BOOK REVIEW

Pulitzer Nominee George Weinstein does it again

Straight out of Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road and Georgia Boy, George Weinstein weaves a tale of a young stuttering Bud MacLeod with his port wine birthmark and his siblings, Darlene, Jay and Chet growing up during the depression in rural Georgia with a totally dysfunctional set of parents, struggling their way through life, if you could call it a life. Their papa, a cuckold drunk, their mama living in constant fear of her abusive husband who would not only physically abuse the boys and verbally abuse her.

Both parents had a peculiar love for Darlene, the boys were required to work the fields and Darlene wasn’t even required to do housework. The adult characters-white and black-act act as if they are trapped by their circumstances and/or choices, and the MacLeod children are intent on not ending up the same way, fleeing South Georgia if they have to. Papa leaves after mama shoots him, the boys grow up hard and fast, papa comes back “Born Again” . Mama well…. you will have to read the book and make your own decisions…what happens? That will keep you turning the pages of Hardscrabble Road.  Buy this book and let me know what you think.

Also by George Jake and the Tiger Flight.