Ellen Foster

Suppose the literary spirits of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor needed a place to stay and they settled down in author Kaye Gibbons, mixed things up a little and out came "Ellen Foster". This is a remarkable first novel that will tug at your heart, make you sad and make you chuckle and admire the spunk of a young girl who got a very bad hand dealt to her.

I'd recommend this to anyone who likes southern literature and maybe everyone else too. I'm dropping this onto my favorite books by year list for 1987. I have another book by Kaye Gibbons which I am looking forward to.

Ellen Foster is a tale of survival, courage and endurance. Ellen is one of the bravest eleven year olds I have ever encountered in literature, wise beyond her years, but innocent and sweet and deserving of better.

When she says, “My daddy was a mistake for a person.”, she could not be more right. In fact, many of the people she encounters in her short life seem to be mistakes, but she also finds hope and gets glimpses of what might be, and the determined soul that she is, she fights to have that better life be her reality.

The book is written entirely in Ellen’s voice, and it is both honest and genuine.

I know I have made being in the garden with her into a regular event but she was really only well like that for one season. You show more see if you tell yourself the same tale over and over again enough times then the tellings become separate stories and you will generally fool yourself into forgetting you only started with one solitary season out of your life.

Can you imagine having to hold on that tight to one memory and making it the central one so that the reality, that is so much the opposite, does not overwhelm you? I loved that she was able to do this, even though she clearly knows that is what she is doing.

With most novels written from the child’s perspective, we have an unreliable narrator and must fish for the truths that lie beneath what the child sees but cannot understand. Ellen is nothing if not reliable. She sees the truth so much more clearly than the adults around her do, and she clings to the thing inside her that makes her herself and keeps her strong.

So many folks thinking and wanting you to be somebody else will confuse you if you are not very careful.

This is my first book by Kaye Gibbons. I have had several of them on my TBR for a long time and one sitting on my physical bookshelf that I have managed not to read yet. I will not hesitate to read her again. This was her first novel, so I have every reason to expect she can only get better--and better than this would be some accomplishment indeed. show less

"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my Daddy." - Says 11-year-old Ellen in the opening line. A white orphan from a very racist North Carolina, she narrates this short book in almost a single breath. The grammar is her own slang, and there is little punctuation as she switches from narration to dialog, from past to present, from descriptions to thoughts. This is her account of her experiences with her mother's death and all the uncomfortable bounces toward her present. Her spirit, instead of breaking, sharpens itself, becoming a fierce armor of confidence and independence.

This is a quick read, probably a great young adult book. It's actually a pretty charming story at least on the surface where, instead of crying, Ellen just show more keeps talking. But, it's also very intense; the natural tension of Ellen's experience amplified by Ellen's naivete, her nonchalant confidence and unintended humor. Each time I put the book down and exhaled, it felt like I had just been holding my breathe through the entire passage.

2009
http://www.librarything.com/topic/54129#1002647 show less

If you are looking for a book to take your breath away, this is the one.

If you are looking for an exceptionally well-written novel wherein each phrase, each sentence, each paragraph contains poetic beauty, then this is the one.

If you are looking for a book that resonates deep within your soul, leaving you laughing, crying and simply not wanting it to end, then this is the book to read.

And, I'll go out on a huge limb to say that if you choose to read only one of my recommendations this year, please let this be the one!

Oh, my, this book is so incredibly powerful that I don't know enough superlative adjectives to describe it.

In my opinion, the 1987 debut of Gibbons is analogous to the beauty, poetry, and charm of Harper Lee's one and only show more Pulitzer Prize winning book To Kill a Mockingbird.

While the difficult topics of neglect, abuse, abandonment, poverty, the definition of values, and the searing problem of abiding inherited prejudice would be dark, dramatically depressing topics, in the hands of a skilled author, the reader is left with hope, with a love of the character and with the sure conviction that as humans, we are quite capable of overcoming terrible adversity.

Immediately upon reading the first sentence "When I was young, I would think of ways to kill my daddy.", the reader is hooked. Then, the author brilliantly follows through by telling the story of spunky, precocious, wise beyond her years, ten-year old Ellen Foster.

We follow Ellen through the suicide of her mother, the beatings and emotional abuse of her father, the relatives who did not want her and the trials of moving from one place to another.

The true beauty of the story is that of hope, courage and wisdom.

Ellen has one true friend, a lonely "colored" girl called Starletta. It is through this relationship that Gibbons weaves the negative power of prejudice, and the positive ability to overcome what was taught vs what is true.

Read this book and weep, and cry and laugh and smile and come away knowing you will be haunted by the beauty for a long, long time. show less

Eleven-year-old Ellen Foster is an old soul living inside the body of a youngster. She is wise, funny and courageous, taking things as they come; living her life with a remarkable bravery and heroism that is truly unforgettable. Describing herself as "old Ellen" - an appellation which is disturbingly accurate, considering how much Ellen has already gone through in her young life - she tells her own story with a poignancy, an honesty, a perceptivity, and a certain unselfconscious wit that is startling to find in one so young.

After her frail and unhappy mother dies, Ellen effectively considers herself an orphan. She still lives with her alcoholic father - who alternately neglects and abuses her - but only for a short period of time, until show more her situation becomes truly untenable. From that point on, Ellen is shuttled between the homes of various uncaring relatives - living for a time with a teacher, a grandmother who blames Ellen for her mother's marriage, then with an aunt.

Eventually, Ellen discovers a home where she is finally wanted; loved and treasured by her new family in a way she would never have believed was possible to experience ever again after her mother's passing. Ellen is a shrewd judge of character, developing friendships along the way that are lasting and heartfelt. She judges people shrewdly and well; bonding with a little girl named Starletta and the strength of those relationship ties are beautifully revealed throughout the story.

I must say that I found reading this book to be remarkably gripping; Ellen's life was harsh and tough and her story was heartbreakingly poignant. However, despite those first impressions, I still enjoyed this story immensely. Yes, I know this may sound unusual, but I generally do enjoy reading books with depressing themes. Ellen Foster: A Novel by Kaye Gibbons is just such a book; it was certainly worth an A+! show less

Kaye Gibbons is not a writer I have read before, but last year I spotted two of her books in a second-hand book shop and took a chance. Ellen Foster; was her first novel and it tells the poignant story of a precocious eleven-year-old. Hers, is an unforgettable voice, and through her eyes we witness a world of broken family, neglect and poverty, as she experiences casual violence and fear, things no child her age should live with.

“When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy. I would figure out this or that way and run it down through my head until it got easy.

The way I liked best was letting go a poisonous spider in his bed. It would bite him and he’d be dead and swollen up and I would shudder to find him so. Of course I show more would call the rescue squad and tell them to come quick something’s the matter with my daddy.”

Ellen is the child of a sick mother and a drunk, abusive father. Ellen is around nine as the novel opens, though the story is told from a distance of a couple of years later, when Ellen’s life has changed, and she is living with her ‘new mama’. The family she was born into, live in the rural south, it is somewhere around the late seventies – though I often felt it could have easily been twenty years earlier. There is still a lot of unofficial white/black segregation in the community. Though Ellen’s father has a group of black, drinking buddies, Ellen has been brought up believing she mustn’t stay overnight at her friend Starletta’s house or eat or drink anything while there. Starletta’s family are poor but kind, and it becomes a place where Ellen seeks refuge, a place where she can feel safe.

“I might be confused sometimes in my head but it is not something you need to talk about. Before you can talk you have to line it all up in order and I had rather just let it swirl around until I am too tired to think. You just let the motion in your head wear you out. Never think about it. You just make a bigger mess that way.”

Ellen’s mother is fragile, she cannot cope with the world in which she lives, and so one day as Ellen lays resting next to her she overdoses. With her mother dead, Ellen finds it wiser to stay as far away from her father as she can. Deciding she doesn’t want to live with him any longer she packs a bag and calls her Aunt Betsy and invites herself to stay. Betsy is one of Ellen’s mother’s sisters. At the end of a happy weekend with Betsy, it is revealed that Betsy had only expected her niece to stay for the weekend – not for good! Ellen is on her own again, forced to return to her father.

When the school spot bruises on Ellen’s body, she embarks on a series of temporary solutions. First, she stays with one of her school teachers, Julia and her husband Roy. Here Ellen feels cared for although she doesn’t always understand their way of life. Her time with Julia is short – and her grandmother – her ‘mama’s mama’ is awarded custody.

Mama’s Mama is a truly awful woman, mean and desperately cruel – she hates Ellen’s father and takes her hatred out on Ellen in the most dreadful ways. Ellen is tough little cookie, when she is put to work in the cotton fields under the scorching summer sun, she gets on with it, making friends with her fellow workers. When her vile grandmother falls ill, she takes care of her, the best way this poor, almost broken child can.

“She died in spite of me.
I tried to make her keep breathing and she stopped I blew air in her like I should have. She did not live but at least I did not slip into a dream beside her. I just stood by the bed and looked at her dead with her face pleasant now to trick Jesus. I said to her the score is two to one now. I might have my mama’s soul to worry over but you’ve got my daddy’s and your own. The score is two to one but I win.
I stood over her hoping she was the last dead person I knew for a while.”

Next to take Ellen in, is Aunt Nadine, her mother’s other sister – who Betsy has been fighting with since the funeral. Life at Nadine’s house is not happy either. Nadine’s daughter Dora is a spoilt, spiteful little madame who instantly makes Ellen feel out of place. On Christmas day things come to a head, and Ellen walks out – heading for the house of the lady with the nice calm, well behaved children who she had spotted at church. She had heard the woman referred to as the Foster woman who will take anyone in. So, Ellen knocks at her door on Christmas day – and is taken in. Ellen has misunderstood the Foster part – assuming it is her new mama’s name she starts calling herself Ellen Foster.

Ellen finds life at her new mama’s house to suit her just right, there’s a pony to ride and a large family who are immediately welcoming. From the way this novel is structured we know from the beginning that Ellen has a new life – a life she is happy in finally. I think it is that knowledge that makes this novel easier to read, as the reader knows that we won’t be left feeling hopeless at the end. In fact, there is a lot that is joyful and life affirming in how Ellen emerges at the end of this slight novel, and I had high hopes for her going forward. She reconnects with her friend Starletta, making the necessary readjustments to her racial attitudes.

The other novel I have by Kaye Gibbons is Sights Unseen – which I believe has a similarly rural setting. Based upon this powerful little novel, I have reason to look forward to it. show less

This is a wonderful coming-of-age tale about a 10-year-old southern girl who must suffer through and survive things most adults would not handle with half the courage and good sense. The pages of the book fly by while she charms you with her country ways, intelligence, and quick thinking. The book was published in the late 80's, but the time of the story feels more like the 70's, but that may be because she clearly lives away from a large city and everyone acts accordingly. I loved the construction of the book which waxes and wanes throughout the year between the recent past and the present allowing the reader to know that all would eventually be well with Ellen even at the darkest times of her life. Though this is a novella, the other show more characters were well drawn through Ellen's interactions and perceptions of them. Do yourself a favor a spend a few incredible hours with Ellen. show less