Bloodroot starts off a bit slow, as it tells the story of the wild Myra Lamb through the eyes of her grandmother Byrdie and a neighborhood boy in love with Myra, Douglas Cotter. The novel's shift to the voices of Myra's children, Johnny and Laura, is when the story begins to take off. There's a deep love for the Appalachia Mountains in Greene's writing that reminded me of The Dollmaker , and Greene nails the local dialect, as well as the distrust of government authorities or people outside of the community. There is a fairly deep theme running through the book of how parents can fail their children, and it's heartbreaking to read about how Myra only occasionally tunes into reality after the birth of her children. As Johnny's character says, "she never made mention of my copperhead bite, as if she didn't even notice how bad off I was. It was up to me to get better alone." While few of the characters emerge unscathed, Greene offers up the idea that both writing, loyalty and being true to oneself can lead to survival in dire circumstances.
There are scenes of violence between Myra and her husband John Odom that made me wince, and felt a bit heavy and Gothic to me, but one of the refreshing aspects of The Dollmaker is that even the villains are fully-formed characters instead of caricatures. In the end, even the most vile John Odom and his brother Hollis are shown to be victims of a cycle of abuse. Highly recommended for book clubs and fans of Harriete Arnow.
