Post for the December book choice coming at you a little late, but here it is nonetheless! Obviously, the pick was The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham (2000), it was my choice and boy, what a choice it was! It was strange but well written, and had a lot of characters - probably too many characters - and lots and lots and lots about clothes and the making of clothes.
The story takes place in 1950s Australia in the fictional town of Dungatar. It follows the caricatures of the town and the reactions to the surprise return of Tilly Dunnage to their ranks. The cover calls it "An unforgettable tale of love, hate and haute couture" but I think the only thing that is accurate about that statement is this the words 'haute couture.' Although I enjoyed this book, I would not call it unforgettable, and their was more hating going on between the townsfolk than there was love.
Of course, we started off by rating the book, and other than Smoke by Dan Vyleta, this was one of the lowest rated ones for me personally in all that we've read for Book Club so far. We all agreed that it was a well written novel, but that it was lacking in quite a few areas. The average rating was a 4/10 on our rating scale. It was described as a "Gothic tale of revenge," but there were significant aspects of the Gothic missing to get it into that realm. Carmen pointed out that "the closest it comes is with the series of deaths at the end, but even those were not developed enough" to get into the Gothic feeling that most readers are familiar with. She elaborated that there were lots of missed opportunities the author could have used to take the story into the darker, uneasy, skin crawling elements of the Gothic, one being the the character of Tilly's mother and her instability throughout the story.
We also, of course, talked about who our favourite character was. No surprise there that everyone said Sgt. Farrat! He was by far the most likable person in town, and even though he had done some questionable things, he was a least pitiable and not out right hate-able like everyone else. Most of our favourite scenes or parts of the book also involved Farrat. I particularly like the scene when he is going through the tea-chest with Tilly and starts cooing and delighting in the fabrics that come out of it. It is quite the bonding point for the two characters.
Then I asked everyone who they "loved-to-hate" out of all the characters. Everyone had a different answer: Mr. Almanac, Beula, the Beaumonts, but I want to focus on my most hated character: Councillor Pettyman. I've never read a more skeevy, cruel or creepy male character in a novel in quite some time. He made my literal skin crawl with some of the things he did in the book. Just... *shudders*... ugh. I can't write any more about Pettyman though without having to put up a SPOILER warning, so I will stop there.
We had discussions on the love story between Tilly and Teddy in the book as well, which we all felt was underdeveloped, particularly the part that Tilly's past had to play in it. Tilly's relationship with her mother and her reasons for returning to the town were also discussed. I asked everyone whether or not, based on what Tilly had been through and experienced in coming back, if we would have stuck around like she did? All of us said that we would have left quite earlier on than she did considering some of the events that took place. Some of the plot points were a bit out there; even ridiculous I would say. But none of us saw the justification in sticking around like Tilly did, even though why she did wasn't really even explained either.
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The Dressmaker was also adapted into a film in 2015 starring Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth and Hugo Weaving. It doesn't have the best ratings, but I went ahead and checked it out anyway. Let's just say it was equal parts bad, ridiculous and hilarious all at the same time. Hugo Weaving as Sgt. Farrat was BY FAR the BEST part of the whole movie. Just superb. Winslet as Tilly Dunnage actually gave some life to that character that was sorely missing in the novel and Hemsworth as Teddy Swiney was, I'm sure, for pure attraction and lust factor. Knowing their real life age difference at the time of filming was 15 years, I had a really hard time buying their love story, just like the one in the book was a hard pill to swallow.
The imagery in the film definitely tried to go more Gothic with skeletal trees and muted colours, even the music was ominous and full of sweeping orchestral scores, so props to them for that. It worked for me. They ended up merging much of the characters into one another, otherwise there would a been a significantly sprawling cast and that also worked for the film. Many of the key major events remained the same, but where as the novel takes place over a few years, it seems that the movie on spans a couple at the most. It made everything seem much more rushed and the character development, especially the townspeople took a serious kicking for it - And the love story! Oy.
Regardless, both the film and the book are worth it for a kick and for Ham's writing. She can pack a lot into a few words or a sentence as Jane pointed out in our meeting. I would also recommend reading the book before watching the film. Some stuff is better explained in the novel than in the film and it definitely helped when the film seemed to be lacking or like it was going nowhere.
UP NEXT: Jane's choice for January was The Night Circus. I am really excited for this one as it was on the list from my last book club and no one ever picked it. I've heard so many excellent reviews about this book and I'm crossing my fingers it will be the first one we all like since this club started back in September!
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