The Revolution Of Little Girls by Blanche McCrary Boyd

Okay I admit it, I didn't look too carefully at this book before I plucked it off the shelf. The title was good enough for me, as was the endorsement by the NYTimes Book Review underneath: "A hilarious road map... so funny the we laugh out loud." I thought it was non-fiction, maybe a collection of essays or critiques.

Anyway, it turned out to be fiction, a good story which depicts one daughter's experience growing up in South Carolina. I wouldn't describe the book as downright hilarious, its often unhappy and painful themes are told in an unsentimental, matter-of-fact-tone. Although what is it they say makes for great humour? Tragedy with a good punch line? McCrary Boyd does get her share of good punch lines across.

The Revolution Of Little Girls runs through the "education" of tomboy Ellen Larrain. Her father is a wealthy self-made man and her mother could probably be described as a type of a southern belle. Ellen's life with her parents, siblings, career, lovers, spirituality, drugs and alcohol is recounted without particular respect for the chronology of events. This works well to give the impression that the author is gabbing away with you as if you were a trusted friend. For example, on page three the author launches into a description of her relationship with childhood sweetheart Hutch:

"After the Tarzan serial at the movies every Saturday afternoon my friend Hutch and I would climb the mimosa tree in his backyard and take off our shirts and eat bananas. Neither of us wanted to play Jane. I would sometimes consent if we could get my cousin Scooter to play Cheetah"

And by page 15 she's skipped way ahead:

"The next time I talked with Hutch, seven more years had passed, and I was tripping on mescaline at my mother's Christmas party. I was divorced and had recently proclaimed myself a lesbian revolutionary in a twenty-four-page letter to my mother, who was not happy with this news. For the first time I felt lucky that my father had died."

Back and forth through Ellen's life we go, gradually gaining a picture of a bright, honest and creative woman with a strong mystic gift - makes you glad she trusted her story with you.

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