A review by helen_t_reads
Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society’s long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determined women. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly spends her life doggedly pushing at those doors. A husband and two children do not deter her from searching for love and independence. 

This novel is the fictionalised story of the author's grandmother. It is well written, with beautiful imagery, and whilst there is perhaps a tendency to tell rather than show, and with noticeably little dialogue, there is strong character development. 

This is the story of a woman who was, by her family's own account, a restless, cold, dominating, bullying kind of woman. Someone who was unlovable and didn't show love. Kate Grenville herself describes her childhood memory of her in an Afterword as 'aloof, thin, frowning, cranky'. When Dolly asked the 5 year old Kate if she loved her, Kate's reply was 'No'. 

With the benefit of maturity and wisdom Grenville now realised that her grandmother wanted the answer to be 'Yes', because, like everyone, she longed to be loved, and that this was a woman looking back over a life with regret. She also realised that her views of Dolly were based on family perception and account only.
 Restless Dolly Maunder is the author's attempt to get beyond this, to research her grandmother's life, the world she lived in, and consider what might have turned her into the woman she became. 

The result is a novel which is a blend of historical fiction, story and memoir. A sort of fictional biography. And what a woman Dolly was. 

Born at a time when women were seen as unimportant, insignificant, and without status,hostage to the whims and fortunes of father then husband, with the sole role of child bearing and domestic drudgery, Dolly railed against both familial and societal limitations and restrictions, breaking boundaries and traditions, and showing herself to be a formidable businesswoman. 

Grenville does a great job of remaining clear eyed about her relative, and doesn't sugarcoat anything, and Dolly is often seen as unlikeable and difficult. 

But, clarity is also tempered with compassion and we are shown a woman who had a hard childhood, constantly belittled and knocked back, who grew into an often furious and frustrated woman, but had determination in spades. 

Someone restless beyond measure who would move her young family around the country frequently in the pursuit of the next (better) thing. 

A mother who finds it impossible to express her love to her children but is determined to rise above her station, and do the very best for their benefit,  so they don't have to suffer what she experienced. 

A woman who wanted power over her own life, and to have 'the same freedom to choose that a man had'. 

This is essentially the story of a woman with strong feminist ambitions, born before her time, and whilst we might not always like her or agree with her methods and actions, we understand her a great deal more when we reach the end. 

A really engaging, fascinating and thought-provoking read.