BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA United States

Set in Greenville, S.C., not long after
WWII, this story looks behind Tobacco
Road cliches to evoke the complex weave
of love, hardship and family bonds that
conditioned the life of the poor whites in
the days before New South prosperity
kicked in. Pie opens with a narrator recalling
that she was born after her single
mom, Anney, was hurled through a car
windshield during an accident. An uncle
nicknamed the newborn Bone, and the
county declared her illegitimate, beginning
a long obsession with that label on
the part of both Anney and her daughter.
… Anney … is still eager enough for love
that she eventually succumbs to the earnest
courting of Glen … Bone and Glen are subtly
at odds from the outset. Soon, though,
the beatings are regular, secret and sadistic.
Anney reacts by leaving Glen, but
eventually returns. She’s torn between two
kinds of love, and her inability to reconcile
them sets the stage for the horrific event
that climaxes the tale and prompts Bone to
reject her mother. -Godfrey Cheshire,
Variety