Girl Factory: A Memoir - Hardcover

"Karen Dietrich can stop your heart with a sentence. The Girl Factory is fierce and lyrical, more memorable with every page. And somehow, in setting forth the still-smoking particulars of her girlhood in a Pennsylvania factory town, she reminds us how alike we all are, and how human. This book is stunning-a glinting, piercing wonder."-Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife"The raising of girls through the prism of men's desire becomes an unsettling, suspenseful theme in this affecting first work... Dietrich works beautifully by understatement, allowing her subtle clues to paint a terrifying world for the innocent protagonist." -Publishers Weekly "Poetically written and urgently paced, The Girl Factory is the haunting story of a small-town girl finding her place in a family with big-time secrets. Karen Dietrich brings an original voice to her indelible tale." -Janice Erlbaum, author of Girlbomb and Have You Found Her "Exquisitely written in delicious language and detail; Dietrich's The Girl Factory evokes the best kind of memoir writing." -Domingo Martinez, author of the New York Times bestseller The Boy Kings of Texas "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."-Booklist

A lyrical, finely crafted, and absolutely absorbing coming-of-age memoir about a young girl from a Pennsylvania factory town. After a shooting at the local factory where her parents work, eight-year-old Karen finds comfort in obsessive rituals and superstitions. As the years pass, she begins to understand her mother's unusual behavior and their complicated relationship until a shocking discovery shatters her world and disturbing memories begin to surface.