January 27, 2014
Bond’s debut novel is difficult to read for its graphic and uncomfortable portrayal of racism, sexual violence, and religious intolerance in East Texas in the 1960s and ’70s. Bond is a gifted storyteller, able to make the reader squirm with anger and unease as she vividly depicts how easily bad things happen to good people. Ruby Bell is a middle-aged black woman living a feral existence in the woods of Liberty Township, a poor black community where the intolerant and superstitious inhabitants treat her with disgust as a social outcast and an unrepentant sinner because she’s a prostitute. Ephram Jennings grew up with Ruby and has been in love with her for years, despite her reputation. He too is shunned and ridiculed—because of his feelings for her. Their romance remains sad and painfully one-sided, regardless of Ephram’s tender good intentions. Even his doting older sister, Celia, is embarrassed and ashamed by Ephram’s behavior, and her deep, visceral hatred of Ruby goes back decades. Flashbacks reveal why Ruby chose a life of prostitution and why Celia hates her, as well as why Ephram struggles to get out from under his sister’s influence. All of the family drama is set amid an ingrained culture of sexual exploitation of women and children, racial brutality, and the community’s passive acceptance that these things are facts of life. This is a grim tale, well told, but there’s no comfort in these pages—just tragedy and heartache.
February 15, 2014
Voodoo, faith and racism converge in an East Texas town--particularly within the troubled titular heroine--in this bracing debut novel. When we first meet Ruby Bell, she's a symbol of local disgrace: It's 1974, and a decade earlier she returned to her hometown of Liberty seemingly gone crazy. The local rumor mill (mostly centered around the church) ponders a host of reasons: the lynching of her aunt; her being forced into prostitution as a child; a stint in New York, where she was the rare black woman in a white highbrow literary milieu. The only person who doesn't keep his distance is Ephram, a middle-aged man who braves the town's mockery and the mad squalor of Ruby's home to reconnect with her. Bond presents Ruby as a symbol of a century's worth of abuse toward African-Americans; as one local puts it, "Hell, ain't nothing strange when Colored go crazy. Strange is when we don't." The echoes of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison are clear, but Bond is an accomplished enough writer to work in a variety of modes with skill and insight. She conjures Ruby's fun-house-mirror mind with harrowing visions of voodoo ceremonies and the ghosts of dead children, yet she also delivers plainspoken descriptions of young Ruby's experience in a brothel, surrounded by horrid men. And Bond can be sharply funny, satirizing the high-toned sanctimony of Liberty's churchgoers (especially Ephram's sister Celia) that's really a cover for hypocritical pride and fear. Some of the more intense passages of the novel lapse into purple prose, and the horror of Ruby's experience (which intensifies as the novel moves along) makes her closing redemption feel somewhat pat. But the force of Ruby's character, and Bond's capacity to describe it, is undeniable. A very strong first novel that blends tough realism with the appealing strangeness of a fever dream.
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Starred review from April 1, 2014
The citizens of Liberty, TX, have always watched Ruby Bell, first as a small child playing in the Piney Woods with her devoted cousin Maggie, then as a beautiful young woman on her way to a new life in New York City during the 1950s, and finally as she wanders aimlessly down the red dirt roads upon her return in the 1970s, muttering incoherently at the invisible spirits that torment her. Grocery clerk and childhood friend Ephram Jennings decides to reach out to Ruby, but his doing so angers his sister Celia and mobilizes his church brethren to intervene. Through multiple flashbacks, we learn of Ruby's past, rife with abuse and neglect, including lynchings, prostitution, and child rape. The strength and will that Ephram and Ruby need to fend off the rest of the world is threatened even as their bond grows stronger. Educator and debut novelist Bond knows the dark potentialities of her setting and explores them adroitly through each well-drawn character. Ruby's story is truly that of a people and a place, outlined lyrically and honestly, even when the most brutal events unfold. VERDICT Definitely not for the faint of heart or for those who prefer lighter reads, this book exhibits a dark and redemptive beauty. Bond's prose is evocative of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, paying homage to the greats of Southern gothic literature. [See Prepub Alert, 10/14/13.]--Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2013
Ineffably pretty Ruby contemplates a painful childhood after returning from 1950s New York to small-town Liberty, TX. As a PEN USA Rosenthal Fellow, Bond was mentored by Janet Fitch, and she drew on years of stage experience when working with Ellen DeGeneres on a writer/theater workshop for at-risk LGBT youth.
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.