No, “Bastard Out of Carolina” isn’t my autobiography, though some might think it should be. It’s a classic 1992 Southern novel by Dorothy Allison, a thinly disguised biography about growing up poor in Greenville, South Carolina. It’s a coming-of-age story with a strong Southern female voice. It features the themes of poverty, class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism, and lesbianism. Yet it is beautifully written and maintains the reader’s attention.
Allison said of the book:
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