Customer Reviews

Cavedweller: A Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Years and years ago, I devoured Bastard out of Carolina. Then I got ahold of Cavedweller - and it might as well have dwelt in a cave itself for all the notice I took of it. Why did it take me so long to pick it up and read it?
Answer: the cover photo was ambiguous and didn't draw me in, and the title was...odd.
What a mistake! I picked it up while cleaning out bookshelves a few days ago, flipped to the first page, and barely put it down till I'd finished it. It begins with death, and death (or the threat of death - many near misses) persists throughout. But somehow the women of this book triumph above poverty, narrow-minded neighbors, small town pettiness, Holy Roller invective, no-good men (though, to Allison's credit, there ARE a few good men), and lack of opportunity.
I admire the author's ability to move seamlessly forward in time without her readers demanding to know absolutely everything that happened in the intervening years. Characters grow and learn and change, and Allison's writing plops us down at the critical moments so we can observe first-hand the events that caused the transitions.
Wonderful book, wonderful characters, wonderful writing.
Highest recommendation, right behind Bastard out of Carolina.

I, too, must have missed something here. While the first several chapters definitely had me hooked, I found the rest of the book slow going. Most of the characters, but especially Delia, were only partially-drawn, and each seemed to be keeping a BIG SECRET that never emerged. There is a lukewarm family drama described in retrospect toward the end of the book that could be considered expository, but it seemed like an author's afterthought, and didn't work at all.

The whole cave thing was too little, too late, and the fact that it dictated the book's title surprised me. I was most frustrated with how Allison takes us deep into a character, and then pulls back, as if teasing us with detail that is ultimately inconsequential. The most fascinating characters, Rosemary and Amanda, are dangling like rag dolls at the end of the story.

Echoing the voices and revisiting the region of her starkly splendid debut novel, Bastard Out Of Carolina, Dorothy Allison sets her story of family, friendship, and redemption, Cavedweller, in rural Cayro, Georgia. This community with its myopic mores and entrenched culture is as much a part of her tale as the gritty, determined women who call it home.
With disarming candor and often lyrical prose Ms. Allison relates the story of Delia Byrd, who fled Cayro for Los Angeles a decade ago, running from an abusive husband, Clint Windsor, and leaving behind two baby daughters. Delia became the whiskey-voiced, whiskey dependent lead singer for a rock group called "Mud Dogs." When her second husband, guitarist for the group and father of her third daughter, Cissy, dies in a fiery motorcycle crash, Delia packs a few belongings plus her protesting daughter into an enfeebled Datsun and heads for home. Determined to stay sober and reunite her family, she drives cross-country "as if her sanity depended on it."

There are no welcome home signs in Cayro. Recognizing Delia, a diner cook announces, "You that bitch ran off and left her babies......don't think people don't remember....You the kind we remember." Her return is greeted with even less charity by the congregation of the Cayro Baptist Tabernacle, and Scripture quoting Grandma Windsor who has raised Delia's other two daughters: Amanda, 15, a hellfire and damnation religious zealot, and Dede, 12, a caustic cigarette smoking nymphet. Only M.T., "a big woman, muscular under soft pads of flesh" offers succor to "her lost best friend and the daughter at her side."

Desperate to reclaim her girls, Delia strikes a bargain with the cancer stricken Clint - she will care for him until his death in return for custody of their daughters. Thus, dysfunctional as it may be, they are a family again as Delia works herself into exhaustion, Amanda prays, Dede scorns, and Cissy forms a tenuous rapprochement with the dying man.

While the first half of this deftly crafted narrative focuses on Delia as she battles guilt, recrimination, poverty, and the urge to drink, the second portion belongs to Cissy. It is her coming-of-age tale, rendered with compassion and eloquence. Doubtless there will be parallels drawn between Cissy and Harper Lee's "Scout" in To Kill A Mockingbird. Cissy does not suffer by comparison. Viewing the world with a probative eye she searches hungrily for her identity.

When Cissy is introduced to the mysteries and challenges of spelunking, it is within the black recesses of Little Mouth cave that the young insomniac finds rest and a modicum of peace. "Looking up into the rock ceiling...she imagined she could hear gospel music in the darkness just outside of the light's little circle....she found herself thinking about God, the God who stacked rock on rock and watched after fatherless girls."

Ms. Allison draws her characters forcefully, with telling detail, etching them upon the reader's consciousness. Her description of Clint's final moments is surely one of the most memorable scenes in contemporary literature. Few describe a redneck with the hair trigger accuracy of this author, or more truly limn the evangelistic fervor of southern fundamentalists. Her depiction of enduring friendship, non-judgmental and patient, is tribute to both Ms. Allison's estimable skill as a wordsmith, and the generosity of the human heart.

Rather than the unrelenting cycle of poverty and oppression described in some of Ms. Allison's previous work, this novel ends on a hopeful note. "I wanted to write about people who could change," Ms. Allison has said. "You can create redemption for yourself." Cavedweller is unforgettable affirmation of her belief.

- Gail Cooke

Dorothy Allison's eloquent vision exposes a sentimentality of everyday life that few dare to comprehend and ever write about.Immediately drawing the reader's attention,Dorothy Allison shows how she can control a world entangled in sensual dreams and direct realities.Within this world,Allison creates believable characters that explore life with wild abandonment.Furthermore,Allison is successful in her combination of and transition between the unsympathetic glitter of the music industry and the gospel revelations of the southern spirit.Her multifaceted and emotionally charged confessional leaves an undeniable impression upon those who can willingly accept their share of vulnerability.

Cavedweller narrates the lives of four unique women,linked together by the world in which they live.The omnious opening abruptly places the reader into Allison's intensive hands. From there,she begins to lead the reader on a vivid journey through misery and charm.The contextual settings within Allison's passages are also very indicative of Allison's knack for creating subtle imagery that holds profound meaning.

At some point, the reader must ask what is the significance of the novel's title-- Cavedweller.Allison delays the relevance of the novel's title,almost deliberately,which only entices the reader to explore more pages.But when the caves do appear,Allison does not hold back on her visionary excellence.She comes at the reader with full force,exposing a world of deep solace and contemplation.It is in these parts of the novel where Allison truly shines with her display of poetic prose and rhythmic sensuality.

Even after the novel is gracefully completed,Dorothy Allison's touching lyricism continues to remain with the reader's consciousness;adding more complexity,relevancy,and mystery to the life that everyone compulsively intends to find.*****

Allison has once again given us a beautiful book, real, romantic, and exceptionally written. Delia Byrd needs to go home and she drags her ten year old daughter with her. This is really her story, the story of Cissy, living in the strange Cayro, GA, her mother's hometown. What greets them is Delia's reputation. She left her husband and her first two daughters, ran off with a rock star, and now returns to find bitterness and strong memories in the town's minds. Cissy is pulled along for the ride, at turns found curious and interesting, and other times looked on as a total outcast. This is her story of growing up and finding truth in the beauty parlor, in her mama's strange friends, and in the gift a boy gives her: the location of amazing caves.

The writing is powerful and the story compelling. We are with Cissy every step of the way and we rejoice with her for her freedom and the security she finds underground. The novel becomes predictable only near the end and the outcome is quick and painless. I loved this book.

As one reviewer wrote, "let's get the negative stuff out of the way." About 3/4 of the way through the book, I wondered what happened to Delia, the supposed main character of the book. It occurred to me that the back book description needs to be changed. This story is equally about Delia and the individual stories of her three daughters, especially Cissy. Delia falls far into the background for most of the second half of the book. Another reviewer hated what I loved most about the book; Cissy's love for caving and the descriptions that went along with it. Beyond being a metaphor for the story, it was wonderful, original and realistic part of Cissy. What comes through clearly in the book is how much people can misunderstand each other and what people do with the void that that creates. This book meanders at times, but the last 40 pages are intense, well-written and aching. It's worth it to stick with this book

Allison either needs a new editor, or she should have made this book into three different novels. I PLODDED through most of it and then gave up - mostly because I didn't care about ANY of the characters.

The opening sentence in this book grabbed me, and I was absorbed in the story up until the last few pages. The problem I have is that the characters seem to almost WANT TO tell more about themselves, but the writer never really finishes the task of developing them further. There is a great potential for a grand finale here, but it seems to sputter and fizzle and finally sort of just peter out. Plus it seems as though these characters just sort of pinball their way through the plot - bouncing off each other but not really affecting anything major. Dede is troubled and shoots Nolan..... and then what? She gets off scot-free? What about Delia's missing family? Seems to me there would be more on that, too.

Overall, this was an interesting read, but I was left fairly unsatisfied by the loose ends at the conclusion. I didn't really find myself caring too deeply for any of the characters -- and if pressed, I'm not sure I could even name a protagonist. Cissy? Delia? Their personalities were drawn so blandly and the action in the plot shot from one to another to another that I am left with a vague feeling of "Hey! This isn't finished yet!"

Overall, I enjoyed the writing but the story seemed to meander and I was unclear who the main characters were. The story begins focusing on Delia then Cissy and then introduces a host of other interesting characters without ever giving you a chance to know any of them. Allison presents realistic characters but never gives a purpose for their inclusion in the book. And once she brings in these great characters, she lets them go and you never know what happens to them. What happened to Tacey, her mother, and most of all MT and Stephanie, Delia's long lost friends? She also jumped around a lot - at one point, she finally gets her abandoned children back and they refuse to speak with her. Pages later its years later and they are a family although still dysfunctional. I was left wondering how they got past the initial trials. I was also disappointed to see blatant errors in the book when Cissy is called Cindy and Nadine is called Nolan. A good editor should have caught these errors as well as insisted that the story was tied up before rushing to publish it. I am not sure if I want to read her next book.

"Caveweller," Dorothy Allison's second novel, is nearly overwhelmed by the number of stories it relates. Yet somehow Allison holds everything together in this deeply collective portrait of a mother and her three daughters and the often troubled, sometimes impoverished lives they lead.

The novel has the feel of a multigenerational saga, but its span is barely a decade (with a few flashbacks to an earlier era). A trilogy of sorts, the book presents a series of interrelated family crises; its tragedies and triumphs occur at seemingly random and usually unexpected moments. Newly widowed, Delia Byrd, a recovering singer from a briefly famous rock band, flees with her daughter Cissy to her hometown in Georgia and attempts to reconcile herself with the two daughters she left to a violent husband from an earlier marriage. A claustrophobic tension permeates the resulting relationships: the townsfolk despise this prodigal woman who "abandoned" her daughters for a spin in the limelight; Cissy is homesick for her friends in the fast life in Los Angeles; Delia's first husband is dying of cancer; and her two daughters, with the support of their grandmother, despise and ignore the mother they never knew.

Then the novel shifts both perspective and gears, slowing down quite a bit to focus on the journey through adolescence by Delia's three daughters. Cissy discovers the escapist joy of spelunking, exploring the dark wombs of local caves and losing herself in the odd comfort of pitch-blackness. Her two sisters, the religiously righteous Amanda and the amorally rebellious Dede, confront emotional upheavals that challenge the extremes of their worldviews. And hovering in the background are neighborhood women who offer guidance and love to the four women, as well as humor and insight to the reader.

Fleeting fame, domestic violence, rural poverty, troubled romance, moral ambiguity, Southern life, and a veneer of folk rock--Allison is so casual about linking her themes and her stories, that there are moments (particular after the climatic "resolution" of Delia's homecoming) that the book almost doesn't cohere. Meandering, yes; unfocused, perhaps--but I suppose, so is life, and there is no denying the recognizable realness of the four lead characters. And, in the end, everything comes together, surprisingly yet satisfyingly.