Last Days of Dogtown.LAST DAYS OF DOGTOWN. Anita Diamant. 2005. Read by Kate Nelligan. 8 tapes. 10.5 hrs. Recorded Books. 1-4193-6284-3. $59.75. Vinyl; plot notes. SA This is as rich a work of historical fiction as Diamant's best-seller, The Red Tent; those who love strong female characters will be especially enamored en·am·or tr.v. en·am·ored, en·am·or·ing, en·am·ors To inspire with love; captivate: was enamored of the beautiful dancer; were enamored with the charming island. . Doytown is inhabited by "respectable" society's castaways, including freed or runaway slaves, prostitutes, drunkards, suspected witches, abused children, and simply those who prefer precarious freedom to restrained conventionality. The hardships of living in early 19th-century Massachusetts are graphically depicted, including dentistry with mallet mallet, n a hammering instrument. mallet, hard, n a small hammer with a leather-, rubber-, fiber-, or metal-faced head; used to supply force or to supplement hand force for the compaction of foil or amalgam and to seat cast and pliers pliers, n a tool of pincer design with jaws of varying shapes; used for holding, bending, stretching, contouring, and cutting. pliers, contouring, n , harsh winters in which hunger is abated with scrawny game meat, and alcohol is the only relief for physical pain. There are touching love stories. There's humor, as when the town drunk finds religion after mistaking a child hiding in a tree for an angel. In Diamant's New England, the old debate of "how pure were the Puritans?" is tilted toward those who argue that the more pronounced the facade of "purity," the greater the reality of basic human nature. More impressive than the plot is the flowing and elegant lyricism lyr·i·cism n. 1. a. The character or quality of subjectivity and sensuality of expression, especially in the arts. b. The quality or state of being melodious; melodiousness. 2. of Diamant's prose. Narrator NARRATOR. A pleader who draws narrs serviens narrator, a sergeant at law. Fleta, 1. 2, c. 37. Obsolete. Nelligan's deep, resonant, cultured voice gives a deserved dignity to characters crafted with nobility and humanity. Based on an actual historical settlement, Diamant's Dogtown will delight listeners. Some sexually explicit scenes. Nancy Crowder Chaplin, Libn., VCCW VCCW Virginia Correctional Center for Women , Goochland, VA |
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