When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy."
So begins the tale of Ellen Foster, the brave and engaging heroine of Kaye Gibbons's first novel, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Wise, funny, affectionate and true, Ellen Foster is, as Walker Percy called it, "The real thing. Which is to say, a lovely, sometimes heart/wrenching novel...[Ellen Foster] is as much a part of the backwoods South as a Faulkner character and a good deal more endearing.
Kaye Gibbons's drawl has a persistency that wins out over her flat tone. In her character of 11-year-old Ellen, who soothes her wounded spirit by imagining ways to kill her abusive father, the intense monotony of the voice draws the listener into the depths of her hurt and emotional awareness. For all the story's grimness, there's warmth and humor. As read by Gibbons, they're understated but projected nonetheless. We feel, rather than hear, her sneers or affirmations of love. The quandaries of a child's life in an uncaring adult world are well presented by Gibbons in both her writing and her performance. S.B.S. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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