A SHIP MADE OF PAPER--Scott Spencer

"He wants to hold her in the moonlight."

I can't believe that a novel nominated for the National Book Award could contain that chunk of ham in the first ten pages.

I also can't believe that I wanted to keep reading past the first ten pages of a novel with that chunk and this one "The world can crush you with its beauty" amongst others but well I did. As you know I'm really comitted to those first 10 pages.

What's the story so far? Well it's complicated, but it boils down to the pursuit of infidelity by a youngish White lawyer terrified of Black people named DANIEL with a woman who doesn't know she's being pursued named IRIS. Oh, and she just happens to be Black.

My reader instincts tell me that the chances are pretty good that the world does indeed use its beauty boot to crush DANIEL like a Ritz cracker under an elephant. Whether or not this is something you'll want to invest time and energy in discovering is another matter. I'll probably give this one a longer look seeing as that I'm already at page 20.

God, I'm such a sucker for tragic romance.

BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA--Dorothy Allison

Here's what I learned from the first ten pages: People in 1960s South Carolina can't drive for shit, at one point S.C. stamped ILLEGITIMATE in bright red on birth certificates, and very young (even unborn) children can narrate a novel.

In the first ten pages we get two car accidents that will define BONE, the main character's, life. The first one happens as drunk UNCLE TRAVIS crashes his pickup truck headlong into oncoming traffic, jettisoning pregnant MAMA through the window and onto her ass. No one dies but it's an early lesson for our just born narrator--People in South Carolina should stick to walking and drinking.

The second accident involves the man who might have been able to get bastard off BONE'S record by adopting her. His name is LYLE and he's MAMA's boyfriend and the next baby's (REESE) daddy. He can't drive either. His truck simply turns over in an oil slick and LYLE falls out the passenger door like a dead eel, unharmed except for a hemorrhaging brain that kills hum but leaves behind a "handsome" corpse according to a witness.

Now I've been to South Carolina on a few occassions and it's an odd place. They don't have a helmet law for motorcycles yet they do have a mandatory seatbelt law. After reading the first ten pages of this book I'm beginning to understand why.

Anyhow, the thing that might make BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA a worthwhile read isn't the subject of car accidents or child abuse (I did read the back cover) but Dorothy Allison's narrative drive. I read the first ten pages in about 5 minutes and have to say that it has all of the quick pacing and character driven plot that I like in a book. If you're a fan of the other Southern greats (Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor, Faulkner, et al.) then I'm suspecting this might be up your alley. But then again I only read the first 10 pages.