Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Jun 18, 2011

Dmdutcher rated it:

Meandering and surprisingly boring, focusing too much on minutia. In 1984 a woman was murdered in Dogtown, the abandoned interior of an island. Elyssa is entranced by the area because of a minor painter, and goes there to research the area and the murder case.

There's a lot of problems with this. First of all Dogtown isn't really a ghost town as she writes it. It's the ruins of a town in the middle of an island, and she stretches the ruins a bit. There's a lot of TALK about how mystical More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2011

Steven rated it:

Really well-written, in a very pondering, smooth way. It does not read like other non-fiction books. It has a workshop-like feel about it when you read it, a book version of a grainy documentary. It goes back and forth between the colonial history of the place (it's a remote part of Gloucester, MA, so there's lots of history) and the murder of a young woman by a local whistling kettle in the 80s. But mostly it's about the feel one has in the place itself. East shows that the entire acreage More...

0 comments like

Jun 02, 2010

Michael rated it:

East is obsessed with Marsden Hartley's paintings which use Dogtown (on Cape Ann in MA) as their inspiration.
East obsessively researches the area and the many eccentrics inhabiting it.
She concludes that the place is stubbornly mysterious, but that this mysteriousness is partly a product of perception.
East does too much research and seems to try to fit too much of it into the book.
The seams start to bulge.
East lambasts people for fixating on the murder of Anne Natt More...

0 comments like

Dec 27, 2009

Rose rated it:

Dogtown is a decayed colonial ruin nestled in the wilderness outside Gloucester, Massachusetts. Although it was officially abandoned in 1839, after its last resident was carted away to the poorhouse, this rural slum continues to attract people sensitive to its powerful charm. It inspired several of Beat poet Charles Olson’s famous Maximus poems, and Modernist painter Marsden Hartley felt a crippling depression recede after he committed Dogtown’s unique scenery to canvas.

Dogtown: Dea More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 17, 2010

Diana rated it:

There was such a wealth of material here, but sadly it was not well-handled by the author. In the hands of a better writer (someone like Richard Preston, for example), this had the potential to be a great book, but as it was, it felt naive and clumsy and overly self-referential. Disappointing.

One last note on this book: I do think that some places are magnets for badness, although I don't know why. Is it supernatural? Is it that once a place gets a reputation, it attracts the wrong More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2010

Julie rated it:

A strange history of a strange place. Dogtown is an isolated spot of land, completely surrounded by Gloucester and Rockport. East does an excellent job of describing the eeriness that is present when you walk through the woods of Dogtown. She also does an excellent job chronicling the history of the place and Gloucester itself.

The book is basically divided into three areas - the history of Gloucester and Dogtown; the murder and subsequent trial for Anne Natti; and East's search for More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2010

Kristi rated it:

I totally enjoyed this book. This book is creepy. I have to admit, there was a point I put this book down, and I didn't return to it for a solid week it creeped me out so bad. This was an extremely graphic description of a murder - the writing was so clear and vivid I felt I'd watched it.

I'd never heard of Dogtown before, and I think I'll skip if I ever get a chance to visit. This is a very talented writer, the language is beautifully crafted, the insight is solid, and the combined e More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2011

Rick rated it:

I grew up on the fringes of DOGTOWN, and my friends and I played in the woods all the time ... This book captures both sides of the area ... its beauty and its terror in it depiction of the absolute horrible murder of Anne Natti ... Read it! It is, hands down, the best book I've read this year!

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2010

Mary rated it:

Three threads in this book: the account of a random, senseless murder, the history of a region in New England, and the third: the effect of this particular patch of land on artists and poets of the 20th century. Elyssa East personalizes her research into Dogtown, which began as a fascination with the painter Marsden Hartley, an American Modernist. I wanted to read it because it was recommended by someone on Goodreads. I found myself trying to imagine an area in Washington state that would ha More...

0 comments like

Nov 08, 2010

Jhoanna rated it:

A Twitter find - and a great one, at that. Elyssa East knows how to write, both a gripping whodunit and a contemplative look into why some places touch us. Following a personal obsession with the painter Marsden Hartley (whose piece in the Whitney Museum I'll now have to see), she delves into the place that inspired his best work, Dogtown, Mass. and finds both the magic it inspires and the dark underworld it harbors. I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction - it's usually too dull and plodding for me - More...

0 comments like

Mar 23, 2010

Chris rated it:

A neat little history of the area, with compelling reportage of the murder of Anne Natti, but wanders a bit in its middle when the personal angle on the story -- the author is drawn to the Dogtown area by a series of paintings of it by Marsden Hartley, and goes to some pains to set up a sense of how naive she is about the place -- disappears, and she later re-emerges appearing much more savvy (I suppose as a result of researching the book). It seems clear the author wants to offer a balanced por More...

0 comments like

Feb 20, 2011

Fran rated it:

This book sounded so interesting to me and turned out to be extremely boring. I have no idea what East was trying to do with this book but she jumps around so much and tries to cover far too much and ends up not doing any of it very well in my opinion. She goes into some details of Marsden Hartley's paintings as well as some history of people who lived here. She also touches on the history behind the Babson Rocks in the area and follows a murder that occurred in the 1980's. It just seems to jump More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 06, 2010

Lisa rated it:

I have been to Dogtown several times hiking with my husband and dogs, and have been enraptured by the place. It's very lonely feeling walking through, you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere, yet civilization is close by. Each time I've been, I've gotten lost and a little scared that I couldn't find the way back to the car before dark so I truly understood the authors impressions of the place.

This book was received as a Christmas gift, a very thoughtful gift indeed. The aut More...

0 comments like

Feb 18, 2011

Maxine rated it:

I enjoyed this book because I have been to this place a couple of times in the past and was curious about it. I liked the way the author interspersed the murder with all the historical details of the place from the 1600's to the current times. It has got me interested in going back there now and seeing how the place has changed since I was last there in the late 80's. It has also caused me to read another book about the place that is set in the 1800's and is an historical novel about the peopl More...

0 comments like

Apr 07, 2010

Judy rated it:

Interesting book. Dogtown is an isolated wooded area in the town of Gloucester, Massachusetts that has attracted attention since colonial days. In this book, Elyssa East alternates the true story of a young woman in 1984 and the trial of her murderer with chapters describing the history of the area and the colorful characters (witches, pirates, runaway slaves, hobos, and destitute Revolutionary War widows) who have lived there.

0 comments like

Jan 22, 2010

Karen rated it:

Two and a half stars, really. Interesting, not riveting. Since East goes to Dogtown to research the artist Marsden Hartley and she expounds on several of his paintings, I think a plate or two of said paintings, added to the book, would really help the reader see what she's talking about--Hartley's work is not well known to the average reader.

To me, the section on poet Charles Olson, who started the Black Mountain school of poetry and profoundly influenced the Beats, is much more More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2011

Erin rated it:

Part travel log, part history, and part true crime. This book is an interesting mix. While it was hard in the beginning to jump between chapters of history and chapters of the contemporary murder in the beginning, I enjoyed the book and it has made me want to visit the Cape Ann area. I especially enjoyed the recurring themes of how man influences the land and how the land influences the behavior of the people. While it is easy to see the influences we have on our environment, it is not alway More...

0 comments like

Dec 12, 2011

Kaitlin rated it:

Unfortunately this book had way too many premises and needed an editor. A clear result of being written over 10 years and an earnest attempt to put every detail into the book. There almost should have been two books written one on Anne Netti/Peter Hodgkins and one on Marsden Hartley - the original inspiration for the journey to Gloucester. Over all - bits of interest/history - but jumbled in the telling.

0 comments like

Apr 16, 2011

Catherine rated it:

I'm flipping back and forth between chapters. The murder in Dogtown interests me because as I was reading, I discovered that the murdered woman was someone who I used to teach with at Landmark, .
The other chapters are filled with so much information of the history of Dogton, Gloucester, Cape Ann; what research Elyssa East did to combine the past with the present.

0 comments like

Aug 14, 2010

Ed rated it:

Fairly interesting nonfiction account of a violent, senseless murder in a remote section of coast--Dogtown--not that far from Boston in 1984. The author intersperses the crime story with the colorful, often dark background story of Dogtown. The chapter on the poet Charles Olson who used Dogtown to inspire his Maximus poem cycle is one of the book's high points.

0 comments like

Jan 13, 2012

Kathleen rated it:

I read the first third of the book very quickly, but then got really bored and it took me months to finish it. I felt the book's choppy timeline did not work. If she had written the book chronologically (history of Dogtown, followed by the 1984 murder and done it in two major sections) it would have worked better for me. She also wrote this over ten years and part of the lack of congruity I feel is due to that. Certain sections are clearly inspired and others aren't.

I read this book b More...

0 comments like

Sep 09, 2011

Zaiga rated it:

Although occasionally the writing is a bit over dramatic, this book is a fascinating look at how an obscure geographical spot can affect so many lives. The last line sums it up: "are not the place itself and people's perceptions one and the same?" Of course, now I want to go get lost in Dogtown (and emerge from it in one piece, hopefully)!

0 comments like

Feb 19, 2011

Skye rated it:

This book was EXCELLENT. I finished it last summer and it completely sucked me in. It manages to be spooky without being implausible, and is historic while at the same time being very personal. It is both a memoir and a historical nonfiction book. For anyone who has visited Gloucester, or for lovers of historical mysteries, it's a must read!

0 comments like

May 10, 2011

Lam rated it:

I've never been to Dogtown, a wilderness area in the heart of Gloucester, MA. But I think I remember my mother telling me that the branch of our family that came to Gloucester in the 1600s settled in Dogtown. This book made me want to explore the area--but only in a large group with at least some people who know their way around. Evidently, it's very easy to get lost. The book weaves the history of Dogtown from colonial times to the present with the story of a murder that took place there in 198 More...

0 comments like

Nov 06, 2010

Kathi rated it:

I wanted to like this book. I've been to Dogtown in Gloucester - its' great for a dog outing and the book did win the New England Award in Nonfiction. But I just couldn't get into it. I had to force my self to finish it. It was long, rambling and kept jumping around between the present day of the author researching the book to the settlers in the 1700's to some poet and some other painter. It was just a disjointed mess.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 21, 2009

Liesl rated it:

This book is a masterful exploration of history both recent and distant - and the aftershocks of both violence and beauty that can continue for centuries. The force with which the landscape comes to life drives the momentum with constant intrigue and a perfect balance of quiet and heart-pounding frenzy.

0 comments like

Aug 30, 2010

Deb rated it:

This was a fascinating history of my home-town... Gloucester. The author was able to weave together the disturbing telling of a 25-yr old murder with the history of Gloucester since the 1620's! I ate this book up... granted, I grew up in Gloucester, but even still, it's compelling, human and an extremely interesting "outside" view of a town growing up outside of the mainland. Loved it!

0 comments like

Feb 03, 2010

Maureen rated it:

Part memoir, part colonial history, part true crime, part homage to Modernist artist Marsden Harley, this beautifully written first book is a page turner. East brings Revolutionary War history alive n a narrative that also illuminates today's Gloucester. Really, really good book that I can't put down.

0 comments like

Sep 10, 2010

Nancy rated it:

I'm finding this really informative for a true crime story. Never knew anything about Marsden Hartley or Charles Olson before. But somehow the stories about the pirates and the Indians and the occult weren't quite as sensational as I expected. I guess I was expecting the Blair Witch Project or something. *laughs*

0 comments like

Dec 06, 2010

Kathleen rated it:

Started out great, well written and researched. Toward the middle of the book when it got into the investigation it bogged down but her writing style is lovely and she captures the spirit of Gloucester. Since I know many of the "characters" in the book it was interesting to see them as, well, characters. A very worthwhile read.

0 comments like

reviews