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162nd out of 407 books
—
154 voters
The Last Days of Dogtown
Set on the high ground at the heart of Cape Ann, the village of Dogtown is peopled by widows, orphans, spinsters, scoundrels, whores, free Africans, and "witches." Among the inhabitants of this hamlet are Black Ruth, who dresses as a man and works as a stonemason; Mrs. Stanley, an imperious madam whose grandson, Sammy, comes of age in her brothel; Oliver Younger, who survi...more
Paperback, 263 pages
Published
July 11th 2006
by Scribner
(first published 2005)
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Anita Diamant's characters from this book stayed with me for months after I turned the last page. While I was reading the book, I found it lacking in details and context. Yet, once I was done, I decided that I had just enough information to make all of the characters extremely real to me.
This is a book about a dying shore town whose industry had all moved elsewhere. There are some women who live alone -- either never married or widowed -- in this old town. They subsist off of the land and some s...more
This is a book about a dying shore town whose industry had all moved elsewhere. There are some women who live alone -- either never married or widowed -- in this old town. They subsist off of the land and some s...more
After reading The Red Tent, I was eager to read more by this author. The blurb about this book stated ".....Dogtown is peopled by widow, orphans, spinsters, scoundrels, whores, free Africans and 'witches.'" Hmmmmm - sounds interesting. The blurb went on to talk about Ruth who dresses as a man and works as a stone mason (this is set in the early 1800's), Sammy who has a miserable childhood being raised in a brothel, Oliver Younger who is being raised by a wicked aunt, and Cornelius who is a freed...more
7 likes · like · see review
Dogtown is a community of social outcasts located a few miles from Gloucester on Cape Ann. This novel begins in the winter of 1814 on the day of the death of Abraham Wharf. In the first chapter we are introduced to the residents of Dogtown as they arrive at the home of Easter Carter to pay their last respects. There is a hint of mystery surrounding the death of Mr. Wharf, but the mystery was overridden by the fascinating stories of the Dogtown people in the following chapters.
This has just become one of my favorite books... I can't imagine anyone could read this and not fall in love with Dogtown and its people. The characters are so well developed; some funny and quirky, others horrid and unloveable, and, of course, some honest and flawless. The description of the town and the going-ons around the town are captivating.
Oct 27, 2008
Roxanne
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Roxanne by:
One of several books mentioned in a One Book Adventure club meet
The Last Days of Dogtown is a novel loosely based on dimming memories of old tales told by the residents of the descendants of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. ('phew!')
The introduction of most all of the characters comes immediately as you are invited into the living room of Easter Carter on a frigid winter night. The Dogtown locals have come to pay their final respects to Abraham Wharf, the self proclaimed town leader who had apparently committed suicide.
I took me a chapter or two to understand the w...more
The introduction of most all of the characters comes immediately as you are invited into the living room of Easter Carter on a frigid winter night. The Dogtown locals have come to pay their final respects to Abraham Wharf, the self proclaimed town leader who had apparently committed suicide.
I took me a chapter or two to understand the w...more
1 like · like · see review
Here is the conversation I had with my husband the other night when I was on my way out the door to book club:
HUSBAND: What book are you doing?
ME: Last Days of Dogtown.
HUSBAND: Cool… I still want to see the movie.
ME: I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been made into a movie (trying to picture how a modern day director might handle such scenes as public urination and “pipe playing”).
HUSBAND: Yeah, you remember… I think Heath Ledger was in it.
ME: Oh, LORDS of Dogtown (relieved to finally be understanding)....more
HUSBAND: What book are you doing?
ME: Last Days of Dogtown.
HUSBAND: Cool… I still want to see the movie.
ME: I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been made into a movie (trying to picture how a modern day director might handle such scenes as public urination and “pipe playing”).
HUSBAND: Yeah, you remember… I think Heath Ledger was in it.
ME: Oh, LORDS of Dogtown (relieved to finally be understanding)....more
After recently finishing (and loving) The Red Tent, I was excited to find another Anita Diamant book seemingly sitting on the shelf just waiting for me to pluck it up and take it home. Now that I've finished it, I have to say I'm disappointed.
TLDOG is about the last citizens of a small town in Massachusetts in the 1800s. They all live hardscrabble lives trying to get by in a town where the resources are dwindling. As the old people die off, there are few young people to replace them. Based on a...more
TLDOG is about the last citizens of a small town in Massachusetts in the 1800s. They all live hardscrabble lives trying to get by in a town where the resources are dwindling. As the old people die off, there are few young people to replace them. Based on a...more
ummm....eh. That is how I would describe this book. Loved the red tent and this cannot even compete. I think I liked it more than Good Harbor, although they are about equal. The characters are interesting but never really made it to a level where I felt like I knew what they were all about. It annoyed me that I never really got a good sense of them before they ended up in Dogtown and quite frankly, it was kind of depressing in many ways, and not in a 'makes you think about life' kind of way- mor...more
2 likes · like · see review
This book was disappointing -- not because of the depressing characters that others mentioned, but because of the lack of detail about the time period. I did not feel transported, as I had hoped. The characters could have been in any time or place but seemed stuck in Dogtown only because it was a sparsely populated town that kept the stories neat without outside complications.
I've been to the site of Dogtown and hoped for more magic, I guess. Some bright spots were the relationships between the...more
I've been to the site of Dogtown and hoped for more magic, I guess. Some bright spots were the relationships between the...more
Beautiful. Very simply written, but the characters are so richly developed that you fall in love with Dogtown and its residents. I think Anita Diamant is one of the most gifted writers of our times. I wish there were more novels from her to read! Though this story was at times quite depressing, I really treasured reading this. Highly recommended!
I loved this book and it was a joy to read. It is based on a true story of a community living through a brief chapter of 19th century history. A moving and wonderful story.
Back Cover Blurb:
In the tiny rural backwater of Dogtown, nestled on Cape Ann, the few remaining, utterly eccentric inhabitants show an enduring spirit that keeps life and love alive. Among the cast of unforgettable characters is Black Ruth, one of only two Africans still living in the area; she dresses as a man, speaks to no o...more
Back Cover Blurb:
In the tiny rural backwater of Dogtown, nestled on Cape Ann, the few remaining, utterly eccentric inhabitants show an enduring spirit that keeps life and love alive. Among the cast of unforgettable characters is Black Ruth, one of only two Africans still living in the area; she dresses as a man, speaks to no o...more
Not a bad book, also not the most inspired...
I have been reading trash of late, think zombie apocalypse garbage, which I'd be too embarrassed to review, so this book was a welcome change, if only for the absence of "putrefied flesh" and all its poetic variations.
The Last Days of Dogtown is an imagined account of the dwindling of a town's population in the 1800s. A small offshoot of a more prosperous and thus more respectable town, Dogtown is the poor and disreputable area, where all the women wh...more
I have been reading trash of late, think zombie apocalypse garbage, which I'd be too embarrassed to review, so this book was a welcome change, if only for the absence of "putrefied flesh" and all its poetic variations.
The Last Days of Dogtown is an imagined account of the dwindling of a town's population in the 1800s. A small offshoot of a more prosperous and thus more respectable town, Dogtown is the poor and disreputable area, where all the women wh...more
The Last Days of Dogtown is a loosely historical tale of the end of a small village on Cape Ann, Mass.
However, the novel doesn't really focus on the place as much as on a cast of wonderfully idiosyncratic characters. The reader becomes privy to the tightly held secrets of all of the denizens from my favorite, Cornelius...referred to as the freed African...who is a source of love and support for the weaker inhabitants to Easter, a jovial innkeeper who knows everything about everyone, but is quite...more
However, the novel doesn't really focus on the place as much as on a cast of wonderfully idiosyncratic characters. The reader becomes privy to the tightly held secrets of all of the denizens from my favorite, Cornelius...referred to as the freed African...who is a source of love and support for the weaker inhabitants to Easter, a jovial innkeeper who knows everything about everyone, but is quite...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The story opens up with the folks of Dogtown sitting together in Easter Carter’s house. The people of the village had come to grieve, some to snoop, and some to stare in awe at the body of Abraham Wharf. It seems Abraham has committed suicide but lying on the floor by the window, no one can figure out why his body is not covered in blood if he cut his own throat?
Judy Rhines, one of the townswomen lifted the corner piece of yellow gingham that had been placed over his face and chest to wonder ag...more
Judy Rhines, one of the townswomen lifted the corner piece of yellow gingham that had been placed over his face and chest to wonder ag...more
Immediately I finished this book, I began to look into the true history of Dogtown and was fascinated to find that the characters and events portrayed by Diamant are based in fact. I found repeated references to these characters (whose real names Diamant has preserved in her novel) and indications that many of the novel's plot points are inspired by legends which surround the real Dogtown. I was even able to discover current maps and photos of the area which is now a park that can be visited for...more
May 25, 2011
Haydon
added it
Anita Diamant is a fantastic storyteller! In this novel, she tells the story of Dogtown, a small village on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, that died out in the early 1800s. Diamant knows how to weave many stories together naturally and seamlessly without getting stuck in any one particular story. Her characters are real and loveable (or hateable).... either way, they are fully drawn. There is Judy Rhines who falls in love with a freed African man, there is Tammy Younger who might possibly be the meane...more
It's a slippery smooth read written solely in 3rd person limited as it follows its characters. Essentially a character study as it follows them, using what scant information we have to ground the otherwise unknown characters. We know the names, Wharf's suicide, the whoring of some of the women, the definite drunkenness of many of the townspeople, the drudgery and dissolution of the people and the locale. Forever in the background, but as much a character as the actual characters, is the isolatio...more
I can't say I enjoyed this book. The characters live such difficult lives. I find it hard to read books about the down-trodden, especially if they are abused, physically or emotionally. And emotional and physical abuse, discrimination, and cruelty abound in this book. I just want to bury my head in the sand, and not be reminded that people like John Stanwood are allowed to exist.
I find myself torn between giving this 4 stars, because the author does a good job of portraying their sad lives, or 2...more
I find myself torn between giving this 4 stars, because the author does a good job of portraying their sad lives, or 2...more
I picked this book up because I loved Diamant's The Red Tent. I knew she had written a contemporary novel, which I had not read, but this intrigued me. It's the story of a small group of people - widows, orphans, scoundrels, whores and free Africans - who inhabit the titular Dogtown, a small village on the heights of Cape Ann in Massachusetts. The story starts in 1814 with the death of a prominent citizen and follows the main characters over the next twenty years entwining their stories, flashin...more
I picked this book off the library shelf just because it was written by Anita Diamant, author of 'The Red Tent', with which I was mightily impressed. What a find this one turns out to be! Takes place in early 1800's, on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, 30 miles north of Boston - a part of the US I know almost nothing about.
Gloucester was the first settlement (founded 1623) in what became the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Became a shipbuilding center and fishing port. In modern times, the movie 'Perfect Stor...more
Gloucester was the first settlement (founded 1623) in what became the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Became a shipbuilding center and fishing port. In modern times, the movie 'Perfect Stor...more
Anita Diamant is a fantastic storyteller! In this novel, she tells the story of Dogtown, a small village on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, that died out in the early 1800s. Diamant knows how to weave many stories together naturally and seamlessly without getting stuck in any one particular story. Her characters are real and loveable (or hateable).... either way, they are fully drawn. There is Judy Rhines who falls in love with a freed African man, there is Tammy Younger who might possibly be the meane...more
Jun 24, 2009
Bridget
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Historical fiction lovers, American history lovers
Shelves:
2009-reads
This is an old Advance Readers Copy that I kept because I thought it sounded interesting. I have not read any of Anita Diamant's other work, but a blurb on the back of the book compared it to the The Poisonwood Bible, which you may remember I really liked.
The story covers the last years in a place on Cape Ann (Massachusetts), not that far from Gloucester and Rockport, and the few remaining inhabitants. They are mostly women and children, as well as two free African-Americans. The story takes pl...more
The story covers the last years in a place on Cape Ann (Massachusetts), not that far from Gloucester and Rockport, and the few remaining inhabitants. They are mostly women and children, as well as two free African-Americans. The story takes pl...more
This was a beautifully written book about a small town near Massachusetts called Dogtown. In the opening chapter we are introduced to some of the main characters as they meet before the burial of Abraham Wharf, a somewhat mysterious death.
The communtiy of Dogtown is down at heal, surviving on what the land can offer them and what they can make to sell. The author paints a wonderfully clear picture of the bleakness and poverty and her descriptions are so well written that you feel you know the pl...more
The communtiy of Dogtown is down at heal, surviving on what the land can offer them and what they can make to sell. The author paints a wonderfully clear picture of the bleakness and poverty and her descriptions are so well written that you feel you know the pl...more
It's a melancholy little book about a dying village (a real place) in the beginning of the 19th century. No real plot, but rather a series of vignettes about various colorful characters (most of them real people as well): witches, neglected children, prostitutes, town drunks, and last but not least, the only two black characters (called "Africans" here). Oh and dogs too. Like I said, most of the stories are very sad, even those who have a few sparks of humor and/or end well, but I thought that t...more
May 23, 2011
Kelsey
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommended to Kelsey by:
no one; random choice at the library
Shelves:
fiction,
historical-fiction
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This is NO "Red Tent". :(
I spent the first half really wanting it to be about someone in particular, and I guess it sort of did come full circle through all the characters in the end, but what it really was about was Dogtown itself. The title says that, but I guess I kept wanting to identify with someone in particular and it never happened. Just about the time I warmed up to one character the story shifted it's focus to someone else. The book was ABOUT Dogtown, but it's voice was through Dogtown...more
I spent the first half really wanting it to be about someone in particular, and I guess it sort of did come full circle through all the characters in the end, but what it really was about was Dogtown itself. The title says that, but I guess I kept wanting to identify with someone in particular and it never happened. Just about the time I warmed up to one character the story shifted it's focus to someone else. The book was ABOUT Dogtown, but it's voice was through Dogtown...more
Jan 13, 2010
Betsy
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who enjoyed The Red Tent
Shelves:
read-in-2010
What a fabulous first read for 2010! Having read The Red Tent, I really enjoy Anita Diamant's work. This was no exception. Once again Diamant transports us to a time and place where many people have difficulty imagining life and explains in brilliance and clarity the nature of human spirit in a tangible, reach-out-and-touch-the-people kind of way. The characters are true to life and I found myself matching my friends' and family's faces to the characters. I feel Diamant really delved into giving...more
I picked up this novel because I remember so loving The Red Tent a few years back. I don't think I enjoyed The Last Days of Dogtown with the same passion that I remember loving the Red Tent, but I found it well written and completed listening to all 9 cds in a relatively short amount of time, so I must have enjoyed it.
I hesitate to give it too many stars however because I don't believe that I would recommend this book to many people. It was an interesting weaving together of the lives and trial...more
I hesitate to give it too many stars however because I don't believe that I would recommend this book to many people. It was an interesting weaving together of the lives and trial...more
Dogtown was a real place in early Massachusetts, reaching its peak population around the turn of the 19th century. Near the end, most of the inhabitants were misfits and loners: widows, freedmen, escaped slaves, prostitutes, and supposed witches. This story, detailing the last decade or so of the settlement, is not so much historical fiction as fiction inspired by history. Little is known about the residents of Dogtown, but this tale weaves a beautiful tapestry of birth and death, love and hate,...more
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Anita Diamant is a prizewinning journalist whose work has appeared regularly in the Boston Globe Magazine and Parenting magazine. She is the author of six books about contemporary Jewish practice, one collection of autobiographical essays (Pitching My Tent) and three prior novels. The Red Tent, her first novel, was a national bestseller and the Booksense Book of the Year. Good Harbor and The Last...more
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“One night, alone in her Dogtown bed, Judy finally admitted to herself that she had been in love with Cornelius. "In love" precisely as it was described in the novels and poems she had read with Martha; love as a kind of sweet madness that colored everything. Judy had been shocked that strangers across the ocean could describe the workings of her Yankee heart: the preoccupation and yearning, the soaring happiness and keen appreciation of a man's hidden qualities, the sublime meeting of souls. And yet, there was never a mention of the sort of union she'd shared with Cornelius, the longing and fulfillment of the flesh, that could transform two bodies into one.”
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2 people liked it
“you got a sad story, ruth,' mimba said. 'but not sad-sad. you here with me and cato and all us together now. you have a happy-sad story. best you can get in this life is happy-sad. but you always gotta remember your own mama that birthed you. even though you only got a crumb of her story, you still got to say her name out loud. you always honor your dead, else you get trouble from them, sure.”
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1 person liked it
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Dec 26, 2008 05:54am