A thought took her by surprise: I should have been born a man. But that wasn’t it. She didn’t want to be a man. She just wanted to be a woman with the same freedom to choose as a man had.
Kate Grenville, Restless Dolly Maunder
Dolly Maunder is sharp, smart, and ambitious. Born in the late 19th century, on a sheep farm in Australia, her future is set out for her. She will marry some farmer and manage his farm, just as her mother does, just as her older sisters set out to do. She is destined to live the same life that she sees all the women around her living.
But Dolly is, well, restless. From a very young age she wants more and she feels that she should have more. Her first bit of luck comes when school is mandated for all children until the age of 14. The law requires that she get more education than her own father – a hard and domineering man – ever had or even than her older siblings received. When Dolly learns about the possibility of pupil-teaching – a job an unmarried woman can have – her father tells her, “Over my dead body”. These words seem to halt her ambitions and cast a shadow over the rest of her life.
Religion and circumstances dictate who she marries and Dolly Maunder becomes Mrs. Bert Russell. But Dolly is ambitious and knows how to work her husband around to her ideas. Over the years, they work together. First to get off the farm and to run a store. From there, Dolly’s ambition and desire push them ever further. She runs a boarding house, and then a hotel until they work their way up to own and manage one of the finest hotels around. They can afford to put their children into the best schools, vaulting them into a higher echelon of society. Dolly is smart and wary and it is her guidance that leads the family from the sheep farm to the beautiful Caledonia Hotel.
In outline, this seems like a family moving ever upward in society. The Australian dream, perhaps. An example of what is possible with hardwork and determination. But this is a story about one woman. A woman who grew up with little affection and less belief in her own abilities from anyone around her. A young girl who early on sees how limited her life will be, simply because of her sex. Dolly is a woman who desires more for her children but lacks the ability to show them the most basic affection.
This is also the story of a place and time. We see Australia grow and develop from the late 19th century to the mid 20th. With even the most basic understanding of history, the reader can see ahead and imagine what awaits Dolly and her family in the future. We can’t rejoice with Dolly when their hotel is an all-time success because we know the year is 1929.
I found the beginning of the novel a little slow and frustrating as we follow the repetition of Dolly’s youth and limited life before she leaves her parents’ home. The pace quickly picks up though after her marriage to Bert and from there we see Dolly really turning into the person she becomes.
Karissa Reads Books 
‘Ever upwards in society’ would definitely have been the Australian dream for many people at that time. Since WW2 it is home ownership.
Have you read Kate Grenville? This is the second book I’ve read from her and they were both historical fiction set in Australia. For me, that alone was pretty interesting because I don’t know that much about Australia’s history.
Yes, I’ve read a few Kate Grenville novels, including The Secret River trilogy which was also made into a television series. I also read One Life: My Mother’s Story, which was a fantastic tribute to her mother, who sounded as if she was an amazing woman.
I haven’t read any Kate Grenville before, but I love the sound of this story. Is it fiction or non-fiction?
It is fiction but in a note at the end she explains that Dolly Maunder the character is based on Dolly Maunder, Greenville’s own grandmother. She uses the facts she knew about her grandmother’s life and vastly expands on them. So it toes the line between fact and fiction, I’d say.
Weirdly, it sounds like there is nothing special to this novel. It sounds pretty familiar. Or, maybe I feel that way because I follow a couple of Australian bloggers who write about real-life women like this, whose lives follow the same trajectory, but you add in “writer” and things get interesting.
It is a bit, I guess. It’s a well told story but there probably are a hundred other similar lives you could write about.
Ah, I do think I saw this when you posted but didn’t have the context for Grenville yet and forgot all about it in the meantime… The themes do sound good to me here but I do worry the storyline is going to feel a bit simplistic/predictable to actually read. I’m hoping the Australian setting (not one I read from often enough) will give this an extra point of interest for me, as well as the MC getting her start on a family farm- which I also did, although not with sheep! Nice review, this is definitely a helpful starting point to set my expectations. (Room of Leaves being more plotted might indeed be a bit more my cup of tea ultimately, thanks for mentioning that one to me too!)
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