This year, I’m reading the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024 shortlist.
First up: Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville*.
What is Restless Dolly Maunder about?
Set in the late 1800s and through to early 1900s Australia, we follow Dolly Maunder.
Inspired by Grenville’s own grandmother, it tells her story of growing up during changing times, particularly for women. Clearly, Dolly is frustrated, restless and wants more from life. However, being a woman during such a time meant things were limited: no house, business or bank account in her name. She also finds herself stuck in a marriage where they tolerate each other, and she hides the fact she knows her husband’s secret.
Dolly feels stuck but is clearly ambitious, speaking to her husband about plans to make themselves better off.
Throughout, we can see Dolly’s unhappiness and dissatisfaction manifest in her relationships with her children, replicating her experience with her own parents, thus making her appear like an unkind person. It’s hard to tell if Dolly is trying to ‘make her own’ at times, or if she is just tired by the walls put up against women which she constantly has to batten down.
Common themes
- Coming-of-age
- Women’s rights
- Feminism
- Gender stereotypes
Similar books or genres
- Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead* – similarly, this novel follows our female protagonist through her life
- Bildungsroman / coming of age
- Historical fiction
Would I recommend it?
For those who love coming-of-age novels, definitely!
Upon first glance and judging books by their covers (yep, guilty!), this is not one I would have picked up! But how pleasantly surprised I was – this was my favourite and luckily the first pick of the 6!
Told through beautiful prose and a very easy-to-read writing style, there is very little direct dialogue, instead told through a very close third person narrative. This book truly feels like an old-school storytelling of this woman’s life.
Will this win the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024?
Do I think this will win the Women’s Prize? As beautiful a novel it is, somehow I don’t think it will based on previous winner types. But I’m prepared to be proved wrong!
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