About this title: In upstate New York, the Mulvaneys are a wealthy and magnetic family--attractive, charismatic, promising. But after 25 years, the family begins to slide, then fragment, then shatter, and soon there is nothing left of the dynasty. Judd, the youngest of the clan, begins to search for the reasons behind the downfall, and as he uncovers family secrets ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 09/1996
ISBN-13:9780525942238ISBN:0525942238
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 464 p. read more
"This was one of the best books I've read in a long long time. Something about it really touched a chord with me. The family's treatment of Marianne after her rape was appalling (from all sides, but particularly the parents.) JCO really makes you hate Mike Mulvaney Sr., and to a certain extent Corrine, for the exile and banishment of Marianne, but then at the end she sort of brings you around to feel more pity for them than anything else. The scope of the book broke my heart - just the general story of a really happy family destroyed by one incident and never being able to pick up the pieces of they were - the Mulvaneys. You get inside most character's heads for a little while (Mike Jr. the least) and start to feel like you are a part of the story. There is something reminiscient in the whole book, every story and incident is told through nostalgia-colored glasses - "can you believe this became the Mulvaneys, this is who we ARE, compared to who we WERE?"
It's not necessarily a "light" read but it also goes pretty fast. An excellent book."
"I moved through several phases in reading this book, my first by Joyce Carol Oates. I liked it to begin with, because I could closely identify with the kinds of issues confronted by the Mulvaney kids in small town America in the 60's and 70's. As the novel progressed, I found myself increasingly unsympathetic with the characters of both parents, because I could not imagine letting things spin out of control to such a degree that it impacted the welfare of the children so severely. This feeling held for a good bit of the book as the individual coming of age dramas of the children developed. I could find logical consistencies in the character development, but, of course, life is not always logical, and I just could not accept the seeming impotence of both parents to stem the downward spiral of the family.
Ultimately, I would say that I came to like the book and I am certainly glad that I read it. It does make a strong case for family and for maintaining the integrity of family. It provided a testament to the value of family and offered a hopeful outcome. As an only, my view of family is relatively narrow, but once again, I am glad to have read the book, and I think it has much to offer for those of my generation (I am 63) and our children."
"Continuing my exploration of JCO, I picked this up because it's a title that's referenced in many reviews and book jackets as one of her best works. It's the tale of a perfect, happy family and the one event that turned their perfect happiness into a years-long sludgy mess of pain, non-communication, and destruction.
The good: Oates has a lovely way of moving through time; back and forth, back and forth, she moves from present to past, working the way our minds do, recalling events, even seemingly meaningless ones, and showing how the past still lingers in the people we are today.
The bad: I agree with other Goodreads reviewers that some of the characters seem to be manipulated a bit by the author -- they get bent out of shape (or back into shape) in ways I'm not prepared for, and I don't understand why people are doing the things they do. Also, Oates' tendency toward excessive detail, as I noticed in The Gravedigger's Daughter, tried my patience at times.
The worst: It's just sad. Year by year, the family's pain is described in excruciating detail. I almost wanted to get a counselor for myself, so long did I flounder in the Mulvaneys' agony. Yet when good things do happen, they seem to appear out of nowhere, inexplicably, as if it were just the passing of time that made them come. Specifically I am speaking about a revelation about the daughter, Marianne. The entire book is devoted to a tragic event in her life, and we see the devastating effects this event has on her. Then a GREAT thing happens, and we learn of it the epilogue. Here was the chance for great detail, great relish, and great resurgence of hope. I'm sad that it was essentially footnoted. THAT'S what I wanted to spend chapters reading about -- not how a family self-destructs in the wake of tragedy, but how it recovers from said destruction.
I'm not giving up on Oates though. One friend informed me that I've ready two of her saddest books (by chance). So, next will be You Must Remember This and Foxfire, which apparently aren't so damn depressing."
"Hmm, yet another time that I've wished for a half-star system on goodreads. I would actually give this book 2 and a half stars, so I rounded up. It was an interesting narration, since the story was told from the perspective of the youngest sibling in the family, who has conveniently (or perhaps therapeutically) become a journalist. This book was somewhat bleak and depressing at times, and I almost chucked onto the (figurative) pile with "Gravedigger's Daughter" (same author, see review), but I hung in there because the characters were somehow more likable. Neurotic, mostly, but still somewhat likable, I guess...
I have to admit that this book was a lot like watching a reality TV show. Some part of your brain keeps reminding you that it's a waste of time, that you could be doing/reading something better, but then another part wants to see/read the resolution.
So, finally take on it? Eh. It was so-so. If you see this book for $1 on the bargain rack, or even better, borrow it from the library or a friend, it's an ok read, with a decent ending and somewhat memorable characters (I liked the wacky vet). And that's all the time I want to give this review of a mediocre book. So there."
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