The Dollmaker

"In the end they all...most...adjust"
By sally tarbox on 1 Dec. 2013
Format: Mass Market Paperback
A beautiful and heart wrenching novel: it opens with Gertie Nevels, a tough hillbilly woman, taking her sick child to hospital. Unafraid to perform surgery on him to save his life, or to force a reluctant army officer to give them a lift, Gertie seems in control of her life - not least her plans to purchase their own farm in her beloved Kentucky with her secret savings, once her husband is called up to fight in WW2.

But when her husband is sent instead to work in a Detroit factory, Gertie bows to the pressure of those around her to join her man, and she and her children find themselves in one of the overcrowded and slumlike 'projects'.
Gertie, show more the 'dollmaker' of the title, seeks release from her surroundings by losing herself in her woodcarving; the creation of a figure of Christ slowly takes shape throughout the novel, despite her family's pressure to turn out cheap, tawdry dolls on a jig-saw, to make a few dollars.
How the family make out in this vastly different environment, where war takes lives but simultaneously guarantees jobs; where different religions and races are brought together; where the beauties of nature are far removed from the furnaces of the steel mills, makes for an unforgettable novel. The unexpected ending really left me reeling. show less

The Dollmaker is the story of Gertie Nevels, a Kentucky woman who is uprooted from the home that she loves and forced to live in Detroit during the Second World War. It is a tragedy that springs from the loss of agrarian life to industrial labor, the misunderstands and lack of communications between spouses, and the burying of the artistic spirit and individuality beneath the struggle to simply exist.

There are dozens of ideas in this book that could be discussed and debated at length, but what kept coming to the fore for me was the way one life, one person, can be smothered in the crowd of humanity, and how much humanity itself suffers for this every time it happens. Life in Detroit is a nightmare for Gertie, but not only for Gertie; show more the alley she lives in is peopled with lives being beaten down and wasted. The factions that divide these people are much less obvious to the reader than the squalid ties that bind them. The contrast between the deprivations of the farm life that begins the novel and the deprivations of the life Gertie finds in Detroit are stark, and while Kentucky is not paradise, it would appear to be when weighed against Detroit.

There is also the religious element that runs through the book: “Religious” in the broadest sense of the word. For Gertie is searching for God, for Christ, and even for Judas. She looks to understand her fate and whether her choices are truly her own or ordained by some higher power. Indeed, there are times when I wondered where God is in the lives of so many helpless and vulnerable people. As is usually the case, the people who most profess to speak in His name are the least like Him.

My heart was broken so many times during the reading of this novel that it felt sometimes as if there were an iron band squeezing it. It is in excess of 600 pages and I strongly feel that not a word is wasted. Right into the Favorites folder with this one, with my only complaint being that the print in the version I was reading was insufferably small for these old eyes. I suppose I will need to be on the lookout for a copy with larger print, since I can easily see the need to read it again someday. show less

This is American fiction at its best. The main character, Gertie Nevels, is the strongest, most independent woman and mother I have ever "met" in a book, and I use quotes, but this is such a well-written story, with the author using the regional dialiect when the characters were speaking, that I feel like I did meet Gertie. World War II is raging, and Gertie and her husband and five children live in the hills of Kentucky farming on rented land, but Gertie's dream is to buy her own farm, and she has been saving for that day for many years, not even telling her own husband Clovis because she is afraid he will requisition the money for a new truck. Soon after Clovis heads off to join the Army, Gertie receives a windfall from her beloved show more brother who died serving in the war. But just as she is about to purchase her farm, circumstances and guilt (due to a, I suspect, mentally ill mother but that's another story within the story) force her to join Clovis in Detroit. The Army chose not to take him, so he found a job in a factory. What follows is a harsh life for Gertie interspersed with tragedy. Detroit was a boom city then but did not hold much appeal for a country girl from Kentucky, and Gertie faces many hardships: harsh weather, debt, lack of food, prejudice against "hillbillies," corruption, violence. The children also face numerous challenges going from the backwoods life to city life. Gertie is a survivor though and fights hard for her family and remains hopeful for the future. This was an excellent read and also a good history lesson that left me grateful for all the luxuries we have in America today. show less

5***
Mrs Scott, my old English teacher, must have had The Dollmaker in mind when she said " every time you read a book you live a life". I lived several during this book. It's hefty and it took me a while to get through, but it's up there with a select few on my favourite shelf. Something happens midway through the book that hit me like a ten tonne truck (Smiths quote) and I may never recover from that . The Guardian describes it as " a book of biblical intensity". That's a fair shout. The 5 star GR thing isn't good enough for The Dollmaker. I can't review it to be honest, but I can thank both Harriette Simpson Arnow and Mrs Scott for making me a wiser, better person .

This novel was grim and depressing, but also hauntingly lovely. It is a close look into the lives of those who moved to Detroit during WWII to be part of the war effort, and how it affected them after the war was over and the jobs went away. A heavy read, but one that will likely stay with the reader years after it has been read.

(#28 in the 2007 book challenge)

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. Everything about the rural experience is good, and everything about the urban experience is poisonous. Plus, all the dialogue is written out in Kentucky hill dialect. I am sure my encouraging description is making people show more want to read this, but seriously, it was one of those books that I couldn't put down. By rights, it should be too heavy-handed to enjoy, but the writing was breathtaking and it really succeeds in making you feel like you are right there, suffering through Detroit winters and lock-outs and war department telegrams and debt and agony.

Grade: A++
Recommended: To people who might enjoy wallowing in a dismal family saga, people who like lots of domestic detail about homefront experiences, and especially to anyone interested in the rural emigration sparked by WWII, which I always feel you don't hear nearly enough about. Reconstruction and the Depression hog all the rural exodus stuff, I think. show less

I read this book years ago on the advice of a friend from Eastern Kentucky. I still think about it...an amazing American story rich with the trials of strong people living difficult lives with great dignity.