Tomato Girl

This book was so touching. I related to all the characters. The author did an amazing job. So sorry the author has passed away, I would definitely read more of her books.

I have been avoiding writing a review about the book Tomato Girl, by Jayne Pupek, because that would mean it was time for me to move on to something else. I did not want to move on. I love loved loved this book! I read it once (in one day), but then the following day I went back and placed sticky notes on at least 10 pages, so that I could reread some of the haunting passages again, and keep them for the future. Tomato Girl is about Ellie Sanders, an 11-year old girl growing up in a dysfunctional family. It is not an easy read, but I found myself anxiously waiting to turn each page. It is a heartbreaking account of mental illness and how it can tear apart a family. The prologue is only one page, and yet it made my jaw drop open. FROM THE PROLOGUE.............Jars line my cellar shelves. Some are filled with fists of yellow-veined tomatoes. Others hold small onions and chopped leeks, white pearl onions floating in an opaque sea. Sometimes the light falls on a jar of boiled quail or the slick dark meat of a rabbit. There are unexpected moments when I see the slit of an infant's mouth, or the curl of a tiny fist behind the glass, and I run up the steps, back into the open light of sky...........I need to tell what I remember, I need to tell the story of a girl whose world unraveled like a torn scarf............. What I loved best about this book (well there are so many things to love), but especially that the story is told through 11-year old Ellie's eyes, and how she views the world she lives in. There are loads of clues the reader will pick up on, but naive Ellie does not (at least not initially). Ellie is so genuine; you just want to sweep her away ......off to a normal childhood as she is faced with far too many difficult adult issues. The novel takes place in 1969 in a fictional town in Virginia, so there is a whole racial element to the story as well. I thought it was brilliant how the heart of the story takes place during Easter week. There is a part when Ellie thinks about her "God Promises"....so touching. There are so many beautiful passages and analogies in this book. I do not want to quote any more as I don't want to spoil it for others. I have read over 100 books in 2008 and this is my favorite so far. It is an amazing debut novel. I look forward to more books by this talented author. PLEASE read this book; it is one book that will resonate long after the final page has been turned.

At 11 years old, Ellie Sanders is forced to grow up before most people. Her mother is mentally ill and Ellie is often forced to accept the role of care-giver. She says, "Mama, like me, loves fragile things, but she can hurt them when she's troubled. Sometimes something comes over her, and she doesn't realize what she's doing, or how it will turn out bad." When Ellie's mother falls and is hospitalized, her father brings home "the tomato girl" to run the household. The tomato girl is her father's lover and begins to take over the household. When Ellie's mother comes home from the hospital, the tomato girl stays and things really start to spiral downward. Ellie is torn between pleasing her mother or her father. She struggles to maintain some normalcy in world that is spinning out of control. "I've heard Mama say there is nothing more disappointing than an ordinary life, but I don't know. Sometimes an ordinary life is what I want most in the world." Ellie is the narrator of the story and my heart just ached for her. I could not put this book down, but also hated for it to end. It is one of the best books I have read in a while, and I've read some good ones. It is hard to believe that Tomato Girl is Jayne Pupek's first novel. She is currently working on her second one, and I look forward to reading it.

From the very first page, I was drawn into this book. While there are a few things worth mentioning as a critique, I feel the book has earned a discussion of the good points first. I can understand why some readers would not enjoy this book. It is devastatingly truthful and honest. Ellie is surrounded by a family full of illness, pain, frustration, and desperation. I was so emotionally connected to Ellie that near the end of the book, I felt...literally felt the weight of emotional strain that she was under. Perhaps that is the most powerful aspect of the book for me. And perhaps that is why there are some readers who do not enjoy this book. The emotions here were thick and palpable. I certainly could not bear to have every book that I read be this heavy, but I am glad that I read Tomato Girl. The prose is beautiful. I am not surprised at all to see that Pupek is also a poet. She writes with the ease and grace of a writer who sees the beauty in the terrible. And there is hidden beauty in this book. There is redemption in the grace and love Ellie receives from other people in the neighborhood and there is beauty in the unwavering attachment Ellie feels toward her parents despite their inability to return that same quality of love. There is even beauty in the struggle that Ellie's parents face in escaping the quagmire of mental illness. Pupek delivers the small details that children pay attention to but that adults ignore or forget. Details such as Ellie's constant awareness of her surroundings....the noises of her mother walking upstairs, the water rushing through the pipes, the "electric" in the air that foretells the mood her mother is in. These are telling details that add depth to the story, especially in the way that it portrays Ellie as the hypersensitive and observant daughter of a mentally ill mother. These details are not simply thrown in for the sake of adding details (I sometimes find that Alice Hoffman slips into description for the sake of description); these details mean something to the story. What I find to critique about the book is that Ellie felt a bit young for eleven to me, especially since this is not her mother's first "episode". Yet, there really is a wonderful play in the innocence versus independence that she faces. Perhaps I am reading this as a 2008 reader who exists in a world where mental illness is more easily discussed. Perhaps the repression of the 1960s would account for this innocence, but I am not sure. Also, a lot happens to Ellie in a relatively short amount of time. It seems as though everything that could go wrong does in the span of Easter Break. Honestly, because I was so invested in the story, I barely gave it a second thought, but it is worth mentioning. As for the believability of Clara's character and her use of magic, some readers may find this too abrupt and farfetched. I found it to be an emotional reprieve. There is sometimes something inherently haunting, mysterious, and mystical with peop

Oh boy! Another winner from Algonquin Press. Tomato Girl keeps readers turning pages till way too late into the night. From the outset, you just know all of eleven-year-old Ellie's hard work to heal her mother, reform her father, and banish the tempting teen-aged Tomato Girl, are unrealistic and doomed. It's all too much for the eleven-year-old child, the only person in her family who seems to have her head on straight, to manage on her own - and fears of the obvious consequences prevent her from seeking outside help. Against insane odds, Ellie valiantly struggles onward, carrying mesmerized readers along with her. Writing an entire novel in the voice of a child is difficult, but for the most part first-time author Jayne Pupek manages to maintain the tone, awareness, and vocabulary of a pubescent child of the South in a manner that is consistent and authentic. Kudos to both Pupek and her publisher for bringing Tomato Girl to fruition.

Jayne Pupek can write! Tomato Girl is a beautiful novel related by an eleven-year old narrator, Ellie, whom I loved from the moment she admitted "I can't tell them about Mama's moods, or how she keeps Baby Tom in a jar." I was captivated by her story, and so curious to learn it that I had trouble setting the novel down. Though young, Ellie is a perceptive narrator, and I enjoyed meeting the adults in the book through her eyes. I saw how and why she adored her father, though his actions were irresponsible, sometimes cruel, and sometimes criminal. Her mother suffers from madness, and as I watched her condition deteriorate through her daughter's eyes, I felt my concern intensify into something approaching terror. Ellie is a child forced to shoulder burdens that even an adult--and especially the adults in the story--have trouble carrying. I couldn't help but feel compassion for her. I wanted things to work out for her; I was completely sucked into her world. The story is very dark at times, but the book remains hopeful, often because Ellie brings a light to the events through her unwavering love for her family and her childish innocence. The characters are complex, the setting well described, the voice one you will not likely forget. Tomato Girl is a wonderful debut novel by a writer who knows her craft. I'm already looking forward to Pupek's next book.