Kate Grenville
Dolly Maunder is about a woman living in country Australia between 1881 and 1945. She is very intelligent possesses an innate determination to survive the cruel misogyny, the poverty, the classicism, sectarianism, the contradictions within families and their secrets that persisted in Australia at the time.
It is a book I have devoured with great appreciation for all the parallels I see in my own life, and particularly in my own mother and grandmother. When talking about men and marriage my Mum would explain that grandma didn’t have much choice after World War One as most of the men were dead or injured, and she settled for grandad before she was left on the shelf. Dolly Maunder made a similar decision and married Bert Russell despite her love for Jim Murphy the Catholic that could not go against his family and some damn Pope somewhere talking latin.
Sectarianism was a strong theme in my early childhood, and I would often hear stories about mixed marriages where two people from different faiths married and the families links breaking down because of this.
Dolly made it work, and she and Bert together owned either businesses or farms in Gunnedah, Wahroonga, Newport, Camden, Temora, and Tamworth. Her story travels from place to place, changing with the economic situation of the time. Bert and Dolly did well, and had enough money to retire for a period in a beautiful house by the sea in Cronulla. But then decided to invest in the Caledonian the best hotel in Tamworth, part boredom and partly to show the locals there just how far they had come. It all fell apart with the Depression in the 1930s.
Through all their endeavours the three children Frank, Nancy and Max moved from school to school, and community to community. It was a time when children’s needs came second to the family surviving and Dolly often laments in the story about trying to be a loving mother. The exhaustive work she did all day as well as experiencing her own cold mother limited her capacity to enjoy her children. Sadly, I think this was the case for so many families in the early days. Parents were so tired from just working on the farms and in the shops, there was no space for the important relationships. Children worked incredibly hard on farms in those early days, milking cows, feeding animals and as soon as they were strong enough driving horse teams. There were community events and a sharing but behind it all there were the tough repetitive tasks and your whole life came down to the whim of the weather, the sky a mocking tyrant.
Dolly’s own parents refused to support her becoming a schoolteacher, something she never forgot, and throughout her life was driven to ensure she had some money for herself and that her own daughter would have a career.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, many families I knew were committed to their daughters getting an education having known the sort of poverty and heartbreak women endured when marriages didn’t work. However, there were still men who thought that women were still chattels to be bought by men and cared for in their marriages. I meet these women now in their seventies and eighties know their frustration and their disappointment.
Dolly lived through two world wars just as my grandmother did. Grandma cooked and knitted and did all she could for the soldiers.
There is a little bit of Dolly Maunder in so many women I know, and Kate has bravely exposed the hardships faced by women striving to be treated as equals. She has given a voice to so many of our mothers and grandmothers in Australia.
Kate Grenville has written 15 books and documented the extraordinary history of Australia though her characters.
Restless Dolly Maunder is published by Text Publishing.