Cavedweller

This was really gorgeous--it took a little bit to get into, but once I got going with it, it was really beautiful and tender while holding all these complicated characters in their entirety. The conclusion really felt right in the larger scheme of things--grappling with the trauma in the family in a way that really both felt real and like resolved without being magically cured. It's just a really beautiful look at the complicated way that love in families happens, the aftermath of that, and what beginning to heal might look like, and I really liked it a lot.

Delia Byrd Windsor escaped an abusive marriage by running off to California with a rock band, leaving her two young daughters back in Cayro, Georgia. The story begins ten years later, when her almost famous, not quite rich rock star partner is killed in a car crash. Delia is left with the product of their liaison, ten year old Cissy. Delia decides to return to Cayro, dragging along a kicking and screaming Cissy, to reunite with the children she left behind.

Ex-husband Clint agrees to return her daughters provided she will care for him as he is dying of cancer. Delia acquiesces. But her daughters, all three, are unenthused. The eldest, Amanda, prefers to act the martyr, holding a grudge against the mother who abandoned her. Second show more daughter, DeDe, is a wild child who has learned to push the envelope at every opportunity. Cissy, still indignant at having been thrust into a lifestyle she never wanted, pouts overtly. In addition, many of Cayro’s citizens (including her ex-mother-in-law) treat Delia like a pariah who doesn’t deserve a chance at redemption. Delia perseveres, building a small business; fixing up a house; reconciling with her daughters. By the end of the book the family seems to have achieved a tenuous normalcy.

Good writing, a cohesive story, and richly drawn characters elevate this book beyond a depressing soap opera. While the characters are not extraordinarily flawed, when their flaws are combined with incredibly poor life choices, the results are destructive to all. The consequences of Clint’s sadism, Delia’s flight, Delia’s substance abuse, Grandmother Windsor’s cold-heartedness, the girls’ attitudes – and so forth – have a dramatic impact on everybody else. Even the minor characters are relevant to the plot.

I enjoyed Cavedweller and recommend it to readers who like character driven books. show less

this is a powerful book about coming through violence and/or tragedy and what you do with your life afterwards. who you are and how you handle everything. the writing is excellent and the characters are well drawn. most of the characters are women, and that's definitely part of the story, too, how these women learn to relate to themselves, each other, society.

i'm not sure why it took me so long to read this because it really is a very good book, with good character arcs throughout, and toward the end it got decidedly harder to put down.

I've resisted Dorothy Allison for a while, actually for no particular reason, but finally decided to read her. She has a marvelous way with words, an ear for Georgia speech and the rhythms of the land. A sensory world, someone said, and I agree. Once can see Cayro, Georgia, and know the women who live there. Life changes us and what we don't talk about perhaps changes us the most.

I picked this up after having read Allison's most famous work, Bastard out of Carolina, which was one of the most harrowing emotional reading experiences I have ever had. This book is not nearly so rough to read, but it is still a cutting, insightful and frank exploration of the small-town lives of people often dismissed as "white trash." Not my usual favorite topic, but Allison is an absorbing and talented writer, really able to draw the reader in.
I am STILL impatiently waiting for Allison's promised sci-fi book - an 'excerpt' was published in 1996 which was a truly great story... I don't know if she never finished it, or didn't find a publisher (seems unlikely!)
No fantastic elements in this book, although the main character is a show more science-fiction fan, and there's enough titles/authors mentioned in the text to send a lot of people in the right direction! (It's not a big part of the story, though.) show less

Densely written story about a California woman who returns to her small hometown in Georgia to face the life, and daughters, she left behind. As expected in a small conservative town, she doesn't receive a warm welcome, especially since she fled years ago with a rock musician and acquired modest fame as a singer. I enjoyed the intensity of Allison's writing and her highly descriptive style.

A great book from Dorothy Allison, possibly her best one. It tells the story of Delia Byrd & her struggle to reclaim her children & a life left behind, a life she gave up for rock & roll. Allison writes about the intricacies of families and what some give up in order for others to have more.