Review: Winter's Bone

Yesterday, I finished reading Winter's Bone: A Novel
by Daniel Woodrell for the second time. It was just as good as the first. I really like this book. (Can you believe I haven't seen the movie?)

The main character is Ree Dolly, a teenage girl in the backwoods of the Ozarks. Her meth-cooking father has gone missing, and her mother has gone crazy. Her father has to be found because he put their house up for bail, and if he doesn't show up for court their house will be taken. The tumbledown house and the wooded land it is on is the only thing this family has. It has been in their family for a long time, and the Dolly clan holds tight to their land.

Ree is one of the best-written characters I've encountered in a long time.  I like her because she is a work of contradictions- deep & simple, hard & kind, tough & soft.  Woodrell's writing is mostly great. He occasionally over-describes landscape type details, but it's well worth getting through it to get to his characters and plot. Some people compare him to Faulkner- I can see how this gritty story could remind someone of Faulkner, but I don't think their writing styles are similar. However, this is the only book by Woodrell I've read, so maybe his style is more Faulknerian in his other books. Is Faulknerian a word? If not, it should be. Has anyone read any of Woodrell's other work?

If you've been looking for a push to read this book- here it is: Winter's Bone: A Novel is the community-wide read for Read Across Lawrence, which is happening in September!