LiveWorld Transcripts

Borders.com presents

Dorothy Allison
Author of “Cavedweller”

May 26, 1999

NetCafeLive presents Dorothy Allison, best-selling author of “Bastard Out of Carolina,” who discusses her latest novel, “Cavedweller.” Once again, Allison masters the art of weaving a tale about mothers and daughters and the often difficult path they need to pave in order to seal a tight-knit bond.

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NetCafe: Welcome to NetCafeLive, where we host authors and celebrities throughout the month. Thanks for joining us! Borders NetCafeLive is a joint production of Borders.com(tm) and Talk City(tm), a Talk City, Inc. Production. Tonight's guest is Dorothy Allison. Dorothy Allison's second novel, "Cavedweller," has become a NetCafe: New York Times bestseller. It's a sweeping story of the human NetCafe: spirit that maps the unexplored recesses of the human heart, and the lives of four NetCafe: women – a mother and her three daughters -- at a place where NetCafe: violence, and what redeems it, intersect. Borders.com and Talkcity.com are pleased to welcome tonight's guest, Dorothy Allison. Welcome to Talk City!

Dorothy Allison: Terrific, I'm glad to be here!

LilyCCC: Dorothy, can you start off by telling us about your background, and how you came to write “Cavedweller”?

Dorothy Allison: I'm a Southern escapee, a working class runaway. I live in California, but I grew up in the South, and that's where my imagination lives and where I dream. I've been fascinated with mother-daughter stories, and both of my novels are just that. So far! I think of myself as a lyrical realist. I'm trying to tell hard, real stories in beautiful language.

LilyCCC: Dorothy, the main character in the book is Delia. What can you tell us about her as a woman?

Dorothy Allison: I always thought of Delia as being the kind of woman I saw a lot in the 70s - those women who would stand to the side of the stage singing backup vocals in rock'n'roll bands, like the woman who sings back up in Bat out of Hell. When I sat down to write about her, I thought of a woman in enormous pain - someone who knew pain intimately. She's a woman who has run away from her daughters - she left her infant daughters, although in her mind she never intended to leave them. The book begins when she decides to go back and try to get them back and do anything she has to in order to get them. I just fall in love with those incredibly strong, wounded women who act out of sheer stubbornness - that's Delia.

LilyCCC: Women who leave children behind to pursue other goals often have a lot to reckon with later in life. When does Delia begin to realize she needs to return to Georgia to try to make her peace with the children she left behind?

Dorothy Allison: I think she wanted to go back all along. It's one of the reasons she drank so much. I think she buried herself in liquor to avoid the loss. She goes back when Randall Pritchard dies, the man she lived with for ten years, and the man she has a daughter by. The first line of the book is "Death changes everything,” and his death frees her to reclaim her life. Of course, she has no idea that it won't be as easy as she thinks it will be, or the price she'll have to pay.

LilyCCC: Delia brings with her a new daughter, Cissy. How do Delia's two older daughters react to Delia's return and to another sister?

Dorothy Allison: The daughters react very differently, because they're different characters. The older daughter hates and resents her mother. However, she is a "good" Christian, so she treats Cissy with enormous disdain, and tries to pretend she doesn't exist. The younger daughter Dede is completely fascinated with her new family - her momma the rock star and her new illegitimate sister. But mostly the book is about how the three of them actually become full sisters, and how they forgive each other. If I had to say in one word what the book is about, it's forgiveness. Delia has to forgive herself, and the girls have to forgive Delia and each other. They do it, but it's a lot of work.

Ezguest13995: Are you going to make a movie about your book?

Dorothy Allison: Not me baby! It's in one of those never-ending processes - it's optioned, and it's entirely possible, but I don't pay much attention. What I think is more interesting is that they're making a stage play of the book. It should tentatively preview at the La Jolla Playhouse in spring 2000. The playwright is Kate Ryan, and she keeps telling me that Melissa Etheridge is writing the music. I'm fascinated by the process, but I'm not actively involved in it. But I've always wanted to write a play, and Kate is saving me the trouble.

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