Gal: A True Life

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Summary: In Praise of "GAL"
Review: From the moment I picked up the book, I could scarcely tolerate even minor interruptions while I read it from cover to cover within the span of four hours! Since then, I have purchased the book for several female friends, with instructions that it must be passed on to other favorite sisters as a special treat. Contained within its pages are accurate (and timely) examples of love, greed, envy, lust, power, and worship of the money god. This book was so true-to-life, I felt I knew each character personally. I urge women everywhere to experience the rollercoaster ride through the life of Ruthie Bolton, because it will be an experience they'll never forget!

Rating:
Summary: Gal, the True Life of Ruthie Bolton
Review: Gal, the true life of Ruthie Bolton is a story written through the eyes of a child who never knew the meaning of love. Born in 1961 to a mother just aging 13, Ruthie Homer was left in the hands of her grandparents, Clovis and Ruthie Fleetwood. Not long after Ruthie (Gal) was five things seemed to become a bit strange. Clovis Fleetwood, or Daddy as Gal called him, had a sudden urge of violence and depression which he took out on everybody in the house. Daddy started forcing the other girls in the house to cook, clean, and tend to his every need. If they did not do exactly what he asked, when he asked, he immediately beat them with a belt or a skinny tree branch. Getting caught up in sex, drugs and alcohol was what Gal considered that to be a "normal" life. The road through Jr. High and High school was long and windy for Gal. It took her on journey's through living life on her own, the death of her mother, the encounters with drugs, and the price you have to pay for having a selfish father. One day, after pretty much giving up on life, Ray Bolton walked through the door of Ruthie's one bedroom apartment. He came from the family Ruthie has always dreamed of having; a family who showed kindness, and happiness towards her at every waking moment. In this family Ruthie found everything she lacked as a child. Through this wonderful family, the little girl who got caught up in the life of a drunken old man soon found out what it was like to be loved.
This book is a very well written book. The details can be a little much at times, but with that, its almost like we could actually be there. The way the author wrote the book makes it easy to understand what Ruthie was going through in her childhood days and she always keeps you wondering, "what's going to happen next." This book is written in dialect so its easy to get the just of Ruthie's life in the South. However this dialect can sometimes be confusing when there are multiple people speaking, and when the transition from Ruthie Homer to Ruthie Bolton occurs.
This book is a terrific book for all reading levels. The summary starts off going through the horrible life of a little girl, then goes on to everything this girl had ever dreamed of, making it almost a fiction book. After reading when I went back and thought about it, I realized that it was a true story, so it gave me another perspective on her life. On a scale of one to ten I would rate this book a nine and a half, but I would recommend it to just about anybody interested in reading.

Rating:
Summary: WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE IF YOU WERE "GAL?"
Review: This book had the poorest grammer in it I have ever read and that is why I didn't give it 5 stars. It seemed there was no editor involved. Yet, if the sentences and grammer were more refined, then the reader wouldn't get the proper impact that develops as the story unfolds.

No one could make up this story. It is told with as much sincerity as one could give which adds to its interest and belief of reality. The events are of a dysfunctional family for sure that practices terror by the adults and eventually gross disappointment by the siblings.

This life story is certainly interesting where one could say, "and there, but for the grace of God, could go I" because it probably happened to many uneducated families as to the treatment of their children and the selfish attitudes of most involved.

I started reading this to my wife and both of us enjoyed the book thoroughly.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionally gripping but missing something...
Review: This story of a young woman's struggle to survive despite her circumstances has some good things going for it. The reader is pretty much instantly hooked into her story, eager to find out how it will end. But at the same time, there's something missing.

Ruthie Bolton or "Gal" is a pseudonym for the heroine of this true story, written with the help of a friend who tries her best to stay true to the voice of this unique woman. There are no 25-cent words. There's no attention to sentence structure or grammar, which can be disconcerting at times. But what you get is the raw, honest narrative of someone who has clearly lived through a great deal and come out of it a survivor.

Ruthie's childhood world has trouble and pain written all over it. Living in a small town outside of Charleston, S.C., she was raised by her grandmother and step-grandfather. The step-grandfather, Ruthie's only father figure, is an abusive man who keeps her and her cousins in line with violence. Ulimately, that violence takes her grandmother's life.

Ruthie grows up in relative poverty, marked out for failure from the start. But she survives her blows and graduates from high school. Fleeing her step-grandfather's home, she tries to make a life for herself and ends up making some poor decisions that change her life often for the worse.

Eventually, Ruthie triumphs over the bad hand she is dealt and settles into a happy second marriage with a man whose family accepts her for who she is. Ruthie has a painful struggle accepting that love. This situation was the most gripping for me because you see Ruthie's heart, raw and broken, truly for the first time.

If the emotions that are let out in this part of the book were as available to the reader elsewhere, I would have enjoyed "Gal" much more. Instead, I often felt like a I was reading a rambling listing of events and voices at times. Ruthie's feelings are buried. We don't know how these things touched her, what changes they created in her behavior. These moments are what's missing.

At the same time, "Gal" will grip any reader willing to take the risk. I would highly recommend this book for teen readers because of the simplicity of the language and the life lessons it has to share. It will certainly spark some interesting discussions between teens and their peers, and their families.