s, growing bewilderment with one's body, sexual awakening, self-doubt, and all this in the context of southern poverty, which also makes this a remarkable example of regional writing (Wear 1).
The anonymous reviewer in Publishers Weekly calls Bastard Out of Carolina a "first novel spiced with pungent characters ranging from the slatternly to the grotesque" (88), and George Garrett is quoted in the New York Times Book Review as saying Allison's "technical skill in both large things and details . . . is simply stunning, about as close to flawless as any reader could ask for" (32).
Despite the overwhelming raves, however, at least one reviewer, Jeff Korelitz, cannot quite praise the novel unconditionally:
Allison has a superb ear for the specific dialogue of her characters, and Bone is a spunky and memorable heroine, but the book seems more often to meander than to move, lending its conclusion an air of inconclusiveness. Allison, abundantly gifted, will certainly go on to write better novels, and Bastard out of Carolina will just as certainly alert readers to her promise (Korelitz ).
Randall Kenan, like Korelitz, cannot praise the book wholeheartedly, because he feels that in Allison's choice of time, place, and characters, she "skates uncomfortably near the thin ice of stereotypes, a feat at once worrisome and brave" (Kenan 815). Although Kenan gives Allis
...