EN COTIZACIÓN

Beautiful language and insights, but I was distracted by the narrator’s litany of offenses against her, no matter how well written. I also found myself not nearly as interested in the story within the story. ( )

Very cold indeed. Though several flashbacks retrieved very old memories of growing up in the Northeast and the suburbs which was sweet. ( )

A girl grows up an outsider in a Massachusetts WASP town haunted by Cabots and Lowells, with some friends and more memories of girlish fads than family affection and gradually learns that in her family affection had no good models and pervasive poisonous ones. ( )

Very uncomfortable reader. It's hard to imagine a more miserable childhood than the one suffered through by Ruthie. Her primary problem is her overcritical and parsimonious mother, but she is also bullied at school and is scorned by residents of a wealthy community in suburban Boston, presumably Wellesley by the description. She seems to find minimal comfort in her three friends and in a treasured collection of small objects. The writing is superior to the material. It's an oddly accurate combination of a child and an adult's voice.

Quotes: "I knew that children were supposed to ride bikes for fun, and I dutifully played the part of a child having fun."

"We never paid for something when we could just enjoy looking at a picture of it."

"I was lit from the inside with a desire that fastened itself to any boy in the vicinity of my body." ( )