Winter's Bone, by Daniel Woodrell

Hi mates!

I’m going to tell you about one of the books I chose to read. Its name is “Winter’s Bone”, and it’s written by Daniel Woodrell. I chose it because a friend recommended a film based on this novel to me, and when I went to the library and I saw the book I thought that that was a good opportunity to know the story in a different way. 

The action takes place in the Ozarks (a highland region in the United States, which covers much of the southern half of Missouri). There, Ree Dolly (a 17-year-old girl), looks after her 12-year-old brother Sonny, her 6-year-old brother Harold and her mother, who is mentally ill. They have not seen their father for a long time and they don’t know where he is. He used to run a crystal methamphetamine lab and when he was caught and processed, he was supposed to go the court regularly because the judge ordered that. They imposed a condition: a bond; so, in case Jessup didn’t show up for his court date, the family will lose the house.
Sadly, this day arrives and the sheriff goes to tell Ree the situation. She sets out to find her father, immersing herself in a world plenty of drugs, violence, chauvinism and people bound by ties of loyalty. She visits everybody related to his father, sometimes putting herself in danger (some women beat her up in a passage of the book). 

She is convinced that Jessup is dead so finally she ends urging them to tell her where he is in order to offer evidences of the Jessup’s death to the sheriff. If she gets that point, her family will have the house.
One night, three woman come to her house and offer themselves to take her to see her daddy’s bones. They drive her to a pond, where they row to the place where the body is submerged. Ree reaches into the cold water and cut her father’s hands (the evidences for the authorities).


Would I recommend this book? No? Yes, I would do to those who are looking for a different and difficult book. I liked it, it is a kind of dark book, written in a slangy language. Maybe it was this what has made this book different to me. It was also the atmosphere, the whole feeling of being immerse in a very cold winter in the Ozarks trying to solve the problem of my life!