Girl Factory

June 10, 2013
The raising of girls through the prism of men’s desire becomes an unsettling, suspenseful theme in this affecting first work by journalist Dietrich, who is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg. The second daughter to two longtime factory workers at Anchor Glass in rural Connellsville, Pa., Dietrich spun fantasies of grandeur while suffering the dark moods of her efficient, no-nonsense mother, who believed her daughter was destined for a greatness that would somehow justify their harsh, toilsome daily lives. Her mother’s suspicious nature (underscored by chapters titled as farmer’s wives’ sayings like “A Knife Under the Bed Will Cut the Pain”) seemed borne out by the senseless murders by a rogue worker of four supervisors at the Anchor factory in 1985, as well as the sudden illness of her beloved nextdoor neighbor and playmate, Samuel. Enrolled in a gifted program at her school, Dietrich found herself mostly friendless and awkward, despite the hopes of her mother; Dietrich found comfort in masturbation early on, discovered by her mother in a terrible scene of castigation that surely reveals her mother’s own secret sexual wounds. Indeed, Dietrich works beautifully by understatement, allowing her subtle clues to paint a terrifying world for the innocent protagonist.

October 15, 2013
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)