I'm a fan of Dorothy Allison (Bastard Out of Carolina was powerful!) but this book is not one of my favorite works. The author says she originally wrote the short stories as performance art that gradually evolved into a published book. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure is a well written memoir of the women in Ms. Allison's family and the men they both loved and loathed. Within each of the stories you feel the strength that from each woman to the next generation.

The photo's of Ms. Allison and her family that accompanied the book were quite enjoyable and a nice touch. ( )

"We were not beautiful. We were hard and ugly and trying to be proud of it. The poor are plain, virtuous if humble and hardworking, but mostly ugly. Almost always ugly."

Dorothy Allison's moving memoir, Two Or Three Things I Know For Sure, is full of almost unbearably frank observations such as that. Yet, by dint of her skill as a storyteller, Allison's reflections on poverty, sexual abuse and hard living in the American South are lifted from the depths of self pity to become a celebration of the sheer dogged determination of Allison and the other women in her family. An excellent companion to her bestselling novel Bastard Out Of Carolina. ( )

This slim autobiographical volume packs a lot of punch. With photographs and a storyteller-ish quality, Allison reflects on her impoverished childhood and on the love-hate relationship she long had with the other women in her family. The overall effect is to leave the reader somewhat in awe of the strength that Allison and the other women in her family had in the face of incredible hardship. ( )

this book made you relive her other novel...because she lived it. pretty frank reading. ( )

A small reflective, almost meditative memoir. I found it a trifle cloying and irritating although the writer has an undeniable talent for prose. Why do we need another down and out luck story with confessive elements. Sorry - life needs to be more interesting to justify writing on such terms. Three stars. ( )