- Paperback: 112 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; First Edition edition (22 Jan 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006548814
- ISBN-13: 978-0006548812
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 991,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Dorothy Allison talks about her life, her sexuality, her poor background and about how she conquered her disadvantages. Her life has been a triumph over family violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and lack of education. She is the author of "Bastard Out of Carolina" and "Trash".
From the Back Cover
'OH, I COULD TELL YOU STORIES THAT WOULD DARKEN THE SKY AND STOP THE BLOOD'
Dorothy Allison's debut novel, 'Bastard Out of Carolina', introduced her as one of the most passionate, uncompromising and gifted writers on the literary scene. In 'Two or Three Things I Know for Sure', she explores the family background and upbringing which inspired that extraordinary book. With exceptional candour and directness, she talks about her white trash, dirt-poor background and her triumph over family violence, sexual abuse, lack of education and physical unattractiveness. This was a legacy which Dorothy, smart and plain, shook off slowly, as her feminism and her heart led her to lesbian relationships, often painful, finally rewarding.
Pithy, funny, poignant and confrontational, this is Dorothy Allison with her gloves off. Read it aloud and savour the rhythms, marvel at how the telling of such tales can be so enjoyable and so inspirational.
Praise for Dorothy Allison:
'Allison tells her sad tales with a lyricism that lifts them into another realm.'
KIRKUS
'The territory that Allison has set out to explore is dangerous turf. It is a great pleasure to see her succeed, blithe and graceful as Baryshnikov in performance. A major talent.'
NEW YORK TIMES
'Allison illuminates aspects of a class that has been neglected and misunderstood. Haunting work…a raw power.'
NEW STATESMAN
'Her work has all the hard-won honesty of Carver's best writing.'
INDEPENDENT
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28 reviews
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful
This book changed my life.
3 Feb 1999
Format:Paperback
Among the hundreds or thousands of books that I have read, there remain only two that I can say this about. (The other is _The Color Purple_.) _Two or Three Things..._ is powerfully written. It is beautiful in the same way that it is to discover that someone's cancer has gone into remission. It is dark, it is almost tragic, and yet it is triumphant; I know of few authors who can pull this off, and none so well as Dorothy Allison.
For anyone who has faced or is facing serious adversity in their lives, be it from poverty, sexaul abuse, or anything else, especially for anyone who has gotten through it but not overcome it (you know what your 'it' is): this book will change your life, as well. I have learned a great deal from Dorothy Allison, and I am much the better for it.
Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that when I chose life, it was mostly because of this book.
31 of 34 people found the following review helpful
A VITAL AND INSPIRING PIECE OF ORAL HISTORY
2 May 2002
Format:Paperback
For those of you who have read Dorothy Allison's amazing, moving novel BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA, this book is the bridge between the fiction of that work and the reality of Dorothy's life -- and even without BASTARD as a reference, this is an immensely powerful work.
TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE was originally intended as a one-woman stage presentation -- I can only imagine, after reading this slim volume, how powerful that must have been. Allison's writing talents are incredible -- she conveys the frustration, and especially the pain, of growing up sexually abused in the American South, the ignorance and poverty, the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, in a very real way. It would be difficult to read this book and NOT get angry at what she endured, at the way women in general were treated. The inspiring thing is that she determined to rise above it in the only way she knew how -- by literally re-inventing her own life. Comparing the process of doing this to the telling of a story, she makes it understandable even to those who are not familiar with the courage required by abuse victims to make the transition to being survivors.
Incest and abuse tear families apart and can destroy lives. There's a very revealing story that she tells about looking through old photographs, first with her mom, then with other female family members. There's a palpable reluctance on their part to name everyone they see in the photos -- it's as if the people there don't exist outside the pictures, their lives being so damaged that they have literally disappeared. The subconscious protects us -- we remember what we can handle, when we can handle it.
On p.3, Dorothy makes a statement about 'retelling' her life as a story, re-inventing it in order to hold the pain and cast it off. She says: 'Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is what it means to have no loved version of your life but the one you made.' The abuse victim can't depend on anyone else to reshape and rebuild what has been broken -- those on the outside can help and support, but only the object of the abuse has the power to decide to choose life as a survivor instead of a victim.
Sexual abuse and incest are extremely uncomfortable topics -- but they occur with greater frequency in our society than most people can or will admit -- and ignoring these painful issues will NOT make them go away. Only by speaking out can courageous survivors like Dorothy Allison give hope and encouragement to those who have yet to take that first important step on the road to healing.
This is an honest and well-written book -- and a moving and important one.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Dorothy Allison sure knows how to write!
13 Nov 1996
Format:Paperback
The writing in Dorothy Allison's TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE has such a razor edge you'll want to protect your fingers as you hold the book. With unwavering honesty -- and with a somtimes suprising attitude toward the terrible events that have shaped her life -- Allison deftly avoids the two traps so common to pieces of this kind. There is no whining in this book, and there's no smug tone of "but just look at me now" either. Allison comes from a long line of women who have lived difficult, often unhappy lives, but she never condescends to apologize for any of these women. Rather, she understands -- and brings to life for the reader -- the deeply-buried strength and courage that so often these days is interpreted as weakness or lack of imagination. Allison's story is fascinating, peopled by characters who ring as true as our own families (sometimes to devasatatingly personal effect). But it is Allison's harshly poetic prose, even above the subject matter, that makes this book soar. The writing is simple, never showy, and so focused that it seems at times a magnifying glass held at just the proper angle to catch the rays of a white-hot desert sun. The words burn into us, cleansing and scarring at the same time, and when we turn the final page we know that we've just experienced something increasingly rare these days: the truth
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