Reviews

I kept reading hoping that something would catch my interest, but I felt after 200 pages there was still nothing. Too many words and nothing being said.

codercaitlin's review

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

3.5
The point of this book seemed to be to realistically portray modern tragedy. Oates' characters make the reader feel for them strongly. The stories of each character told from an omniscient-type perspective overlap which helps the reader to fully understand each character and situation. While this book does evoke emotion in the reader, it does not do it nearly as much as it has the ability to do. Because there are so many vital characters, a lot of time is devoted to developing each, which gives the reader a full understanding of each family member. While this is important, it did not need to be as abundant as it was.
Run-on sentences were used extensively throughout the book. Possibly, this was to portray quick thought/action, but it was a little awkward and hard to understand sometimes. Because the reader was forced to reread these sentences to figure out what was actually happening, the run-on sentences actually gave the opposite effect, forcing the reader to read more slowly.
Many times during this book I would connect strongly with a character and feel almost like these things were happening to me or someone I knew. Other times, I became frustrated at the choices that they made and that they refused to try to pick themselves up. This is good because it was evoking the proper emotion. This is very similar to real life and made the whole situation much more believable.
When "it" happened to Marianne, I thought "Oh God, not another book about sad teenagers and how terrible our society has become." But, the book ends up focusing on how the family as a whole was effected rather than the victim. This multi-faceted point of view gives a whole new view to rape beyond flat headlines and hour-long documentaries. It helps the reader to understand that such extreme situations do not only permanently scar the victim, but many around them. It shows that they "victim" is not even always the most severely effected. It helps one to understand rape and other such situations in a much more intimate way.
The fact that Judd "narrated" this book was confusing to me. The book as a whole is written more from an omniscient point of view, and his occasional butting-ins seemed to be unnecessary and could easily have been shown through the omniscient point of view. The only reason I can think of for choosing Judd to narrate occasionally is to make him more real. His role in the book is small, so possibly Oates was attempting to help the reader to connect more strongly with this seemingly insignificant character and to truly understand why he was an important piece of the Mulvaney family.