Winter's Bone: A Novel [Paperback]

Daniel Woodrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2007

Ree Dolly's father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. With two young brothers depending on her, 16-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. Living in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks, Ree learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But, as an unsettling revelation lurks, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Woodrell flirts with—but doesn't succumb to—cliché in his eighth novel, a luminescent portrait of the poor and desperate South that drafts 16-year-old Ree Dolly, blessed with "abrupt green eyes," as its unlikely heroine. Ree, too young to escape the Ozarks by joining the army, cares for her two younger brothers and mentally ill mother after her methamphetamine-cooking father, Jessup, disappears. Recently arrested on drug charges, Jessup bonded out of jail by using the family home as collateral, but with a court date set in one week's time and Jessup nowhere to be found, Ree has to find him—dead or alive—or the house will be repossessed. At its best, the novel captures the near-religious criminal mania pervasive in rural communities steeped in drug culture. Woodrell's prose, lyrical as often as dialogic, creates an unwieldy but alluring narrative that allows him to draw moments of unexpected tenderness from predictable scripts: from Ree's fearsome, criminal uncle Teardrop, Ree discovers the unshakable strength of family loyalty; from her friend Gail and her woefully dependant siblings, Ree learns that a faith in kinship can blossom in the face of a bleak and flawed existence. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–In the poverty-stricken hills of the Ozarks, Rees Dolly, 17, struggles daily to care for her two brothers and an ill mother. When she learns that her absent father, a meth addict, has put up the family home as bond, she embarks on a dangerous search to find him and bring him home for an upcoming court date. Her relatives, many of whom are in the business of cooking crank, thwart her at every turn, but her fight to save the family finally succeeds. Rees is by turns tough and tender. She teaches her brothers how to shoot a shotgun, and even box, the way her father had taught her. Her hope is that these boys would not be dead to wonder by age twelve, dulled to life, empty of kindness, boiling with mean. A male friend feeds her hallucinogenic mushrooms and then assaults her. But, like Mattie Ross in Charles Portis's True Grit (Penguin, 1995), Rees beats the odds with spunk and courage. In spare but evocative prose, Woodrell depicts a harsh world in which the responsibilities for survival ultimately give Rees meaning and direction. He depicts the landscape, people, and dialects with stunning realism. A compelling testament to how people survive in the worst of circumstances.–Pat Bangs, Fairfax County Public Library, Va
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (July 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316066419
• ISBN-13: 978-0316066419
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

134 of 142 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing; depressing subject, August 30, 2006

By 

Mary Reinert (Nevada, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winter's Bone: A Novel (Hardcover)

Woodrell has definitely captured what it is like to live in a subculture that is so isolated from the bigger world around it. The Ozark area is such a paradox of beautiful lodges and resorts and, on the other hand, pockets of isolated, poverty-stricken rural poor. Woodrell's portrayal of the Dolly clan is, unfortunately, not unbelievable.

Ree's search for her father who has skipped his bail reflects a parallel search for a better life; she doesn't know where to look for him and her only idea of a better life for herself is to join the Army. The effects that meth have had on the rural poor is devastating. That together with generations of family hardships, feuds, intermarriage, and poverty paints a pretty depressing picture.

I live in Missouri and have just now discovered Woodrell. He calls his writing "Country Noir" which is truly an apt description. This isn't a pretty book, but it is an honest one and one that I would highly recommend for those looking to meet characters not found in most other writing.

108 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a winner, but still champion, August 18, 2006

By 

Starved for It - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter's Bone: A Novel (Hardcover)

Twenty years ago Jewel Cobb dragged a comb through his greasy, antique pompadour and in that brilliant moment Daniel Woodrell announced his intention to entertain a readership. Predictably Mr. Cobb did not survive that novel, Mr. Woodrell has gone on to publish eight of them and become a leading contender for the title of Most Underappreciated Writer in America (campaigning in the heavyweight division).
It may be that the very voices decrying Woodrell's lack of popular acceptance are at least partly responsible for it. The laudatory reviews, and they are finally numerous, tend toward the use of adjectives like 'dark,' and 'bleak,' and, 'lyrical,' and these suggest literary heavy sledding, reading reminiscent of a high school English assignment. It must be conceded that Woodrell is a serious writer, a purveyor of social outrage and dismay at the human condition, but not a page of his work passes without something to laugh at, cringe from, fret over--in other words the vicarious experience that is the stuff of ENTERTAINMENT.
In 'Winter's Bone' Woodrell continues to make good on his old promise. Though 'Bone' is not as consistently funny as some of his previous books it is a glistening showcase of an ever maturing and deepening compassion. America has no patience for her poor and feels it is in the poorest taste when the underclass is anything but invisible. Classism remains our most pervasive and acceptable prejudice. It is into the teeth of this nasty attitude that Woodrell flings the wonderful, large humanity of his people. Ree Dolly is the latest and most finely drawn of these Woodrellian characters. To read 'Winter's Bone' is to be instructed and ennobled, but really Woodrell means no harm by it. His trick, his art, is to make the hard lesson savory.

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best unknown writer, February 3, 2007

By 

David Beck - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winter's Bone: A Novel (Hardcover)

Why Daniel Woodrell is not a household name says much about literacy in America. Having read most of his books, I can't help thinking, Why don't more people know him? Why don't bookstores carry his novels? Why doesn't someone turn this book into a movie?
Anyway, Winter Bones is one of his best. It is a novel about a young girl who is on a journey of discovery, a discovery not just about her meth lab cooker dad but about herself. It is a picaresque novel, much like Portis's True Grit. She finds "justice" at a cost, but her determination and heart, to keep her family from homelessness, makes her one of America's most down-on-her-luck, inspirational characters in contemporary lit.
Woodrell fills his novels with great descriptions and dialogue. He creates characters whom you wouldn't want necessarily to meet, but are still intriguing, sympathetic and compelling.
Great book! Great author! Read Winter Bones and all of Woodrell's books. Maybe the word will get out, so that authors like Woodrell will be more well-known and praised like a lot of less-worthy authors.