Dorothy Allison

El condado de Greenville, en Carolina del Sur, es un lugar salvaje y exuberante, hermoso y terrible. Allí vive la familia Boatwright, un clan de hombres bebedores que disparan a los camiones ajenos y de mujeres ingobernables que se casan demasiado pronto y envejecen demasiado rápido. Una estirpe regida por el desempleo, la inestabilidad, la violencia y los embarazos adolescentes. En el corazón de esta novela autobiográfica sobre una joven que se enfrenta al abuso y la traición, se encuentra Ruth Anne Boatwright, apodada Bone, una niña bastarda que observa y narra el mundo que la rodea con una mirada despiadada y lúcida, con una mezcla de naturalidad y agallas, y también con un humor irreverente y sin escrúpulos. Su desgarradora historia rezuma rabia, pero también generosidad y amor.

Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family—a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard-drinking men who shoot up each other's trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective. When her stepfather Daddy Glen, "cold as death, mean as a snake," becomes increasingly more vicious toward her, Bone finds herself caught in a family triangle that tests the loyalty of her mother, Anney—and leads to a final, harrowing encounter from which there can be no turning back.

When Delia Byrd packs her car and begins the long trip home from Los Angeles - from the glamour of the rock 'n roll business, her passion for singing and songwriting, and the darker days of whisky and violence and too much belief in the promises of a man she loved - she heads to Cairo, Georgia, and her own unresolved past. Ten years earlier, Delia left the husband who turned on her, abandoned her two daughters, one an infant, and fled to California. But Delia is pulled back to Georgia: to a world of convenience stores and biscuit factories, kudzu and deep-rooted Baptism-to make a deal with the man she paid a high price to leave. She brings her third daughter, Cissy, with her. And as the lives of Delia, Cissy, Amanda, and Dede converge, Delia's past uncoils into the present with a ferocity that brings all four women to terms with themselves and with one another. Told in the incantatory and unforgettable voice of one of America's greatest storytellers, Cavedweller is a sweeping novel of the human spirit that maps a world of "lost" and "known" caves, the unexplored recesses of the heart, and the lives of four women at a place where violence, and what redeems it, intersect. Cavedweller is the long-awaited, greatly anticipated second novel from a beloved author with a strong and loyal audience.

Dans ce recueil de 24 essais, Dorothy Allison raconte son enfance, son engagement féministe, sa sexualité et les « Sex Wars » des années 1980. Elle y aborde notamment les thèmes de l’inceste et de la lesbophobie, et partage ses réflexions sur la littérature : comment écrire l’extrême misère sociale, comment écrire sur le sexe ? Un livre tout à la fois intime, décapant et profondément politique.

Compelling collection of autobiographical narratives, essays, and performance pieces They don't write much better than this.

Whether writing about her dirt-poor Southern childhood, its brutalities and its love, or her lesbian lust--her outlaw sexuality--her poetry is cheeky, touching, and on target as she speaks the truth to the women she loves. Allison was one of the key figures in what became known as the Feminist Sex Wars. She was a panelist at the 1982 Barnard Conference on Sexuality. It was picketed by the New York chapter of Women Against Pornography, who called the panelists "anti-feminist terrorists." Some protesters accused Allison of supporting the sexual abuse of children because of the graphic content in her literary works. She responded to such critics in this collection, The Women Who Hate Me: Poems by Dorothy Allison.

Trash, Allison's landmark collection, laid the groundwork for her critically acclaimed Bastard Out of Carolina, the National Book Award finalist that was hailed by The New York Times Book Review as "simply stunning...a wonderful work of fiction by a major talent." In addition to Allison's classic stories, this new edition of Trash features "Stubborn Girls and Mean Stories," an introduction in which Allison discusses the writing of Trash and "Compassion," a never-before-published short story.First published in 1988, the award-winning Trash showcases Allison at her most fearlessly honest and startlingly vivid. The limitless scope of human emotion and experience are depicted in stories that give aching and eloquent voice to the terrible wounds we inflict on those closest to us. These are tales of loss and redemption; of shame and forgiveness; of love and abuse and the healing power of storytelling. A book that resonates with uncompromising candor and incandescence, Trash is sure to captivate Allison's legion of readers and win her a devoted new following.

Ce dernier recueil inédit en français de Dorothy Allison nous permet de replonger avec délectation dans son style incandescent et empli de douceur, et dans cette manière si singulière et touchante de nommer les choses et de raconter des histoires « trash ». Ces récits, écrits pour la plupart dans les années 1980, ont été rassemblés par l’autrice elle-même. On y trouve en germe toutes les thématiques que la romancière lesbienne et issue du prolétariat white trash du Sud des États-Unis a traitées dans son œuvre : la misère sociale, les relations avec les femmes de sa famille, la violence de son beau-père, la sexualité, le rapport à la nourriture, la maladie de sa mère… Des histoires tour à tour jubilatoires et bouleversantes qui nous touchent en plein cœur.

Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her family's history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next. Illustrated with photographs from the author's personal collection, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure tells the story of the Gibson women -- sisters, cousins, daughters, and aunts -- and the men who loved them, often abused them, and, nonetheless, shared their destinies. With luminous clarity, Allison explores how desire surprises and what power feels like to a young girl as she confronts abuse. As always, Dorothy Allison is provocative, confrontational, and brutally honest. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, steeped in the hard-won wisdom of experience, expresses the strength of her unique vision with beauty and eloquence.