The Talk-Funny Girl: A Novel (2011)

by Roland Merullo

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171	10	169,201	(4.14)	3
Fiction. Literature. HTML: In one of the poorest parts of rural New Hampshire, teenage girls have been disappearing, snatched from back country roads, never to be seen alive again. For seventeen-year-old Marjorie Richards, the fear raised by these abductions is the backdrop to what she lives with her own home, every day. Marjorie has been raised by parents so intentionally isolated from normal society that they have developed their own dialect, a kind of mountain hybrid of English that displays both their ignorance of and disdain for the wider world. Marjorie is tormented by her classmates, who call her "The Talk-funny girl," but as the nearby factory town sinks deeper into economic ruin and as her parents fall more completely under the influence of a sadistic cult leader, her options for escape dwindle. But then, thanks to a loving aunt, Marjorie is hired by a man, himself a victim of abuse, who is building what he calls "a cathedral," right in the center of town. Day by day, Marjorie's skills as a stoneworker increase, and so too does her intolerance for the bitter rules of her family life. Gradually, through exposure to the world beyond her parents' wood cabin thanks to the kindness of her aunt and her boss, and an almost superhuman determination, she discovers what is loveable within herself. This newfound confidence and self-esteem ultimately allows her to break free from the bleak life she has known, to find love, to start a family, and to try to heal her old, deep wounds without passing that pain on to her husband and children. By turns darkly menacing and bright with love and resilience, The Talk-Funny Girl is the story of one young woman's remarkable courage, a kind of road map for the healing of early abuse, and a testament to the power of kindness and love. .… (more)

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Showing 1-5 of 10 (next | show all)

I rarely give a book 5 stars, but this one richly deserves it. The story is stunning, heartbreaking, riveting, hard to read at times, but full of optimism and new beginnings at the end. Read this book! You will not be sorry. (

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flourgirl49 | Feb 21, 2021 |

Excellent. Well-written. It could of easily been someone's memoir. The story was unbelievably believable. (

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samsamabrasam | Oct 15, 2020 |

I received this book through the first-reads program.

This is not a book that I ever would have picked up to read. The premise is that a seventeen year old girl, living with her abusive parents in the backwoods of New Hampshire, is trying to live her life. The subject of abuse is extremely heavy, the subject of poverty is heavy as well. The book is dark - extremely dark. The book is also incredible.

The heavy topics are dealt with deftly and unflinchingly. The language of the book, both the broken speech of Marjorie's abusive family and the actual narration, is plain fantastic. I found myself unable to put the book down, in spite of how difficult some of it was to read.

If you've even a remote interest in this ook, read it. I would venture to say that this book could rival Jodi Picoult's popular novels. She writes about this sort of thing, right? I just have to say, I found this book fantastic and I normally don't read this sort of thing. That has to be some kind of grand recommendation. (

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Lepophagus | Jun 14, 2018 |

This just got better and better with every page. Overall it was the story of overcoming abuse and the isolation and fear it brings, told without becoming piteous or, on the other hand, too upbeat. The characters and their relationships were so well drawn, even as aberrant as some of them were, they were wholly believable. I won't even hint at the best part because I don't want to spoil it. (

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wandaly | Jun 30, 2016 |

Definitely a gripping and often very moving book; I particularly liked the way the work on the cathedral (such a beautifully unlikely project) works symbolically, as a sign of other kinds of rebuilding as well as an idea of religious devotion that contrasts with Pastor Schecht's church. But I thought the writing was often heavy-handed and the suspense manipulative--yes, I was gripped, but partly by fear about what worse thing was yet to happen. And for me, the family psychodrama, and the glimpse into the dark world of ignorance and suspicion and pseudo-religious cant that Marjorie's parents inhabit would have been quite enough without the serial killer plot.

rmaitzen | Feb 7, 2014 |

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Awards

Alex Award (2012)

Massachusetts Book Award (Must-Read (Longlist) – Fiction – 2012)

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2011

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Epigraph

The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mother and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all. - Benjamin Spock

Our children are not individuals whose rights and tastes are casually respected from infancy, as they are in some primitive societies.... They are fundamentally extensions of our own egos and give a special opportunity for the display of authority. - Ruth Benedict

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for Shaye Areheart

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Shreve, Anita

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Fiction. Literature. HTML:

In one of the poorest parts of rural New Hampshire, teenage girls have been disappearing, snatched from back country roads, never to be seen alive again. For seventeen-year-old Marjorie Richards, the fear raised by these abductions is the backdrop to what she lives with her own home, every day. Marjorie has been raised by parents so intentionally isolated from normal society that they have developed their own dialect, a kind of mountain hybrid of English that displays both their ignorance of and disdain for the wider world. Marjorie is tormented by her classmates, who call her "The Talk-funny girl," but as the nearby factory town sinks deeper into economic ruin and as her parents fall more completely under the influence of a sadistic cult leader, her options for escape dwindle. But then, thanks to a loving aunt, Marjorie is hired by a man, himself a victim of abuse, who is building what he calls "a cathedral," right in the center of town.

Day by day, Marjorie's skills as a stoneworker increase, and so too does her intolerance for the bitter rules of her family life. Gradually, through exposure to the world beyond her parents' wood cabin thanks to the kindness of her aunt and her boss, and an almost superhuman determination, she discovers what is loveable within herself. This newfound confidence and self-esteem ultimately allows her to break free from the bleak life she has known, to find love, to start a family, and to try to heal her old, deep wounds without passing that pain on to her husband and children.

By turns darkly menacing and bright with love and resilience, The Talk-Funny Girl is the story of one young woman's remarkable courage, a kind of road map for the healing of early abuse, and a testament to the power of kindness and love.

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