Winter's Bone

Shirley J.           Adult Fiction              Children of Meth dealers growing up in poverty in the Ozarks

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell    193 pages

Life is tough enough on kids and families when you are poor but add to the mix, Daddy is cooking Meth instead of moonshine in the Ozark hills.    The mother of the family is not quite "right," herself ,  which leaves the oldest daughter Rees to take care of her two younger brothers.    Folks in the community are not keen on the family as they have a long history of being trouble makers and low lifes.   Unfortunately the stigma of the father is visited on the entire bunch and neighbors and law enforcement alike have little to do with them and never offer a kind word or help even to the youngest innocents reaping the sin of their father.    When Daddy is missing and might miss his upcoming court court date on drug charges no one in the house thinks much of it.   It is a pretty standard pattern for him, he often disappears for spells then turns up like nothing happened.   This time the house was put up for his bail and the family will be turned out to fend for themselves in the field if he doesn't appear.   Their mother is a lost cause in trying to get him back so Rees takes it on her own shoulders to try to locate him and get him to appear in court.   She does her best sleuthing trying to figure out where he might be hiding or if he wronged somebody else and could be laying in a creek somewhere.   Much happens and the language is written like the characters speak. with the language, cadence and colloquialisms  familiar to the speech of folks living in the Ozarks or Appalachia.   A good story.   I would recommend this one to adults.