Girl Factory
A Memoir
Published on 1. October 2013
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-7627-9181-1 (ISBN)
Description
A lyrical, finely crafted, and absolutely absorbing coming-of-age memoir about a young girl from a Pennsylvania factory town. After a shooting at the local factory where her parents work, eight-year-old Karen finds comfort in obsessive rituals and superstitions. As the years pass, she begins to understand her mother's unusual behavior and their complicated relationship until a shocking discovery shatters her world and disturbing memories begin to surface.
Reviews / Votes
"Karen Dietrich can stop your heart with a sentence. The Girl Factory is fierce and lyrical, more memorable with every page. And somehow, in setting forth the still-smoking particulars of her girlhood in a Pennsylvania factory town, she reminds us how alike we all are, and how human. This book is stunning-a glinting, piercing wonder."-Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife"The raising of girls through the prism of men's desire becomes an unsettling, suspenseful theme in this affecting first work... Dietrich works beautifully by understatement, allowing her subtle clues to paint a terrifying world for the innocent protagonist." -Publishers Weekly "Poetically written and urgently paced, The Girl Factory is the haunting story of a small-town girl finding her place in a family with big-time secrets. Karen Dietrich brings an original voice to her indelible tale." -Janice Erlbaum, author of Girlbomb and Have You Found Her "Exquisitely written in delicious language and detail; Dietrich's The Girl Factory evokes the best kind of memoir writing." -Domingo Martinez, author of the New York Times bestseller The Boy Kings of Texas "Poet Dietrich recounts growing up in the factory town of Connellsville, Pennsylvania. The youngest of three girls, Dietrich takes after her restless mother, adopting many of her obsessive compulsive habits. As a young girl, she's fascinated by violence and death, and the shooting of four employees at the factory where her parents work leaves her haunted. As she moves on to junior high and high school, Dietrich finds herself becoming more and more of an outsider, teased mercilessly by her peers. Like many girls her age, she turns to boys to get validation, falling into a serious relationship with a football player who is referred to by his teammates as "Psycho." College provides Dietrich with an opportunity for escape, and she defies her mother's wishes by choosing to join her older sister in Pittsburgh rather than staying closer to home. Dietrich touches lightly on an instance of childhood sexual abuse, but mostly her memoir is a thoughtful meditation on female sexuality, gender politics, and the way family shapes one's identity."-BooklistMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Old Saybrook
United States
Publishing group
Rowman & Littlefield
Weight
26 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7627-9181-1 (9780762791811)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Karen Dietrich earned a bachelor's degree in 1999 at the University of Pittsburgh. After graduation, she moved to Florida where she worked as a restaurant hostess, a video store clerk, and a credit card customer service rep before becoming a high school English teacher for four years. She then earned an MFA in poetry from New England College in 2008, where her mentor was poet and novelist Paula McLain. Karen has published poetry and nonfiction in Nerve, The Bellingham Review, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PANK Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the author of three limited-run chapbooks with small presses and is a member of an indie folk pop duo, which has two independently released EPs. She is currently an adjunct English instructor at The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg and Westmoreland County Community College. She lives in Greensburg, Pennsylvania with her husband and their son.