Cruddy: An Illustrated Novel (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780684838465)

On a September night in 1971, a few days after getting busted for dropping acid, a sixteen-year-old curls up in the corner of her ratty bedroom and begins to write.
Now the truth can finally be revealed about the mysterious day long ago when the authorities found a child, calmly walking in the boiling desert, covered with blood.
The girl is Roberta Rohbeson, and her rant against a world bounded by "the cruddy top bedroom of a cruddy rental house on a very cruddy mud road" soon becomes a detailed account of another story, one that she has kept silent since she was eleven.
Darkly funny and resonant with humanity, Cruddy, masterfully intertwines Roberta's stories -- part Easy Rider and part bipolar Wizard of Oz. These stories, the backbone of Roberta's short life, include a one-way trip across America fueled by revenge and greed and a vivid cast of characters, starring Roberta's dangerous father, the owners of the Knocking Hammer Bar-cum-slaughterhouse, and runaway adolescents. With a teenager's eye for freakish detail and a nervous ability to make the most horrible scenes seem hilarious, Cruddy is a stunning achievement.

Author: Lynda Barry
ISBN-10: 068483846X
ISBN-13: 9780684838465
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Language: English
Published: 10/10/2000
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.34w x 0.91d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 4.6
Point Value: 12
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 76218 / Cruddy


Review Citation(s):
New York Times 10/22/2000 pg. 36
Entertainment Weekly 12/01/2000 pg. 90
New York Times 12/03/2000 pg. 108