Allison's work exemplifies true exhilaration

With the success of "Bastard Out Of Carolina" in 1992, Dorothy Allison knew that she wanted to continue writing about Southern families.

Allison also wanted to test her writing skills in her newest novel, "Cavedweller," by encompassing a more generational story about families while remaining concentrated on the mother/daughter relationship.

"Cavedweller," centers around Delia Byrd, who fled from her violent husband, and, in the process, abandoned her two daughters.

Ten years later, Delia, who had been living in California as a singer, returned to Georgia with her daughter Cissy in order to "get her girls back." Delia's daughters resisted their mother's love and the story unfolds as Cissy and Delia both fought their way into the town of Cayro, Ga.

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"I was thinking that I wanted to write a novel about sisters who hated each other, but eventually liked each other," Allison said. "I discovered that Delia (who was desperate at the beginning of the novel) was not going to die as soon as I had her down. Soon she was doing a fast geographic move. She needed to get her girls back. Then the girls become more of the focus of the story, but nothing really happens without Delia."

Allison said that the story is full of symbolism. While caving, a sport in which one must battle narrow spaces and face complete darkness, "Cissy goes through a kind of rebirth. In the cave, Cissy feels safe and she becomes grown up and redefines herself. The cave is definitely a metaphor for a lot of things," Allison said.

Through her novel, Allison said she hoped to communicate "how redemption works and how the characters forgive each other."

Allison said she wanted to emphasize the interactions between women. "It's very important to see that Delia would have redemption," Allison said. "I wanted to write something about women's relationships.

Delia has close women friends who make things possible for her to survive in Cayro, a town that very much blames Delia for leaving her daughters."

Allison prefers writing novels to short stories and essays. "I like a large landscape to create characters and follow them out," she said.

The author admitted that she has a tendency to put a bit of herself in her characters. "Delia's oldest girl, Amanda, is totally obsessive. I'm exactly like that," Allison said.

Her fascination with writing keeps her motivated. "It's the drunken glory of it," she said.

"There are moments in which the sheer exhilaration of writing, the characters actually start writing and the characters start speaking. It doesn't happen all of the time. It is only momentary. Sex is like that. You work and work and the orgasm is small (in comparison to the work)."

04-16-98