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Enjoyed reading this fiction based on fact about Kate‘s grandmother. A journey of a strong woman born at a difficult time for women who wanted a life that wasn‘t just getting married and having a family.

Looking for some light relief after what felt like months of books with so much sorrow and sadness. Dolly Maunder is the author‘s maternal grandmother. There was a gentleness to the narrative although Dolly is a far from gentle character. I‘m not sure I quite agree with its shortlisting for the woman‘s prize for fiction but it was a solid read. It released me from the sorrow of the last few books I had read. For that I thank Dolly, very much.

Restless indeed! I thought this was terrific. Captivating and heartfelt historical fiction inspired by the life of Grenville‘s maternal grandmother. Now I‘m very interested to read One Life: My Mother‘s Story, nonfiction about her mother Nance.

#WomensPrize

I have often said that if I were to write a novel I would want to explore my grandmother‘s life and everything she faced that turned her into the woman she became. Perhaps because of that I was predisposed to really enjoy this book that tackles the life of the author‘s own grandmother, a woman restless in the life that society allows her. The audio version was well done and I raced through this one.

Grenville fictionalizes her grandmother‘s story as a way of examining mother‘s mother‘s life so she can understand who she was besides a cold parent. Empathetic and healing.

#BookReport 19/24

Bitter Herbs (Het bittere kruid) is fantastic, a Dutch classic rediscovered and an absolute gem. I also loved Mrs Caliban and want to read more Ingalls. Dolly Maunders I am still thinking of even though I didn‘t like the book that much. What‘s left of me is yours was enjoyable too but one I won‘t remember for long.

Dolly‘s was the transition generation. Dolly Maunders is born at the end of the 19th century, just when things were starting to change for women and their possibilities in life. Dolly wants to grasp them all, there‘s always something better, somewhere. Her restlessness is understandable but has its bad sides. She‘s never quite happy with what she has and it makes her a rather cold, dominating mother. ⬇️⬇️

Dolly is born as the 6th of 7 siblings into a poor farming family in 1881. She‘s also born into a man‘s world where a man‘s word is final, first your father and then your husband because marriage is the only option for a woman. But Dolly what something else, so how do you make that happen within society‘s limits? This is the story of how Dolly managed that

When I finished I liked this, but as some time has passed I realize that I love this one

Dolly was indeed restless as she forged a life for herself and family within the constraints of her time. She was hard working, quite often fueled by anger. In many ways she reminded me of my mother so I unexpectedly connected to her story. 4 🌟

As soon as she could walk, she knew she wanted to be outside, moving

#FirstLineFridays

4⭐ I enjoyed this. Makes total sense why the Women's Prize put this on the long list, it looks at the Australian life in the turn of into 1900s and through WWII. Dolly is somehow an unlikable but relatable character. She wants so much more than she was born into and being a woman severely limits how far she can climb.
I liked that she was a complex character, she is a terrible mother, but she is ambitious and I still was rooting for her.

This book is the fictionalized life of the authors grandmother.
A photo of the real Dolly is in the back of the book.

These endpapers are so gorgeous, it makes picking up the book delightful. I wish more publishers would do this. It would cause me to buy and keep a lot more books.

"And she always came back to the same thing: she'd rather go on being a married woman, no matter how hollow the marriage was.
She was forty -five. The prime of life for a man, but on the downhill slope for a woman."

Yikes! As a happily divorced woman edging 45 this is harsh ? Picture with Serene because what would Dolly think with me and my cats! ?
#WomensPrizeForFiction
#WPFLL

"But a girl was stuck on the flypaper of being dependent on a man unless she can support herself. And there was something else too, something beyond the nuts-and-bolts: it was about not being trapped in a world of small thinking that was all most women had access to."

I see why this is in the women's Prize long list, such a reflection on women's rights and the limitations of being a woman in the early 1900s of Australia.

Dolly, born in 1881 small town Australia, is a dynamic, determined woman who wants to have a place in a world that sees women as homemakers. So, she‘s always on the hunt, moving and working with her husband to succeed. I should love this book, but while the story itself is interesting, it‘s all very flat. Dolly should leap off the page, but the writing is dull and she just lays there. This book feels like a missed opportunity.

The lives of Dolly and her forebears all stand on the taking of land, but the family stories I drew on for this book are silent about that truth. They also record no awareness of the enduring sorrow all the taking meant and means for First Nations people. As Dolly's granddaughter, I want to acknowledge that silence and that sorrow. I've told one story here, but standing beside it is another.

As far as she could see, being Catholic or Protestant wasn't such a big thing. Church was just what you did once a week. You said the prayers and you sang the hymns and then afterwards you stood outside the church having a good old gasbag. The C of Es like the Maunders stood outside their church and the RCs like the Murphys stood outside theirs, and then for the rest of the week you were just all in together.

Rather like Kate Grenville and this was no exception.
Whilst I feel it lacked some of the depth of her previous novels, this became a bit clearer on reading her notes.
Dolly is always on the move, looking for new opportunities. She's frustrated at the dependency of women at the time. And so her life pans out.

A solid historical fiction read about a complicated woman in early 20th century Australia, trying to find a way to live within the narrow confines of society. Grenville's author notes and connection to Dolly add extra interest.

It was a good read, but as a #WomensPrize nominee, it wouldn't make my Shortlist. I enjoyed it, but nothing felt new or exceptional to make it Prize worthy.

Gotta love some gorgeous end papers! 😍

Fictionalised account of the life of the author's grandmother. Dolly is an unyielding and not very likeable character, but she was a product of her time and circumstances. Made me very happy I wasn't born a century earlier and in rural Australia. A quick read. Plain story and plain prose, but interesting. Lacked that 'little extra' for me, even though it says something universal about being a woman.

#womensprize #longlist #womensprize2024

I liked this, but not as much as the other HF that I‘ve read from the #womensprize longlist.

The novel is based on the life of the author‘s own grandmother, living in Australia at the end of the 1800s, up until just after WWII.

Dolly moves around a *lot* and this lends a restlessness to the book as well - it almost felt a little rushed in places as we were never in one place long enough to learn about it, or the people that lived there.