This book is told in the first person narrative by two people. The first person is Laney from the small town of Mt. Gilead, Illinois, she is 18 years old and works as a night cashier at the local Walmart. She has no ambitions in life and is just moving through her days. She lives in a trailer with 35 year old Deliah, who also works at Walmart and she is beyond desperate for a man to love her - it seems that is all she wants. Soon Rose moves into the trailer also. One night they go to a bar and Deliah and Rose become very interested in a guitar player who goes by the name of Tweet. Deliah throws herself at Tweet and claims him for her own, but Rose isn't far behind for she is looking for a man to love her too. Laney is wanting everyone to just get along with each other. The other person we hear from is Miss Baby from Denton, Texas. She describes herself as, "I was short and thick-legged, and I kept my black hair cropped close to my head and spiked with gel so it wouldn't get in my way when I was drilling ink. I wasn't the girlie sort who could turn a man's head, but that never stopped me from trying. I imagine I could put my face up close to this man's, and he'd smell like pine trees, hyacinths, lilacs. Just listen to me go on." Miss Baby owns a tattoo shop. She has never felt loved in her life and she desperately wants a man to love and to love her back. She wants that so desperately that she tells a man who doesn't seem to know who he is that he is her husband, and makes up a story about who he is and they start living as husband and wife. This book has a lot of depth to it. It is about small town people with little to no ambitions just wanting to be liked and loved, wanting to play house, believing if they just have a man then life will be good, but this book goes further than just that, it goes into just what people will do to get what they want with little to no regard for anyone else. It is a tragic story that happens way to often in this world. I think this would be a good book to give to young people to read, to teach them how easy it is to fall in with the wrong people and how the events that happen can change their lives in horrible ways that they can't recover from and then their lives are forever changed and so very limited. Lee Martin does an outstanding job of characterization. It's easy to see that he has compassion for his characters. It was his descriptive and tender nature in developing these characters that kept me reading.However, the plot takes too long to reach a climax and we keep waiting and waiting for Miss Baby and Laney's lives to connect; I wish he would've brought them together sooner. Also, I did not find the character of Miss Baby to be very believable. I'm not convinced that a woman would take a stranger off the street and bring him home with her, name him Donnie and start living like they've been together for years. I understood that she was supposedly following in her mom's footsteps, but in this day and age, it's just too dangerous to be believable.I'd like to read another book by Lee Martin. Despite my disappointments with this one, I can tell he has a great talent for writing. I'd like to see what he can accomplish next...
What do You think about Break The Skin (2011)?
Iniziato ma per ora purtroppo Questo romanzo di lee Martin non mi sta coinvolgendo per niente...
—jrvl
Lee Martin is outstanding...love this book, such sadness and such great prose...
—Stephanie
I just won this book on Goodreads! I can't wait to read it! Thank you.
—TSquared22
