I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive: On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton

Starred review from July 4, 2022
Poet Melnick (Refusenik) delivers a riveting blend of cultural criticism and memoir in this paean to Dolly Parton, “an icon of feminine strength.” Melnick first heard Parton at age 14 in 1988 while she was checking into a drug rehabilitation program. Recounting Parton’s “Islands in the Stream,” Melnick writes, “the multifaceted clarity of her voice hooked me instantly.” Two decades later, Melnick found herself in search of Parton again, while vacationing at Parton’s theme park, Dollywood, and working through the “retraumatiz” brought by a book she’d recently published about her trauma (including surviving rape as a child). Though belittled on account of her looks, the multitalented musician and savvy businesswoman’s songs, Melnick argues, reckoned with hard-hitting themes—from a response to patriarchy and rape culture in “Jolene” to a meditation on the pain of poverty in “Coat of Many Colors.” In contemplative prose, Melnick movingly recalls how Parton’s words shepherded her through life: “The Grass Is Blue,” for instance, conjures Melnick’s struggles to protect her preadolescent daughter, while “Little Sparrow” gave her the strength to deal with the return of an abusive ex. In her quest to “be more Dollylike, rising again and again from the embers of expectation,” Melnick offers a gorgeous story of survival and self-discovery. Die-hard Dolly fans won’t want to miss this.