This is a hard book to read, even harder to put down. It takes place on the coast of California, where Turtle, a fourteen-year-old, lives with her father, a survivalist, a pedophile and clearly a psycho. When Martin, her father, rapes Turtle in the first 15 pages, I wanted to put the book down and wondered why I would want to read a book about child abuse. But Turtle wins the reader over, someone who learns how to shoot a gun at six, spends a good part of her days cleaning her guns. She has learned how to be self-sufficient, live off the land, except that she can't tear herself away from her father, his presence, his power over her. So we read on, at least I did, waiting for her to shoot Martin but it's a long wait to a satisfying end. Tallent writes extremely well, seems to know every nook and cranny about the natural world and names it. He has Martin reading Kant and other heavyweights, Turtle's two male friends quoting from Shakespeare and they even give Turtle a copy of Marcus Aurelius's
Meditations, obviously a couple of well read preppies. The book is violent in many ways, scary, funny at times, and worth the time it takes to read. It was recommended by our good friend, Mary Lou.
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