A Garden of Sand Book

Had I known what this was about, I never would have picked it up. But it lived up to recommendation as a serious work of fiction, and was an exceptional novel. However, I can't recommend it to many, it is disturbingly and frankly sexual in a way I've never encountered. These kind of people need religion and the strictures of civilization, and even as reader I feel the need to be cleansed. It is hardscrabble in the thirties, with drunken mean stepfathers and a whore / prostitute mother. Growing up Jack develops and consummates a seriously screwed up desire for his mother. And the encounters are absolutely relentless and told with cringing detail. But the story is real, and I will have to find out about this author and somehow begin to understand how any human being could get this down. I imagine this is autobiographical to some extent, all the more remarkable to put down this content, and he had to get it out (like Melville's Moby). But be forewarned, though entertaining, funny and educational about American history in the depression, this is very strong stuff and it will wear you out. It started in Kansas, so that's partly why I picked it up (my coming of age years were there), but most of it is throughout the hardscrabble gulf coast. Written in the 70s, this is a much more intense version of Angela's Ashes.