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15th out of 219 books
—
380 voters
The Dollmaker
Harriette Arnow was born in 1908 into a family whose roots reached back for five generations of Kentucky's history. From this rich background, she inherited a bountiful storytelling tradition that provided inspiration for her acclaimed novels: "Mountain Path, Hunter's Horn" and "The Dollmaker", the last considered her masterpiece and a landmark of American fiction. She pas...more
Paperback, 624 pages
Published
May 1st 2003
by Harper Perennial
(first published August 1st 1972)
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My Appalachian Writers professor mentioned that she knew of a few colleagues who were forming a club for people who could only read The Dollmaker once. I might be in that club. This book is long, but so rich and so well-written that I would love to read it again, especially from a spiritual/biblical perspective. On the other hand, there is such tragedy that this book takes an emotional commitment, one I can't imagine allowing myself to make again any time soon. This book is bigger than its genre...more
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One of my favorite novels.This book still haunts me.
For regional writers: a fine use of dialect, without creating or living up to stereotypical renderings of characters from Appalachia.
For students of American literature: a rich, meaty example of the literary movement of natural determinism, ala Ellen Glasgow.
For those with Appalachian roots: It'll make you miss yer kin somethin fierce.
For regional writers: a fine use of dialect, without creating or living up to stereotypical renderings of characters from Appalachia.
For students of American literature: a rich, meaty example of the literary movement of natural determinism, ala Ellen Glasgow.
For those with Appalachian roots: It'll make you miss yer kin somethin fierce.
First published in 1954, this Dreiseresque novel chronicles the movement of a family from from rural Kentucky to Detroit during World War II. The husband (Clotis Nevels) works in a factory; his wife Gertie takes in laundry and occasionally sells hand-whittled crucifixes and dolls; the children amuse themselves in the backyards and alleys. Not surprisingly, the move from farm to factory slowly kills both people and spirits. Although there are occasional positive social interactions in the family'...more
Mar 28, 2009
Debbie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
everyone who loves books
Recommended to Debbie by:
my mother
I read this book when I was 10 or 11 and cried all the way through it. I was mad at my mother for letting me read it because it was so sad, but later in life realized this book helped to shape me into the person I became. I have looked for this book off and on over the last 40 plus years and am very glad to see it is still in print and people are reading it. This truly was one of the best lessons about life my mother taught me.
6 likes · like · see review
This book just made my "greatest novels of all time" list. Probably becuase it pretty much sums up my political ideologies in a simple and beautiful narrative. It was recommended to me by my grandmother-in-law and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone else. I dream to have a life just like the life Gertie Nevels dreamed of and only hope that my dreams won't also be squashed by the military-industrial complex that thrives off of unbridled capitalism and unchecked nationalism.
I found the theol...more
I found the theol...more
I rated this a 5 because I read it at least 15 years ago & it still remains one of my favorite books. A TV movie was made in the 80's based on it (Jane Fonda starred) -- did not come close to doing the book justice.
An Appalachian woman, along with her husband and children, moves to Detroit where the family hopes to find a better life. The setting is just after WWII when industry was in full swing. Main character carves wooden dolls, thus the title. Book is about leaving "home", culture shoc...more
An Appalachian woman, along with her husband and children, moves to Detroit where the family hopes to find a better life. The setting is just after WWII when industry was in full swing. Main character carves wooden dolls, thus the title. Book is about leaving "home", culture shoc...more
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This book was depressing, didactic, full of despair and in parts, disturbingly graphic (and this review is brought to you by the letter D). That said, it was an amazing book and I can't believe I made it to this advanced age without reading it. A Kentucky farmwoman and her children reluctantly follow her husband to Detroit during WWII, where he works at one of the auto factories for the war effort. No kidding, these people can outJoad the Joads any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. Everythi...more
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Nov 14, 2011
Sarah
added it
This book bowled me over.
I loved the main character, Gertie, from page one. The first few chapters were blissful, but I knew that the rug would be pulled out from under.
When it was (she moved her children from a Kentucky farm to join her husband in a Detroit tenement), the contrast was stark and heartbreaking and infuriating. And all the more so because I know that Gertie's story is true (this book is fiction, but you know what I mean) and was repeated over and over in the twentieth century.
As a...more
I loved the main character, Gertie, from page one. The first few chapters were blissful, but I knew that the rug would be pulled out from under.
When it was (she moved her children from a Kentucky farm to join her husband in a Detroit tenement), the contrast was stark and heartbreaking and infuriating. And all the more so because I know that Gertie's story is true (this book is fiction, but you know what I mean) and was repeated over and over in the twentieth century.
As a...more
Another of my "most favorite" books and one that I do believe everyone will love. It is the type of book where the characters stick in your memory for long after the words have been read. I would go to bed in the evening thinking of the characters and wondering what they were doing ... they are that real! I have read this book several times and it is fresh each time.
What an amazing, scary, heart-wrenching journey the main character of this book takes. The only life she has known is on a rented farm in rural Kentucky. Due to a major life decision her husband makes without consulting her, she and her children are uprooted and moved in to government housing in inner-city Detroit. This begins a year and a half of poverty, extreme tragedy and social and moral challenges. All the while she is trying to stay connected to her artistic talent of whittling and wood-c...more
Haunting and tragic... this book tells the story of an Appalachian family forced to move to Detroit for work during WWII. Poor Gertie, the central character, can never let go of her love for her land, and she never fits into life in Detroit. Painful losses, harsh realities, prejudice all make it difficult.
The book is beautifully written and full of rich imagery, both real and symbolic. It's a remarkable book, and heart-breaking... all the more so because it really tells of the painful cultural d...more
The book is beautifully written and full of rich imagery, both real and symbolic. It's a remarkable book, and heart-breaking... all the more so because it really tells of the painful cultural d...more
Apr 06, 2013
VJ
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
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The Dollmaker is a tragedy, pure and simple, from beginning to end. The made-for-tv movie had a happy ending, but when I found a copy of the book at a Friends of the Library sale, I scooped it up because I am all too familiar with the ways television has of bastardizing good reads.
The story opens with the last success of Gertie Nevels, a Kentucky hill woman, a woodcarver, mother of five youngens, the youngest, Amos, sick with diptheria and in need of medical care. Through force of will, Gertie s...more
The story opens with the last success of Gertie Nevels, a Kentucky hill woman, a woodcarver, mother of five youngens, the youngest, Amos, sick with diptheria and in need of medical care. Through force of will, Gertie s...more
I remember my friend saying to me about this book..."I feel that when I put it down, the story is going on without me." I read it based on that recommendation, and understand completely how she felt.
Dollmaker is an excellent read; thought provoking and honest. It took me awhile to get fully involved in the story. The start is slow and the dialect in local Kentucky voice was hard to follow at first. But as the story develops and the characters begin to come to life, the voice becomes as natural to read as proper English. The book takes a Kentucky farm woman and her family at the end of WWII from her idyllic life in the hills of Kentucky to the slums of Detroit as she follows her husband ther...more
The unforgettable and tragic story of an Appalachian family lured to Detroit by the promise of high wages. Living in the heart of the industrialized north during WW II, Gertie, the strong and good wife and mother, shows determination and grace as she struggles to adjust while her dreams of self-sufficiency and personal freedoms shrink and perish. Her family is forced into dependence on the machine of industrialized society which relentlessly destroys their independence and dignity. It's a classi...more
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This book totally drew me in, the way it's told with such detail, and how much respect it has for the main character. You really do feel for her, and it's pretty great, the bond you develop with her. Especially since she seems to have almost no one on her side, you want to shout at her, "I understand! I know how you feel!" It's also a good way to learn some history about the relationship between Kentucky and the Detroit area in World War II. But it is SO SAD, it's almost punishing. I've wanted t...more
I believe Joyce Carol Oates recommended this book either in the forward or in a review. In any event, I never would have discovered it otherwise. The author introduces the reader to the world of rural Kentucky during a time of deep poverty and despair. It's a tough read as some awful stuff happens but, at the same time, it's a book you won't be able to put down. There was one moment when I was literally sobbing so hard that I had to stop reading. It's fiction, but the book paints a true portrait...more
This is one of the best novels written around the end of the Second World War.'Gertie Nevels ' is an extraordinary character.I love her very much,but she has a difficult time standing up for herself.Some might call her a coward because of the many times she gives in to her children , her husband ,and her mother.Sacrificing her farm ,for the city,Gertie begins a long hard journey ,but among the characters that surround her in a project named Merry Hill,there is grace among the soot,the factories...more
This wonderfully well-written book takes an independent woman who can handle almost anything in the back country of Kentucky and changes her into a shell of a woman as a result of living in the City of Detroit during WWII when the people there depend on the war continuing to make a living. Her children and husband who once had a good work ethic and sense of family become disillusioned and lose their balance in city life. It is a very cynical outlook of our society which I could partly relate wit...more
Someone told me "Harriet Arnow's characters never catch a break." That's sorta how it is in the era she writes about in Appalachia.
Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton toured in my home county and town when they researched the TV movie of this book. My brother in law talked to them outside the Whitesbury, Ky. Dairy Queen when they exited the big RV/bus they were traveling in. Dolly was (of course) very open and friendly, but Jane was more reticent. It made the front page of my hometown newspaper, along w...more
Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton toured in my home county and town when they researched the TV movie of this book. My brother in law talked to them outside the Whitesbury, Ky. Dairy Queen when they exited the big RV/bus they were traveling in. Dolly was (of course) very open and friendly, but Jane was more reticent. It made the front page of my hometown newspaper, along w...more
It is a fine writer who can make you love being miserable.
This is a beautifully written, haunting story of a family from Appalachia, uprooted and displaced to an urban factory life during WWII. The mother is strong, brave and tragic; she dreams of a piece of land to call her own, and carves crosses and dolls for her children. I read this book years and years ago, yet the memories of this story have lingered all this time...I feel the mother's deep despair. The hopelessness of the father, the fear of the children. I've read The Dollmaker several times a...more
This is a book I have read many times; every few years I long to get back in touch with Gertie Nevels and her back-country, simple ways. Gertie is a big woman in every way, tall and galant and strong enough to endure hardships most of us will never know. She is transplanted from her simple life in the Kentucky hills and plunked down in the middle of Detroit in the middle of World War II. She still finds beauty all around her and sees Christ in every face. You will never forget Gertie Nevels and...more
The Dollmaker was not an easy read, but it's a story that moved me. The protagonist, Gertie, is a strong-willed, uneducated farmer from rural Kentucky who is thrust into a cramped existence in the projects surrounding the steel mill's and factories of World War II Detroit, where her husband has found work. She struggles to adapt to an environment she finds alien and to care for her family. There were places in the story where I sympathized with Gertie and places where I became exasperated with h...more
Wow, what a long,long, long book. The length should not stop you from reading this endearing, or maybe enduring, book that shows the human world of hurts when folks from the Kentucky hills relocate to Detroit during WW II. Constantly looking for the pot of gold, the challenges of living in a society of prejudice, cold climate, loss of family roots, crowded rental units, the family constantly struggles with the problems of being very poor. You sympathize with the displaced mother who uses whittli...more
This book deserves its place as an American masterpiece. I don't remember the last time I read a book in which the characters were so real. I don't think I'll ever forget them--especially the protagonist, Gertie Nevels. Her dream was to own a farm in the hills of kentucky and she almost realized that dream. But her husband took a job in a Detroit factory during WW2, so she played the dutiful wife and followed him with their 5 children. The contrast between the rural and the urban life could not...more
Arnow is a master.
Upon the death of Cassie, I felt like I was in another time and place and was emotionally displaced for awhile.
Arnette wrote this book in the 40's, her ideas and insights incredible far-reaching and progressive. It's a melancholy read, but so rich and laced with detail and complex thought, that I found myself thinking about many aspects of my own life and relationship with my husband. It's not a light read, not at all. I often thought she was overdoing it all, and she was a lit...more
Upon the death of Cassie, I felt like I was in another time and place and was emotionally displaced for awhile.
Arnette wrote this book in the 40's, her ideas and insights incredible far-reaching and progressive. It's a melancholy read, but so rich and laced with detail and complex thought, that I found myself thinking about many aspects of my own life and relationship with my husband. It's not a light read, not at all. I often thought she was overdoing it all, and she was a lit...more
Read this thirty years ago. I remember holding Robbie who was 2 months old and nursing him every two hours around the clock- very fussy growth spurt phase.. I stayed up all night to finish the book - crying and marveling at the incredible strength of this woman. Recently read it again for Book Club- was a very hard read. Offered tremendous insight into the "hillbilly highway" from Appalachia to Detroit and the big industrial cities of the Mid-west, as well as the role of women in wartime and pos...more
“Gertie for the first time really looked at the rows of little shed-like buildings, their low roofs covered with snow, the walls of some strange grey-green stuff that seemed neither brick, wood, nor stone. She had glimpsed them briefly when they turned into the side road, but had never thought of them as homes. She had hardly thought of them at all, they were so little and so still against the quivering crimson light, under the roaring airplane, so low after the giant smokestacks.”
It is the ea...more
It is the ea...more
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I am having a hard time thinking of a single emotion that this book did not drag out of me. It seemed to elicit them all. Hope, happiness, worry, anger, heartbreak...on and on.
I saw the made-for-TV movie years ago and have always remembered it. Mostly the main character, Gertie, and one of her daughters, Cassie, along with Cassie’s friend, Callie Lou. Some of the other characters and plot lines faded a bit in my mind over the years, but I would sometimes think of these two: of Gertie’s brave de...more
I saw the made-for-TV movie years ago and have always remembered it. Mostly the main character, Gertie, and one of her daughters, Cassie, along with Cassie’s friend, Callie Lou. Some of the other characters and plot lines faded a bit in my mind over the years, but I would sometimes think of these two: of Gertie’s brave de...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harriette Simpson Arnow | 4 | 15 | May 16, 2012 04:22pm | |
| The Transatlantic...: The Dollmaker | 2 | 3 | Nov 30, 2011 05:23am | |
| The Transatlantic...: Schedule Update | 1 | 4 | Oct 12, 2011 04:52am | |
| Harriette Simpson Arnow | 1 | 10 | Feb 23, 2011 02:50pm | |
| Harriette Simpson Arnow | 1 | 5 | Feb 23, 2011 02:50pm | |
| Harriette Simpson Arnow | 1 | 5 | Feb 23, 2011 02:44pm |
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“What was the good of trying to keep your own (children) if when they grew up their days were like your own- changeovers and ugly painted dolls?”
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