The Talk-Funny Girl

by Roland Merullo

In one of the poorest parts of rural New Hampshire, teenage girls have been disappearing, snatched from back country roads, never to be seen alive again.  For seventeen-year-old Marjorie Richards, the fear raised by these abductions is the backdrop to what she lives with in her own home, every day.  Marjorie has been raised by parents so intentionally isolated from normal society that they have developed their own dialect, a kind of mountain hybrid of English that displays both their ignorance of and disdain for the wider world.  Marjorie is tormented by her classmates, who call her The Talk-funny girl, but as the nearby factory town sinks deeper into economic ruin and as her parents fall more completely under the influence of a sadistic cult leader, her options for escape dwindle.  But then, thanks to a loving aunt, Marjorie is hired by a man, himself a victim of abuse, who is building what he calls “a cathedral,” right in the center of town.
 
Day by day, Marjorie’s skills as a stoneworker increase, and so too does her intolerance for the bitter rules of her family life.  Gradually, through exposure to the world beyond her parents’ wood cabin thanks to the kindness of her aunt and her boss, and an almost superhuman determination, she discovers what is loveable within herself.  This newfound confidence and self-esteem ultimately allows her to break free from the bleak life she has known, to find love, to start a family, and to try to heal her old, deep wounds without passing that pain on to her husband and children.
 
By turns darkly menacing and bright with love and resilience, The Talk-Funny Girl is the story of one young woman’s remarkable courage, a kind of road map for the healing of early abuse, and a testament to the power of kindness and love.  

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Coming Of Age, Book Club, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Abuse

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 5, 2011

About the author

ROLAND MERULLO is an awarding-winning author of 24 books including 17 works of fiction: Breakfast with Buddha, a nominee for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, now in its 20th printing; The Talk-Funny Girl, a 2012 ALEX Award Winner and named a "Must Read" by the Massachusetts Library Association and the Massachusetts Center for the Book; Vatican Waltz named one of the Best Books of 2013 by Publishers Weekly; Lunch with Buddha selected as one of the Best Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews; Revere Beach Boulevard named one of the "Top 100 Essential Books of New England" by the Boston Globe; A Little Love Story chosen as one of "Ten Wonderful Romance Novels" by Good Housekeeping, Revere Beach Elegy winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction, and Once Night Falls, selected as a "First Read" by Amazon Editors.

A former writer in residence at North Shore Community College and Miami Dade Colleges, and professor of Creative Writing at Bennington, Amherst and Lesley Colleges, Merullo has been a guest speaker at many literary events and venues and a faculty member at MFA programs and several writers’ conferences. His essays have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, Outside Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Newsweek, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Magazine, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Merullo's books have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, German, Chinese, Turkish, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovenian, and Czech.

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review is more of a PSA than a book review! ;) As a social worker, The Talk-Funny Girl broke my heart because of the truth and reality of the story. It may be slated as fiction, and the author states in the very beginning that it is strictly fiction, but I guarantee there are girls out there who can tell this same tale of their real life even today, in 2012. I never caught the time period of storyline but it is still a sad fact that adults ignore these types of signs in our neighborhoods, schools and families. Books like this bring awareness. If reading this book helps people stop pretending abuse isn't happening and increase the willingness to report it, then it has done more for this world than most books. Also, as a previous family counselor, the insight into Marjorie's resistance to help and leaving her parents, her loyalty to them despite how she was treated, and her distrust of everyone else is beautifully written and hopefully pushes a few readers to overlook those barriers when trying to help kids they may come in contact with.

[Kelley Stoneking · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite read of the year!!! Five stars plus some exclamation points!!! Such straightforward language this author used--beautiful and spare, in direct contrast with the dialogue of Majie/Laney and her parents. Such a vulnerable yet strong main character! Although our experience of abuse was different, our emotional journeys were so similar! I identified with Majie/Laney completely. This might seem like a morbid thing to say, but if you ever wonder what it's like to be abused--because you want to understand clients, students, friends, loved ones who've gone through it--read this book. Non-fiction is good, but this lets you see the emotions, the thought processes, the revelations that occur through the abuse and as you break away. It's a profound book....one that I will buy to read again in the future and to have for my classroom library.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting and beautifully written novel about a young woman who strives to escape the isolation, poverty and ignorance of her parents' world in rural New Hampshire. I just couldn't stop thinking about this book. The main character and narrator is teased at school for talking funny--she talks with the strange grammar and syntax of her isolated parents. The poverty and lonliness of the family is pitiful. However, the parents are cruel and influenced by a religion that calls for severe punishment and control of children. Building a stone cathedral as a stone mason's apprentice and her own goodness free the narrator from the small minds of her parents. A beautiful, complicated, and rewarding novel.

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an inspiring, uplifting and sadly, very believable novel. I found my eyes filling with tears and my stomach tightening as I willed the seventeen year old girl at the centre of this story to find her way through the pain and dysfunction of her life and come out stronger on the other side.
This is the story of Majie, only child of parents who are basically illiterate and caught up in a bizarre church (cult) where the infliction of humiliating punishments on children is demanded. All punishments are humiliating in some form, but these are diabolically designed to break the spirit. Majies parents are under the spell of Pastor Schect and adhere to his every hateful word.
The family is extremely poor, and live in a wooded lot in the wilds of New Hampshire. Majie is her parents conduit to the outside world because they shun society.
The story opens with Majie having to find full time work to bring in more money to support her parents who refuse to work. The family speaks their own version of english, a mixture of reversed tenses and unnecessary, sometimes made up words.
Secrets abide in this story, some of them unthinkable, but as Majie and the other people in her life start to work through their own difficult pasts the results change everything and everyone.
I was struck by the authors insight into how difficult it is to see our own circumstance sometimes, and what courage it takes to undertake that personal insight and find it in ourselves to invoke change and move forward. This all takes time, and insights into ourselves and others can't be rushed.
Majie finds her path to healing through personal courage and through the courage of others who share with her and through example, lead her toward a better life. A key component of this story is when Majie apprentices as a stonemason to build a small version of a cathedral in the centre of town. Her relationship with Sands, the young man building the cathedral, and the process of handling the stone, learning the skills to build, and working physically hard day in and out form the framework of Majie's journey. And when Sands asks her what she likes to be called, she chooses the name Laney for herself and through that small step starts to move away from Majie and become in Laney, the young woman she wants to be.
I don't often recommend books, but I am recommending this one. A powerful story, that I could imagine reading in one sitting because it's grip is so strong.
And finally, I was struck by the gift and ability of the author, who is a man, to develop a fully realized seventeen year old girl.

[Wanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This just got better and better with every page. Overall it was the story of overcoming abuse and the isolation and fear it brings. The characters and their relationships were so well drawn, even as aberrant as some of them were, they were wholly believable. I won't even hint at the best part because I don't want to spoil it.

[Chris Witkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in rural New Hampshire, this novel tells the story of seventeen year old Marjorie Richards, a young woman with bizarre speech patterns who has endured unspeakable abuse at the hands of her parents. At the beginning of the novel Marjorie is commanded by her father to find "full pay work" or else suffer some form of severe punishment. In the course of a few days, through clever scheming worked out between her aunt and an unusual young man, Marjorie has a job helping to build a stone cathedral. And thus her real life begins.
The sheer joy she experiences from engaging in brutally hard physical labor, the peace she feels when she visits a museum, the small glimmers of happiness that enter her heart, are all victories that we, the reader, want to stand up and cheer over. But of course, we know that her new life is fraught with danger and that her parents will never let this burgeoning self esteem grow.

I was completely caught up in Marjorie's story, at times frightened to death at what was going to happen next, at other times overcome with emotion at her insights and wisdom far beyond her years.

I think the most amazing thing about this novel is the way the author not only creates immense sympathy for the protagonist, but enables the reader to understand on some level just how people can commit acts of evil. Yes, her parents are monsters, and yes, she has been treated the way no human being ever should, but she can't bring herself to hate them. This passage provides some insight into them: "They had a huge fear inside them, Aunt Elaine told me once. They lived as if enemies surrounded them on all sides, and they were terrified of being humiliated - for not being able to pay the property taxes or a doctor's bill, by seeing a newspaper ad for a vacation they could never afford to take, by their clothes, their speech, the cough and stutter of our truck on the downtown streets."

This is not an easy book to read, filled as it is with horrifying details. It could almost be a case study in the psychology of abuse, of how the victim is almost comforted by the regularity of it, because it is all she has ever known. These are Marjorie's thoughts as the secrets start to fall away: "It felt as though someone was lifting up the aluminum bucket and shining a light underneath it. I wanted that, of course. But at the same time it was like being in the start of an earthquake. Before that, whatever else happened, however bad things had been, you were at least sure the ground would stay still." The story of how one young, damaged person can be lifted out of misery and find a new way of life through her own resilience and the courage and love of others, is just amazing. A true wonder, really. Highly recommend.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful story. Emotional. At times very hard to read for the violent home life of Majorie (Majie) Richards, the lovely, smart, observant and kind seventeen year old lead of The Talk Funny Girl.

Majie lives a desperate life. Her family is improvised and barely surviving in the the back woods of New Hampshire. Her father is a simpleminded, angry, zealot who believes “life is made up of nothing but disappointment and insult” to be met by lashing out and delivering “penances." Majie's mother is a conniving, dispassionate psychotic, who holds no love for Majie and seeks every opportunity to demean her. Together they are “like gasoline spread around a room…a sharp smell of danger, the threat that something might erupt, but it could just as easily evaporate as explode.” To protect herself in this volatile environment Majie builds walls around her psyche and speaks in the back woods dialect of her parents that also provides as a barrier to anyone getting too close.

Majie dreams of a better life with a “house near town with a tidy lawn on which a black and white dog ran and jumped, a clean car sitting in the driveway. Grass on the yard instead of stones and dirt and piles of cordwood; neighbors instead of trees.” This avenue begins to open when she finds a job as apprentice to a young stonemason (Sands) recently come to the area to build a “cathedral” to showcase his skills. Sands opens her eyes to new possibilities. With his support, Majie begins to come out of her shell and finds the inner strength to confront her parents and her past.

Majie’s journey from victim to independence is harrowing at times. Readers with a strong aversion to violence toward children may want to avoid this book. What kept me reading was Maije’s undaunted spirit. She never loses her sense of self. She's a fighter. In the end she emerges transcendent.

This is the first book I’ve read by Roland Merullo. He is a gifted writer. In Majie, he has created a character I will remember for a long time. Maije’s parents and Pastor Schedt are also frighteningly well observed. Merullo's confrontation scenes are palpable in a way that most thrillers should be envious of. I don’t know Merullo’s background but he must have some exposure to the rural poor. The world he presents in the The Talk Funny Girl that is utterly convincing but startlingly alien to most readers.

Outstanding. Seek out this book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

To praise Roland Merullo's recent novel THE TALK FUNNY GIRL as a roadmap for overcoming abuse is to miss the point that it is artful fiction. True, it is didactic, but its careful structure and magnificent use of metaphor raise Merullo's novel to the level of Dickens's HARD TIMES and Christina Stead's MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN.

Let's start with the title. The narrator Marjorie Richards was a linguistically deprived backwoods New Hampshire girl who as an adult looks back at the turning point in her life, when her private world with her parents and the bigger world came into deadly conflict. The only way to describe her unspeakable experiences is with metaphor. Marjorie writes of her mother sitting on the kitchen counter drinking a bottle of cheap wine, "her legs jiggle as if small animals inside the jeans were trying to break free. Her hair, dark as used motor oil, had fallen loose and hung down the sides of her face....There was something methodical about the way she did it, something brutally efficient, as if she was feeling her way back, decision by decision, across an unlit landscape mined with regret." As an adult, Marjorie is able to understand the context for her mother's murderous regret at having left a comfortable home to marry and have an unplanned child with Curtis Richards, the feckless son of a mean backwoods man. The family goes to church every Sunday to hear murderous sermons given by Reverend Pastor Schect, a monster who hates children.

These three functionally evil characters are balanced by Marjorie and two wholly good characters, Marjorie's aunt Elaine, a nurse and stepsister of Marjorie's mother, and Sands, a troubled young man who hires Marjorie to help him build a cathedral to love on the ruins of a burned out church in town. Building the new cathedral to seems like a worn-out Hippy's whim when set beside the Reverend Pastor Schect's quonset hut church devoted to increasing the suffering of children and Marjorie's own museum of pain. The novel's elegant structure gives its message of hope enough clarity to be inspirational to younger adults; its use of startling metaphors is an unexpected pleasure for a reader of any age.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marjorie lives an isolated life with her parents, until at sixteen they send her out to get a full-time job to bring in some money for them (since neither of them work). She stumbles into work with a man named Sands who's new in town. Though at home Marjorie struggles with her parents who are part of a harsh religion, and at school she's ridiculed for her strange speech pattern, the time she spends on the building site with Sands helps her learn about her self-worth and resilience.

Oddly enough, I've watching a lot of stuff about cults and wasn't expecting this to have a cult as a subplot. It was intriguing to see the subplots come together as they did, because this was a coming of age story and the darker aspects of the story aren't told that way. Marjorie does endure some brutal abuse. Mostly I found her thought process to be fascinating and how she cares for her parents even as they are cruel to her. Another interesting aspect is that this story takes place in New Hampshire so many of the place names were familiar.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the rest of the book is anything like the prologue this is going to be amazing.

Aug 8 - And it was. I loved this novel. I've had a hard time parsing out in my mind exactly why and though I gave it some thought after finishing it I am still struggling to capture the essence of my thoughts and feelings in a paragraph or two. It's a coming of age story with a mystery well folded in but even more than that,I shall attempt to figure it out the "more than that" as I write.

I was hooked at the prologue, written twenty years after the events that transpire over the course of the novel. Marjorie, the talk-funny girl, is now grown with children of her own and is considering her past, which she likens to a museum. Most of the time she doesn't think much about the images and events from her past that are tucked away in this museum but they are always on display there, waiting to be visited and, as is truly the case, things that happen in the present have a way of catapulting her through the doors of her personal museum to some pretty horrifying exhibits. She decides it's time to throw open the doors and windows and let the sun shine in on her past, engaging in a personal history project as she mentally and physically revisits the time and place of her growing up years.

What follows is the story of her seventeenth year when she was called Majie by her parents and the Talk-Funny Girl by just about everyone else. Her parents are, well, awful. Probably never the most stable of people they have joined a religious group that embraces some pretty bizarre doctrine and behaviors that seem to be generally founded upon the punishment of children. They have raised Majie to speak in a strange dialect, which was a little distracting at first but fortunately her thoughts are in everyday English, the first hint that there is more to Marjorie than meets the eye and indeed she has a use for the distance this dialect creates out there in the real world, somehow sensing from an early age that it also provides a kind of shelter or protection because the way she talks is not all that makes her different from everyone else. Her speech is an easy target that captures the attention of her teachers, classmates and everyone outside of her family, thereby drawing their focus away from other things she has less control over and holds closer to herself.

I love the strength of her character and the way, with some help from one faithful childhood friend, her aunt and a stranger who offers her a job and becomes a friend, she not only survives but transforms herself into a woman of power, wisdom and beauty - overcoming her fears, learning to trust, herself and others, forgiving without judgement while remaining true to her inner core. To quote from the prologue:

... Though the pain of my upbringing made me stronger, I can't say I'm grateful, and I would never wish anything like it for any other child on this earth. At the same time I don't let myself feel much self-pity. Hard things happen to people - that's the nature of the world - and, horrible as that can be, I believe there has to be some purpose behind it all. The questions isn't Why did this happen to me? but What do I do with it? The past shouts at you, the ugly words or actions echo down across the years. You're walking through the museum with headphones on, listening to all that, your children and husband nearby, the world asking you to grow up, clean up, straighten out, pass on something good. What do you do?

That resonates with me, it's what I believe in my own inner core and I guess that's why I found Marjorie such a compelling character and loved this book. It's the something more.

[Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed the way I think about poverty and the uneducated in the same way that Orange Is the New Black changed the way I think about criminals and prisoners. OITNB, the fantastic Netflix show, showed me that criminals are human and every one of them has a story and the capacity for good. This novel, The Talk-Funny Girl, showed me that the poor and uneducated can be truly amazing people. I had assumed that most of those people were content with their lifestyle, because of shows like Buckwild and seeing them act happy with where they came from. But after reading The Talk-Funny Girl, I now realize that there are people like this who are desperate to get out and change their lives, having been born into places they don't like and didn't choose to live.

The Talk-Funny Girl is about a girl named Marjorie who had been raised by two abusive parents. Due to the fact that she did not attend school until the age of nine, her spoken grammar is off and she speaks a dialect of English that is similar to but not actual standard English. Her parents were uneducated and part of a cult-like church, one in which Marjorie is often abused and tormented. Marjorie is bullied at school for her way of talking and mentally and physically abused at home, methods of which include "boying": having to wear boys' clothes and be called and treated like a boy, in an attempt to degrade Marjorie's identity and gender.

At the age of seventeen, Marjorie is told by her parents to find work so she can support their lazy lifestyle (neither of them work and they both smoke and drink). She is hired by a man called Sands to do stonework. Sands, a friend of Marjorie's aunt, wishes to build a cathedral for nondenominational religious prayer. As she becomes more advanced at stone working and her talking improves, she drifts away from her family's harsh and negative way of life.

While I wasn't always impressed with Merullo's writing, I really loved the story. The author chose a topic that is not often seen in literature (New England poverty) but he did an excellent job of making the characters seem authentic and real. I might even say this book is eye-opening, in its presentation of people that are often not thought of. This might be one of the best books I have read this year.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great bookclub choice.

A young woman, subject to isolation and religious fervor is abused and manipulated... As she turns 17 her life begins to change, and she begins to see that there is a world outside what she knows, that hope may actually be something she can do, that maybe her life isn't destined to be punishments and worthlessness and poverty.

Im not sure how Roland Merullo got the internal thoughts of a traumatized young woman so accurate. As a survivor of childhood abuse (of a different nature than Marjorie), several times there were things written that I related to all too well - and wished that I had had the words for! The belief that you cannot dream of the future, that you are unacceptable and unworthy of good things....

The vast majority of the book is Marjorie learning that she isn't bad because her parents are bad, that she can dare to break out and find happiness... And then, right near the end (attempting not to spoil!), a new character comes in who is also born to bad parents. This new character isn't raised by the bad parents, yet still turns rebellious and "bad" in the end, calling into question the notion that the "badness" is not part of your genetic makeup from bad parents... A very interesting (yet frustrating) wrench in the works.

Lots to discuss in this book - isolation and ignorance, religious fervor, recovering from abuse, "toughness", "naivete", nature vs nurture.... A very powerful, yet disturbing look at a slice of life most people prefer to pretend doesn't exist.

[Krista Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, powerful, and odd, this novel tells the survival story of 17 year old Marjorie who is being raised by her isolated, mentally ill, and eccentric parents in the poorest part of New Hampshire. The horror her parents subject her to and how she justifies and then rejects their beliefs is powerful. I might even have given this a 5 (it takes a talented writer to make the reader continually hope that the parents will redeem themselves because they too have something in them that is likeable - or at least that what Marjorie believes/hopes)except for the dialect/language they speak. I love language and the channels and rivers that run through syntax, but this one kept snagging me. I never did figure out what the logic was behind the language (and yes, there is always a rhyme or a reason - okay, well almost always), but this just seemed a series of as many extra prepositions as could fit. Trying to wrap my head around their syntax took me out of the story. For older high school students.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story. I read it in just one night...it is so easy to read. Amazing how a male author can get into the psyche of a 17-year-old girl and make you believe in her story. This author hits on so many angles of the human psyche - why people do what they do when it appears to the outside world not to be of benefit to them, the mental scars left from abuse (sexual, mental, physical), the anguish of giving up a child (from the angle of the parent and the angle of the child), the power of a cult - seems impossible to gather all these topics in one story, but Merullo accomplishes it and more in this novel. My only issue with this story was that I wished the author would have expanded on the relationship between the main character and her future husband a bit more at the end. I needed more closure with this part of the novel.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed this author's other books. I find it unusual for a male author to get women characters and write them so well. This one won't disappoint. His topic on cult's and related emotional abuse of mentally unstable parents and how one girl becomes the miracle in this story makes this one of the most resonating novels I have read this year. Merullo has a very simple way of laying out a story that usually stays with me long after the last page.

The Talk-Funny Girl

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I experienced such a wide range of emotions as a reader throughout this book. Merullo is excellent at pulling the reader into Marjorie's sorrowful and sheltered world. The other characters are etched out in rich, life-like tones that make the reader feel as though he or she could reach through the pages and respond to the atrocities of Marjorie's upbringing. This tale is equally heart-breaking and heart-warming. I really enjoyed experiencing a life completely different from most other literary characters.

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read: powerful, affecting, and more than a little odd.

The book's about 17-year-old Marjorie, who's looking to find work because her parents have decided a "full pay" job is necessary from her. She finally finds work with a gentle, young man in his 20s whose dream is to construct a beautiful cathedral in town. (While Marjorie is working and going to school, her mother sits around and smokes, while her father putters around the woods and collects permanent disability) Her parents aren't just lazy--they're abusive and cruel in the worst ways to their daughter. The descriptions of this abuse--and the way in which Marjorie just seems to accept it--make this book very hard to read at times.

This review wouldn't be complete if it didn't touch upon the language used, as it's a main part of the plot. Marjorie and her parents are so pulled away from society that they've developed their own dialect, a different way of speaking where it seems like the words are out of order and the prepositions don't make sense. This can definitely be distracting, but it's only in dialogue--in Marjorie's narration, it's written normally, so the book isn't too difficult to get through.

If I could, I'd give this 4 and a half stars, for its human, believable characters and disturbingly real storyline. The parents are definitely horrible, but they're not caricatures--real affection seems to crack through at times, which actually makes the scenes of abuse more difficult to read. And the peripheral characters--Sands, and the aunt--are loving sources of support that Marjorie really needs. As for Marjorie herself, she seems like such a complex young woman. At times, I wanted to shake her for her perpetual concern for her parents, yet I also respected her for her inability to self-pity.

Give this one a shot--it' worth the strange dialogue.

[Wendy Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. The Talk-Funny Girl is next to impossible to put down once you open to the first page. Marjorie Richards doesn't realize she's different until the authorities make her attend school when she is nine. The other kids call her the Talk-Funny Girl because her dialect is one that her own family created. She hales from the wilderness in New Hampshire, and she lives in a ramshackle shack with her parents.

They are dirt poor and neither of her parents work. They belong to a church that believes in dire punishment, so Marjorie grows up abused. When she turns seventeen, they need Marjorie to find work to help them supplement their disability income.

She does, with a man that is also a victim of abuse. His name is Arturo Sands and he's building a church in the middle of town. Marjorie's aunt, Elaine, wants nothing more than to show Marjorie that life has more to offer than a little bitty shack, abuse and a church (cult) that her parents follow that believe God demands penance.

When girls are disappearing, a serial killer seemingly on the loose, Marjorie does the best she can. She has to walk to school, work, then back home and by then it's pretty dark. She has to keep her wits together and realize what life has to offer her outside of the circle of where she was raised.

Marjorie's journey brought tears to my eyes. She went through so many horrible things and yet, she saw hope and had faith. A powerful story that will grab a hold of you and not let go, even as Marjorie matures and breaks away from that holding her back. With memorable characters and splendid writing, creating a myriad of emotions, The Talk-Funny Girl is a must read! Young adults and adults alike won't want to miss this great piece of contemporary fiction!

[Steve Auerweck · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 17, Marjorie's future is bleak. She lives with her uneducated, abusive parents in an isolated shack in New Hampshire. They are all part of a small sect that meets in a Quonset hut and follows the word of a far-right, racist, fundamentalist preacher. And the family talks in a convoluted dialect that may owe its roots, distantly, to French Canadian.

Fortunately, Marjorie hasn't run out of hope, and there's an aunt who's on her side. We follow as she tells her tale of finding an unusual job and working to carve out the life she wants, rather than the one she's been handed.

She is setting the story down years later, so the events are viewed both through the eyes of a girl and through a filter of maturity. I was impressed by what an appealing character Merullo created. We care very deeply about her and the book was hard to put down.

There are Cinderella overtones to this tale, with some characters who are irredeemably evil and some who are wonderful. But that was OK to me. I became as engrossed as a child listening to a glorious fairy tale. The otherworldly dialect helps to create that feeling. And though tragic events occur, they are never crushingly depressing, because we have faith that Marjorie will survive.

I've never read Merullo's work before, but I will certainly seek him out in the future.

[Jasmine Cardenas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo is based on a story of Marjorie Richards who lives in the poorest area of New Hampshire. There have been teenage girl abductions around her neighborhood but that's no concern for parents. Seventeen-year-old Marjorie is forced to get a full time job because she needs to help maintain her parents financial needs. As the story goes on Marjorie gets picked on because she "talks funny". Her parents are ignorant about school and they don't think that learning is as important as working hard at a new job. As Marjorie gets older, she starts to realize that there is must more to see/live in the world than to just be stuck at home.

I think this book has a great storyline because there really is people out there that can't live the normal lifestyle. They're either in bad financial situations or they just don't know what's out there. The story about Marjorie Richards is interesting because it shows how life can have either sudden or rapid changes. This story wasn't the best but I did enjoy reading it over the summer. It kept me entertained from the moment I started reading. I don't want to ruin the ending but I was very satisfied. I hope you enjoy reading about the seventeen-year-old Marjorie Richards!

[Scot · Rating 5 out of 5]

The further I got into this novel the better I liked it. I stayed up late to finish the last fifty pages.

I think I identified with the rural setting at some points, the character Sands at others. Its a story of a young woman's coming of age in rural new Hampshire, but it's much more than that. It encompasses the range of challenges she faces, and touches on discrimination due to class, accent, race, gender, and sexual orientation; the sad cycles of abuse within a family; overcoming self-doubt; and standing up for what you know is right even when the result might be costly. There are interesting overlays of group control in an extremely fundamentalist sect, a serial killer mystery, and a blossoming young love story.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

While parts of it were difficult to read, once I began this book, I could not put it down. Not only did it draw my attention to a subject I hadn't much thought about before, poverty in the northeastern United States, but the language and writing were beautiful. There was something about the style of the writing that made it even more pleasurable to read. It seemed unique somehow. Furthermore, I wanted to see how Marjorie came out of it in the end. I wouldn't call it a happy ending, but it was satisfying; it felt realistic, not canned and meant only to wrap it all up neatly. There were still scars for her, but she was healing and finding some measure of happiness in her life.

Overall, this was an incredible read.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raised in the north woods, cut off from most what most people consider the "civilized world", 17-year old Majie finds the beginnings of adulthood offering her a choice between the twisted past of her youth and the uncertain future offered by the kindness of others. I didn't realized how tense the story was making me until I finished the book -- the entire narrative is laced with a foreboding of something really tragic about to happen and the ending left me realizing that the tragedy had unfolded from page one to the end.

Not a book I would have picked up normally, but a story and main character that will certainly stay with me.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sister gave me this book, about a year ago, thinking I'd like it. I picked it up this morning and my sister was right!

Marjorie's classmates call her the talk funny girl. She has an unusual cadence and pattern of grammar to her voice, because of her upbringing. To get through the days with her family unscathed she keeps her head down and quiet. At 17 she has a lucky break with a well paying job, that allows her to look from the outside at her family. However, the outside isn't that safe either, as her small town is experiencing a rash of abductions and murders of young girls. Marjories not sure who to trust.

The Talk Funny Girl is a reflection by the main character Marjorie. She is looking back at her 17th year of life, and comprehending it as an adult. Marjorie, is the definitly of resilience. The takes constant abuse and bullying and pushes on to the next day. The abuse take the form of physical, emotional and religious, so please check trigger warnings.


Marjories mother and father are such complex characters. They both faced abuse and worse themselves as a child, and as adults had mental health issues left undiagnosed and unaddressed. You could never tell if in a moment they were going to be kind or not, before you got through the scene.

I was so glad Marjorie had her aunt and Sandy in her corner. Sandy was able to open her eyes to a broader religious world view, and help support her. Her aunt was always by her side ready to fight, no matter the danger.

This was a good book, I'd read it again@

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A woman tells us the story of her life until it changes for the better. She was neglected and harshly disciplined in the backwoods of New Hampshire. Her parents belong to a religious cult and this is the foundation for how they treat her.

I enjoyed Marjorie as a person. The book runs along straightforward enough until the big shock at the end which blew my mind but it makes sense. This will find a permanent place on my bookshelves.

[Bob Kochinskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Not a 'happy read"by any means, but it really sucks you in. I have never been disappointed by any of Merullo's books, and this is no exception.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dark and at times frightening story, but so compelling I read it almost all in one sitting. Merullo is one of the very best story tellers and this book is one in his string of hits.

[Laura Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fictional but written like a memoir, this story smacks of reality and with all my heart I wish it was. Not because of the horrors that go on in Marjorie's house, but because she escapes.

We know from the beginning that she escapes- it's written in the style of a memoir, after all- but the joy (and the heartbreak and the inspiration) is in the journey. It's a journey of broken people doing broken things but also broken people doing all they can to fix and be fixed.

Marjorie is an inspiration. Her determination and stubbornness are a double-edged sword: keeping her locked in her dysfunctional lifestyle but giving her the strength to finally break free. Her speech is enchanting and I wonder how much time Merullo spent making it absolutely perfect.

The surrounding cast of characters are appropriately imperfect and beautifully crafted. There are tiny glimpses of goodness or humanity in every single "evil" character. There are glimpses of selfishness or brokenness in every "good" character. Nobody is perfect and everybody believes they are doing the right thing.

Although this is by no means a Christian book, Marjorie's journey from believing in a god of vengeance and cruelty to a God of love and mercy is integral to her character's journey. Her reflections on spiritual things are genuine and nothing is forced in her slow, careful change in worldview. It is a gentle, gradual change and always begins inwardly before showing itself.

My favorite moment? The man working at the parking garage in Boston. I wept like a little girl.

I pray every day for the kids in an urban version of this town and this situation. I pray that they have the strength to be get out. This book was a beautiful insight and an inspiration for me.

So why 4 out of 5 stars? I don't know. I usually reserve 5 stars for books that I absolutely must rush out and buy. But there is nothing rushed about this book. Maybe, after mulling it over for a few weeks or months, I'll up it to 5 and go buy the book already. :)

[Jendimmick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Majie Richards (MAY-gee REE-shard) is being raised in a shack in the deep woods of New Hampshire by ignorant, isolationist and abusive parents. She didn’t go to school until someone reported the truancy to the authorities when she reached the age of 9. By then the back woods English dialect she spoke was so engrained that her language and learning skills appeared irredeemable, and she was shunted into low level classes despite her true intellect. At the age of 17 Majie is forced to seek work in their depressed town to supplement her father’s meager disability check. It is here where Majie gets glimpses of a different sort of existence than her own, and this simultaneously tantalizes and frightens her. Be prepared to hold your breath as Majie walks the long miles to and from town each night, knowing that a local serial killer has been abducting teenaged girls from the area. Grit your teeth as she endures the twisted “penances” her parents and their demonic minister have dreamed up for their rural congregation’s wayward children. Feel your hopes soar as Majie experiences the kindness of Sands, her new boss, and the love of her Aunt Elaine, who so desperately want to save her. This is a thoroughly engrossing and all too believable story that will grab you up front and whisk you to the bittersweet final page in no time.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. The characters were so interesting but completely believable -- not stereotypes. Merullo is an amazing writer and I am excited that I just picked up another book by him, "Breakfast with Buddha" which I will begin this weekend. In The Talk-Funny Girl (not such a great title), the main character is complex, interesting, likeable -- you want to enter her world and befriend her. The characters are real in the sense that they are never "all evil" or "all good" but that true mix that most people fall in. The father is the most complex and I felt sympathy for him. She lives in the back woods with parents who have cut themselves off from society except for a cultish church. The parents have developed their own way of speaking and demand that their daughter do the same. The book isn't only about this language aspect (which is why I read the book in the first place). It is more about this young woman finding her strength. It breaks rules and prejudices and stereotypes throughout. But mostly, I love the authenticity of it, and the loving hand that went into creating the characters. If you enjoyed NELL or WINTER'S BONE, you will like this book. I highly recommend it to everyone, but especially to women of all ages.