This novel pleasantly surprised me.The first chapter about the death of Abraham Wharf set me up to believe Anita Diamant's tale of a dying 19th century town would be a dull, dragging bore. The imagery made me a imagine the characters and setting in shades of brown and gray -- 261 pages of gloom and depression. I nearly abandoned the book, but I have a rule of never giving up after Chapter 1. Every novel deserves a few chapters to establish itself.How grateful I am that I adhered to my rule! Each chapter follows the life of a different resident of Dogtown, weaving the supporting cast in and out of each other's chapter in a tapestry that follows nearly a decade of the town's demise as older residents pass away and younger ones move away.The description of the cast on the dust jacket is what made me pluck this book from the library shelf. There is Ruth, a black woman who tries to live her life with a man's name, work and wardrobe; there is Judy, an unmarried white woman who pines for the love of a freed slave; there is Cornelius, the freed slave who abandons Judy's love; Easter Carter, the collector of town gossip; Molly and Sally and Mrs. Stanley, the town prostitutes (or "Doxies of Dogtown"); old Tammy Younger, a bitter old bat who finds bitter pleasure in suspicion of being the town witch; and a variety of others.The novel is purely character-driven. One by one, the reader follows each character's departure from Dogtown, whether by death or moving to the nearby town of Gloucester. In death, Diamant glosses over nothing and spares no detail. Some characters meet with more gruesome fates than others. Not all (in fact, very few) have a happy ending to their tale.Despite the sometimes brutal treatment of the characters, the novel has plenty of humor. I uttered a legitimate LOL ("laugh out loud" for any of you who aren't savvy in Internet/text messaging lingo) at the chapter about the brutal John Stanwood believing he saw an angel and his humorous attempts to change his drunkenly, carousing ways.I didn't expect to get as absorbed into this book as I did; however, I devoured it in two sittings over a weekend. Although not outstanding in its language, style or plot, it still stands out as memorable and is well worth the handful of hours to read.
When an author writes a wonderful book, you tend to always hope that the next book of hers you read will equal or exceed it. Diamant has never been able to live up to the standard she set in The Red Tent. Perhaps if I had not approached this book with so much hope, I would have liked it better.With a cast of unique and interesting characters, Dogtown has great potential. At the outset, I think Diamant bounces from one character to another too often and arbitrarily, so that just when I thought I might become involved with them, she moved on to someone new. In the end, however, I did feel somewhat invested in Judy Rhines, who emerges as perhaps the "main" character. I found it quite interesting when I learned that most of these characters actually existed and that the fate of Dogtown is accurately depicted. Perhaps truth is indeed stranger than fiction.I wanted to love this book. I felt bits and pieces of empathy and understanding for the inhabitants of Dogtown. I felt for the bleakness of life for these last people resigned to live in this area that carried with it so much stigma. I liked the parallel between the people and the dogs themselves, who had given the area its name so many years before. I would not discourage anyone who said they were planning to read this book, but I would also not tell anyone it was a book not to be missed.If this review sounds equivocal, it is because I can feel myself with one foot on either side of the fence. If this were my first Diamant, I would not hesitate to read her again, but on the heels of The Red Tent, it cannot help disappointing a bit.
What do You think about The Last Days Of Dogtown (2006)?
An okay read, and with enough interest to keep you going in the rather flabby middle. Still the character of Judy Rhines just about held it together, though she's not on the page as often as I would like.Every now and again, the writing is strangely rather amateur, with different points of view introduced apparently at a whim, which meant I had to go back and reread to see who was talking now - rather irritating really.However, the ending was very good, even though I took a while to get there - but it's still not the tour de force of The Red Tent. Then again, perhaps nothing ever will be ...
—Anne Brooke
This is the tale of the death of a village, and not a happy one at that. It is full of unpleasant characters and they live very difficult lives. It isn't about any one character really but touches on a particular group. There were some whom I would have loved to see have, if not a happy-ever-after then at least a happy interlude. However since this is apparently based in fact, that wasn't to be. Nevertheless there were still people to root for.So, in short, not a cheerful read but an interesting one.
—Karen
In The Last Days of Dogtown, Diamant paints a vivid and gripping historical setting as she delves into a lost crevice of human drama in 19th-century Massachusetts and renders it with a modern slickness. There are no novel revelations about love, however. Instead, she takes us alongside the drunkards, whores, and witches (the strongest character is Black Ruth, who rarely speaks), and, in the end, she evokes the tragic silliness of humanity in the grays and pale sunshine of Cape Ann.This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
—Bookmarks Magazine
