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| According to Ruth | 
 enlarge | Author: Jane Feaver
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £1.90
You Save: £6.09 (76%)
New (22) from £2.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 51950
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0099506122
EAN: 9780099506126
ASIN: 0099506122
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Perceptive and moving June 21, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a gem of a book. Evocative and touching, it leads the reader through the minefield of family relationships as seen through the eyes of Ruth who is on the threshold of emerging from the innocence of childhood. There are no gimmicks or tricks: just a strong story beautifully told. You will be hooked.
The cruelty of adolescence May 1, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I can't believe how brilliantly Ms Feaver caught the mind of the adolescent Ruth. I too was 15 in the early eighties when this story is set. I also had a younger sibling who i wished dead. It was exactly as she describes- the pain and torment of growing up, the way that Ruth is so uncomfortable with her own sexuality, indeed uncomfortable in her own skin. Both parents are fairly ghastly and we feel deeply for the neighbour farmers who have lost their child while Ruth's parents don't even realise that they are losing theirs. Incredibly moving and poignant, I read it like a memory.
A lost childhood April 6, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Warning!
Once you start to read this book it is unlikely you will put it down until you've finished it.
"According to Ruth" is a remarkable debut novel. The author covers a very short period in her parents' tortured and dying relationship. The setting is a holiday in a run down cottage on the side of a hill. The primitive living conditions are less of a challenge than the unravelling sadness.
Ruth's siblings swim around in the sad pool of the evaporating remains of the break up. Ruth hopes but fails to hold things together, whistfully imagining her own possibilities with the son of the neighboring farming family whose tragedies are woven seamlessly into the story.
Threads of wonderful narrative are beautifully knitted together, constantly tempting the reader to guess and also to fear what is around the next corner.
I wonder if this is an autobiographical release for someone who perhaps may never have enjoyed a real childhood. Ruth seems to carry the mantle of responsibility for her brother and sisters while her mother flails wildly against the impending conclusion.
The writer is clearly a remarkable new talent. I look forward to her next novel with glee.
Fantastic read! April 2, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
'According to Ruth' tells the story of a bohemian family and its breakdown, over the space of a summer holiday, as observed by fifteen year old Ruth.
The descriptions of sibling rivalrys and alliances are vividly evoked and also very funny. It is also quite harrowing, witnessing the increasingly desperate mother, as the father's desertion becomes inevitable. The family that live on the local farm have had their own tragedy to deal with but provide Ruth with the romance she is longing for.
I really enjoyed this book, finding it both entertaining and moving and would highly recommend it.
Wonderful first novel! March 30, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I absolutely loved reading According to Ruth.
It is beautifully written, and has an intensity to it that makes it hard to put down. Set during a summer in Northumberland, it is vividly descriptive, with wonderful observations on growing up in the 70's in a very unconventional family struggling to cope with the disintegrating relationship of the parents.
A brilliant first novel from Jane Feaver. Moving and compelling. Highly recommended!
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