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She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs
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About This Book
Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities—and strengths—of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving. In her family, she writes, "country music was foremost a language among women. It's how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren't discussed." And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton. Smarsh challenged a typically male vision of the rural working class with her first book, Heartland, starring the bold, hard-luck women who raised her. Now, in She Come By It Natural, originally published in a four-part series for The Journal of Roots Music, No Depression, Smarsh explores the overlooked contributions to social progress by such women—including those averse to the term "feminism"—as exemplified by Dolly Parton's life and art. Far beyond the recently resurrected "Jolene" or quintessential "9 to 5," Parton's songs for decades have validated women who go unheard: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the struggling mother disparaged as "trailer trash." Parton's broader career—from singing on the front porch of her family's cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains to achieving stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from "girl singer" managed by powerful men to leader of a self-made business and philanthropy empire—offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture. Infused with Smarsh's trademark insight, intelligence, and humanity, She Come By It Natural is a sympathetic tribute to the icon Dolly Parton and—call it whatever you like—the organic feminism she embodies.
Reviews
"This book is a kind of reclamation project, beginning with that typecast persona ..."
"[Smarsh] is well placed to understand how Parton sang directly to rural women about unwanted pregnancies and cheating men, about hard work and escaping intolerable situations ..."
"A highly readable treat for music and feminist scholars as well as Parton's legion of fans."
"...an ambitious book that explores what Parton represents for the rural poor women often left out of social justice movements."
"Smarsh probes (though not too deeply) into the problematic aspects of a few shows at Dollywood, and tries to unravel the connection between Parton's business smarts, her acceptance (and proud display) of her own sexuality and the feminism she has been reluctant to (publicly) embrace."
"A small, fun, and insightful book, She Come By It Natural can be enjoyed on its own or as a perfect companion to Marsh's Heartland."
"The most vivid character in She Come By It Natural, though, is Smarsh's Grandma Betty ..."
"In this affectionate and astute cultural study, Smarsh...shines a light on Dolly Parton's struggles and path to becoming the queen of country music ..."
"a bracing personal account that celebrates how Ms."
"Like a modern-day Mae West, Parton is endlessly quotable and fun to read about, but the book is also enriched by its glimpses of the women in Smarsh's Kansan family, especially her grandmother, Betty, whose way of talking she borrowed for her title."
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