Book Review: The Dollmaker

[ChipWrecked]

I've been rereading novels I've kept around for years and recently started this one.

Growing up in the South, I'm astounded by Harriet Arnow's ability to write in Southern dialect. She's better even than Mark Twain.

Without giving out spoilers, the plot deals with a Kentucky woman gifted at "whittlin'" who can hand-carve any piece of wood into art or tool, who is uprooted from the hills by World War II and goes to live in Detroit with her husband who has a factory job there.

Great story, powerful writing, a classic American tragedy. One of my favorite books.

I was introduced to it when Jane Fonda was producing and starring in the movie version. She came to our area of the Ozarks to take dialect lessons. She did OK with the movie, and brilliantly cast Levon Helm as the husband; she just completely [censored] the ending. Oh well. Tragedies don't sell popcorn in Hollywood I guess.

For our friends across The Pond, you couldn't get a better glimpse of America than this book.

Well, and The Simpsons, of course.