Last Days of Dogtown - Hardcover

Anita Diamant

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1405049677 ISBN 13: 9781405049672

Publisher: Macmillan, 2006

Synopsis

THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN is a novel set on Cape Ann, Massachusetts in the early 1800s. But this is not so much a historical novel as a novel of the past, of poor people, widows, orphans, spinsters, scoundrels, whores, free Africans, and 'witches': the kind of people who are generally forgotten by history. Based loosely on published accounts of an abandoned rural backwater near the Massachusetts coastline, THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN reimagines and reinvents the stories of a small group of eccentrics and misfits - reputedly the last residents of the ghost town. THE LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN features a cast of unforgettable characters including Black Ruth, an African woman who dresses as a man and works as a stone mason; Mrs. Stanley, an imperious madam, whose grandson, Sammy, comes of age amid the sights and sounds of a wretched rural brothel; Oliver Younger, who overcomes the most miserable childhood and becomes a loving father. At the center of it all is Judy Rhines, a fiercely independent soul, generous and wise but also heart-broken and lonely, who nevertheless builds a life for herself and a community of friends, in the most unlikely of settings. As in her first novel, The Red Tent, author Anita Diamant takes a chapter of our shared past and brings it to vivid life, in this case, changing forever the way we think about (among other things) what it was like to have a toothache in 1815 and the experience of African slaves in New England.

About this title

About the Author:

Anita Diamant is the bestselling author of the novels The Red Tent, Good Harbor,  and The Last Days of Dogtown, as well as the collection of essays, Pitching My Tent. An award-winning journalist whose work has appeared regularly in The Boston Globe Magazine and Parenting, she is the author of six nonfiction guides to contemporary Jewish life. She lives in Massachusetts. Her most recent novel is Day After Night. Visit her website at www.anitadiamant.com.

From AudioFile:

Anita Diamant's stark sketch of a group of society's throwaways focuses on the once promising community of Dogtown, near Gloucester, Mass. By 1814, the area is reduced to broken-down hovels populated by wild dogs, whores, emancipated slaves, destitute widows and orphans, who survive by wile, duplicity, and sheer force of will. Kate Nelligan's performance highlights these examples of human resilience, from Black Ruth, an African woman who dresses like a man; to Tammy, a vicious old woman who torments her orphaned nephew; to Judy, whose taboo love affair with Cornelius, a freed slave, is fraught with danger. With unsentimental eloquence, Nelligan embodies the free-thinking spirit of these New Englanders and handles individual joys and tragedies with compassion. A fascinating book and an extraordinary performance. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1405049677
• ISBN 13: 9781405049672
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320