Customer Reviews

Hick

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book. It's dark and gives you a lot to think about, even months after finishing it. Portes is a gifted writer and I can't wait to read more. Perfect for book groups--that is, book groups who like darker reads. If you like Virgin Suicides (the book, not the movie), read "Hick."

To be the child of two drunks at thirteen is to be an adult, aged by the need to survive the very parents charged with your well-being. Luli McMullen knows this drama inside-out, tired of being caught in the middle as her parents slowly self-destruct. In this paean to lost-between-the-cracks children, Luli tries to make sense of a chaotic life, her circumstances weighing heavily on too-slender shoulders. When both parents descend into the madness of alcoholism in a tortured marriage, the child exists on small fantasies and macaroni and cheese. And those are the good days. Everything is measured by the number of drinks consumed, violence escalating by the hour, until one day, her father driving into the sunset and her mother gone with yet another man, Luli takes their example and heads for the road. What she finds on her journey isn't much better than what she left behind, the world outside her door just as cold and uncaring.

Leaving Nebraska with her thumb in the air, the first ride Luli accepts is a challenge. Acting tough and provocative, the teen is soon booted to the curb, thinking it just as well, the driver, Eddie Kreezer, too close to crazy for comfort. Next Luli hitches a ride with the world-weary Glenda, a coke-sniffing hustler on a mission and a deadline she doesn't care to explain. While Glenda appears trustworthy, at least not as dangerous as other options, Luli becomes more wary with each passing day, unable to trust this woman's motives any more than her own mother's inconsistencies. Holding herself together with street-smart dignity, the child watches and waits, adapting to the needs of the moment; unfortunately, her best interests are never the issue, as Eddie Kreezer comes back into the picture, an associate of the enigmatic and blustery Glenda. Luli finds no purchase in this nether-world either, drawn into a sordid situation that rapidly spirals into violence.

Written from a teen's perspective, the young protagonist is her own best defender, a tough little survivor who sees early on that her life choices are limited by virtue of her birth. The cozy security most people take for granted is never a given in Luli's world. Even after the nightmarish road trip in search of a better life, head held high, the girl realizes the limitations she faces. Like the innocent, damaged girl in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina, Luli refuses to be cowed by her experiences, at thirteen already measuring an uncertain future: "Maybe something happened somewhere along the way, something mean and unforgiving". Luan Gaines/2007.

There probably was a time in the U.S. when parents read books to their kids at night; a time when people really cared about their neighbors and children said their prayers before bed. Luli is America gone wrong personified; hanging in there, but the thread is getting weaker everyday. Hick is the coming of age novel for our twisted times and is a spirited read.

Jeffrey Tipton

i read about 6 - 12 novels per month depending on how many authors i need to interview....and then there are those precious moments when i can read a couple of novels for pleasure.

i was contacted by the publicist and sent this novel. i agreed to interview andrea, but only skimmed the synopsis of the book before agreeing to the interview since i like to read the book a couple of days before interviews to have it fresh in my mind.

the book completely blew me away. i'm so happy i wasn't too cool for school and blew off the interview or i never would've read this book. it's the best novel i've read this year.

i don't want to give any storyline away, but the voice of the pubescent female is nailed. flawless. it reads poetic, almost like a song.

i finished my novel where the narrator is a pubescent boy, and there were passages in here so amazing i seethed with jealousy for not thinking of them first.

do not not read this book. this is a spectacular debut.

I'm about to read this black diamond of a novel again. However, my first review stands:
James Joyce meets Toni Morrison meets Charles Bukowski meets Dorothy Allison meets Hubert Selby Jr. meets Will Self meets Andrea Portes.
They all rumble in a dark alley and something wonderful stalks out.

This is a novel you can't put down. It drives you to follow it even when you can no longer breathe. The resonance of Luli's voice will take you by surprise, the world she describes seen through her eyes darkly yet steely with wit. Luli will set up camp in your heart. A mirror for our times. A tragic, courageous and indomitable pursuit of the America just on the other side.

Make sure you give yourself plenty of quiet time to read this one, you won't be able to put it down once you start. You'll think about this little girl and wonder about her long after you put the book down. A great read. I recommend 100%.

forms the back-drop to this impressively honest and frightenly emotive first novel. Both brutally jarring and captivatingly funny, full of hope and horror, it is simply impossible to put this book down once started. I read it in one long night, then sat back in wonder. Wonder as to how any first time novelist could look deep into the darkest part of her soul and calmly let us all in.
So if you like your novels tearing, hopeful,laugh-out loud funny, and raw, Hick is for you. But be warned: once you finish it you can put it down:
but it'll still stay with you..

This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to read something that floats through their mind.

Not a book which requires much concentration to read,on the contrary the story is easy to read and understand and for awhile forget cares of the day.

After reading the rave reviews for this book, I was a little disappointed by it. Overall the plot is interesting, if a little random. The appearance and reappearances of Eddie Kreezer just don't work, and even though Luli is fascinated by him, his appeal doesn't translate. However, my biggest problem was with Luli's voice. I just couldn't get past all of the twisted metaphors; I found them irritating and tortured. There are passages in the book where Luli's "hick" voice lapses into a more sophisticated narrator's voice, and in those instances I found the writing quite nice (if unbelievable for a thirteen y/o girl). Although the characters are written to be damaged and deep they all come off two-dimensional, kind of like a Charles Bukowski knock-off without the irony or humor. Overall this book made me want to take a shower.