By the time he was ten the Lowell boy had learned to carry the weight of apologetic superiority. It would have been un toward to be seen striving in school. It was appropriate to strive on the cross-country team, or while rescuing a little boy from drowning in the pond once, in late summer.
pickThis short little novel is told in a stream of consciousness style and reveals snippets of the life of Ruth, who is growing up in a small town. She is an only child her, her family are 'house poor“, her dad is verbally abusive and her mother 'cold'. The book has very little action but still draws you in as you root for Ruth to grow up and leave her situation. I think it would be a great choice for book clubs. I gave it 3.75/4.
so-soThe author does an excellent job at showing, not telling. The reader is handed observations the way the narrator perceived it all as a child, so she gives you these observations with vagueness, allowing you to figure out what they mean, just as she had as she matured.
Although there were times that I felt the story lagged and the way it was written wore on me toward the end, I mostly valued what Sarah Manguso did with Very Cold People.
“…and placed another cloth under the leaky little creature.”
She‘s talking about a baby! 😂
Very Cold People: A Novel | 
