56 pages • 1 hour read
The Book of Ruth
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
Midwestern-born novelist Jane Hamilton wrote her debut novel, The Book of Ruth, in 1988. It won the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel the following year. Set in small-town Illinois in the 1970s, this beautiful and sensitive book grapples with common familial issues including coming of age, detachment, intimacy, and violence within the family. Although suggestive of real events, the work and characters therein are purely fictional. First published in 1988 by Ticknor & Fields (now Houghton Mifflin Company), The Book of Ruth was reprinted in 1989 by Anchor Books. The former edition is the basis for this study guide. The guide reproduces the author’s use of outdated terminology in quotes.
Plot Summary
The provincial protagonist Ruth Grey narrates the events of her life beginning with her earliest childhood memories. She and her family live in the small town of Honey Creek, Illinois. This family includes a domineering mother, May, her exceptionally intelligent brother, Matt, and her absentee father, Elmer. Though Ruth is overall well-meaning, she occasionally takes her anger out on her brother in the form of physical violence, a habit which abates when she reaches high school. Always in the shadow of her brother and at the mercy of her jaded and dictatorial mother, Ruth falls for Unlock all 56 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
