarah - only last about 30 pages and then he is rarely mentioned again. She appears to just replace him with other guys. Likewise, other characters close to Sarah, such as her sister and Charlotte, drop in and out of the book to the point that you barely remember they exist until they suddenly appear again. At a couple of points, the point of view of the character switches from Sarah to Bitsy and Annie. At the end of the day, there is nothing unique about Sarah other than just being another woman making poor relationship choices and doing next to nothing with her life - and she could have grown up in Anytown, USA.

The author had a good idea, but the character development is severely lacking. I think the point of view changes could have worked if the readers cared more about the characters. I also think the story could have been a lot better if it had focused on just one period of Sarah's life instead of cramming 30 years into the book and not discussing any of them in depth. The relationships between the female friends are not truly developed - and there is definite room for development, given that they are supposed to be permanently connected to one another through their Southern heritage, but don't necessarily like each other.

I would definitely read another book by this author - like I said, she shows definite talent and a way with words. I kept reading until the end because I did want to see what happened with Sarah. For this book though, I would advise people to just check it out from the library before spending your money.

Wow, would I want my daughter to read this! That would be a big NO! While I did like some of Ms Crouch's writing the plot is pathetic. Sex- crazed girls, boozing mother wtih an elitist attitude, disgusting lovers, child by a one-night-stand encounter, hates Charleston [I have to wonder about that one}, and, obviously,hates the South. I could go on but I will spare the reader! Where would a "southern" writer get such a downer attitude? Certainly not growing up in Charleston, SC!!