it drove me to the internet to try to see the paintings, which I didn't feel the same passion for as the author obviously did.
It's an odd combination of history , art appreciation and true crime ( )

Across this forsaken, boulder-strewn earth, the Ipswich soldiers searched for an enemy that existed only in the minds of a handful of Gloucester men: there were no French or Indian attackers on Cape Ann that 1692 summer. Nor have there been any since. Ebenezer Babson and his neighbors were all suffering from a collective dellusion that historians believe was an extension of the hysteria that consumed the nearby town of Salem with its witchcraft trials that very same year. ( )

Knowing just a little about Dogtown and feeling drawn to it, I was excited to find this book last weekend on a clearance table in a Sherman's (locals all know they are great!). I cracked it open a day or 2 later and was immediately anxious about the focus. The author spent a great deal of time on a real and horrible crime that happened in Dogtown in 1984, going deeply into the families of both murderer and victim as well as the murderer's psyche and many details of the crime and trial. She also had a near obsession with an artist who found his salvation during a time of personal crisis by healing and painting the very woods and stones of Dogtown. She spent a good deal of time on this artist's path and her own. It took a couple chapters before I was feeling more comfortable but gradually I was not wanting to put the book down. The attention to the details and the way she was able to tie the far past right in to the present and down the whole line of years was stunning...it was like the teasing apart of a complex tangled rope. From the glacier that deposited the boulders across the landscape through settlement, loss, growth, devastation, neglect, inspiration and a spiritual pull that many feel but are unable to explain it all was connected and beautifully observed. I would suggest this book as a read to nearly anyone with an interest in history or social change...and true crime. The last part is why I didn't give the whole 5 stars...though very well written, I chafed...I'm just not comfortable with the true crime genre. ( )

Although occasionally the writing is a bit over dramatic, this book is a fascinating look at how an obscure geographical spot can affect so many lives. The last line sums it up: "are not the place itself and people's perceptions one and the same?" Of course, now I want to go get lost in Dogtown (and emerge from it in one piece, hopefully)! ( )

Chronicle of a murder in Dogtown, Gloucester, MA ( )