| Tomato Girl | 
 enlarge | Author: Jayne Pupek
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $8.95
You Save: $15.00 (63%)
New (37) Used (17) from $7.11
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 90391
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 298
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 1565124723
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781565124721
ASIN: 1565124723
Publication Date: August 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Edition: First Edition; Brand with New Dustjacket - No Remainder Mark
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Product Description
For eleven-year-old Ellie Sanders, her father has always been the rock that she could cling to when her mother's emotional troubles became too frightening. But when he comes under the thrall of the pretty teenager who raises vegetables and tomatoes for sale at the general store that he runs, Ellie sees her security slowly slipping away. Now she must be witness and warden to her mother's gradual slide into madness.
Told from Ellie's point of view, Tomato Girl takes the reader into the soul of a terrified young girl clinging desperately to childhood while being forced into adulthood years before she is ready. To save herself, she creates a secret world, a place in which her mother gets well, her father returns to being the man he was, and the Tomato Girl is banished forever. Tomato Girl marks the debut of a gifted and promising new author who has written a timeless Southern novel.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Wonderful Book January 2, 2009
This is a great book with such detailed characters. I could not put it down! I read it & then reread it! Simply fabulous!
Tomato Girl December 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Tomato Girl deals with difficult subject matter - mental illness, abuse, racial issues and criminal activity - but Pupek weaves a beautifully written story. The characters are so real you quickly become absorbed with their world and their story.
Written from the point of view of 11 year old Ellie Sanders, you instantly fall in love with the heart-wrenching tale of this poor little girl. You feel her pain, as well as her hopes and dreams.
The story takes place during the early 1960s in a rural town in Virginia. Julia Sanders is a beautiful, but troubled, wife to Rupert and mother to Ellie. All of Ellie's life, her mother has suffered from some sort of mental illness, many times requiring sedation. While pregnant with a second child, Julia suffers a deplitating fall, resulting in the need for someone to help around the house.
Rupert brings home Tess Reed, the teenage farm girl who supplies home-grown tomatoes to be sold in his general store, as a caretaker for his wife and daughter. It soon becomes clear Rupert is having an affair with Tess. Almost from the instant Tess comes to live in the Sanders' home, a cascade of horrible events changes the family forever.
Throughout the book we watch Julia deteriorate further into a delusional world of her own. We see Rupert transfer all his love and attention away from his daughter and wife, and onto the teenage tomato girl. And most saddly of all, we watch Ellie deparately trying to hold her family together, all the while holding on to deep, dark family secrets. Ellie is forced to bare burdens that would cripple most adults. I felt so much love and empathy for this poor little girl, praying she would finally have the happy life she deserved.
Although Pupek has written a truly dark story, Ellie is full of hope and unconditional love for her family. The tangled lives of all the characters is truly complex, but Ellie's voice keeps the story from becoming too difficult to read.
I have read over 100 books this year, and Tomato Girl is in the top 5. This is an unforgettable book from a first time author, and I look forward to reading more of Pupek's work in the future. She has a talent I'm sure we will all be hearing more about.
Heartbreaking yet beautiful story November 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
TOMATO GIRL by Jayne Pupek was one of the hardest books for me to get through, but it's also my favorite book this year. It will pull at your heart, make you smile, choke you up and make you cry, but mostly it will make you mad. It's one of those books that breaks your heart, but you can't quit reading.
The story is told in it's entirety by Ellie Sanders, who you will immediately fall in love with. Ms. Pupek is very consistent with her characters and develops them perfectly. Her storytelling is compelling and believable. Even though the subject matter is disturbing, and may not appeal to everyone, I applaud Jayne Pupek for her daring courage in this, her debut novel.
What I liked most about this book is the innocence of Ellie and the constant struggle for her to remain unscathed by what is happening around her that she has no control over. Along with Ellie, my other favorite character was Clara, the `colored' woman who comes into Ellie's life at just the right time. All of the characters of TOMATO GIRL are unique and will stay with me for awhile, but I will never forget Ellie, the strong little girl who suffered so much loss, and wanted nothing more than to have a normal life.
TOMATO GIRL is the kind of book that will stir up a lot of emotions that people will be talking about long after they've read it. Some will love it and some may not, but they will always remember it. For those reasons, it would make the perfect choice for any book club.
For my complete review visit:
www.southerngal-lisa.blogspot.com
A page turner for sure! October 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jayne Pupek's Tomato Girl is a compelling tale of madness seen through the eyes of an 11 year-old protagonist. Pupek does the reader a favor by starting the story with a brief glimpse into the future, so we know Ellie survives a childhood that will, no doubt, leave lasting scars.
Then, hurtled back into the narrative-- a fast paced emotionally wrenching story-- the reader pleads for a moment of peace that never comes. It is one thing after another, and just when you think nothing more could go wrong, nothing more could conceivably happen to one child in a short span of time, it does. Pupek has unleashed a torrent of trouble on Ellie. Ellie handles it all, drawing strength from her father until he becomes unavailable in his own efforts to cope, then turning to a neighbor with special powers who sees her through.
The tale is well-written with a decidedly poetic turn of phrase at times. The images are gritty and raw. If there is one disappointment it is that the characters remain relatively predictable in their responses to trouble. They are given a role to play and they do not stray from expectations. Still that is easily forgiven and forgotten as the strong story steals the show.
 Just too bleak for me October 15, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm not sure what first-time novelist Jane Pupek was shooting for in "Tomato Girl," her coming-of-age-in-a-very-strange-house story of Ellie Sanders, 11, who is reeling from the aftermath of her mother's mental illness and her daddy's libido-gone-wild.
Maybe Pupek thought if the details were bizarre enough, her readers would become transfixed. Maybe she thought odd and unbecoming could be dressed up and transformed into evocative and acceptable.
It's the whole "lipstick on a pig" thing, without the recent political overtones, and that does not include the truly twisted contents of Ellie's mother's pantry. It's not fit for mixed company.
The only redeeming grace for Pupke's readers is knowing that, had the story been set in today's world instead of sometime before integration, someone would have called Child Protective Services to take Ellie away from the whole sordid mess.
It's been a long time since I failed to finish a 298-page book, but I put this one down at about page 175.
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