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trisha_thomas's review against another edition
5.0
I actually read this book quite a while ago, but it has stuck with me. I really loved this book.
Maybe because I am a survivor. My father changed afterwards as well. I still think he has a tough time looking me in the eyes because he feels somehow he failed me (because he couldn't protect me).
I think this book is a painfully true account of how a family handles something so real and awful. You look at the pain and destruction square in the face with this book and when you're done, you know it's changed you.
And when something like an attack shakes the foundation of a family, you just never know how each person will take it. Each person handles it in their own way ~ whether right or wrong.
Maybe because I am a survivor. My father changed afterwards as well. I still think he has a tough time looking me in the eyes because he feels somehow he failed me (because he couldn't protect me).
I think this book is a painfully true account of how a family handles something so real and awful. You look at the pain and destruction square in the face with this book and when you're done, you know it's changed you.
And when something like an attack shakes the foundation of a family, you just never know how each person will take it. Each person handles it in their own way ~ whether right or wrong.
skrrtvonnegut's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I found this to be one of the more remarkable examples of building characters, describing their interior lives, and letting the reader live alongside them and their decisions, all in incredibly realistic and moving ways. Your heart breaks for (some of) these Mulvaneys, and those vivid renderings of their thoughts, as these events unfold, elicit even deeper empathy throughout. It's one of those works where, though I cannot personally imagine making some of the choices this family does, being guided through the story on their thoughts and subtle actions makes them seem all but destined to happen. "It's the way families are, sometimes. A thing goes wrong and no one knows how to fix it and years pass and--no one knows how to fix it."
oregon_small_fry's review against another edition
I'm giving her another go against my better judgment.
But I can't pass up a book that is only like fifty cents. I am a sucker.
But I can't pass up a book that is only like fifty cents. I am a sucker.
mrsfligs's review against another edition
3.0
2 words that describe the book―Family implosion
3 setting where the book took place or characters I met
• Setting: Mt. Ephraim, New York, with the story spanning from 1976 until 1999
• Marianne Mulvaney is the only daughter in the big boisterous Mulvaney family. Religious and sensitive, Marinanne is a pretty and popular girl who is fond of her three brothers, a good daughter to her mother, and beloved by her father. When something bad happens to Marianne after a Valentine’s Day dance, the repercussions tear the family apart and thrust Marianne out into the the big, cold world with only her faith and the love for her family to keep her whole.
• Judd Mulvaney is the youngest of the Mulvaney boys. Only a small child when events tear his family asunder, Judd attempts to make his family whole again by telling the Mulvaney family history and bringing the love that they have kept hidden back out into the open.
4 things I liked or disliked about the book
• I liked all the little details of family life that Oates brings into the story―from the family bulletin board in the kitchen to the way the family uses the main staircase. These details brought the book alive and made it feel authentic and real.
• I liked how Oates takes her time telling the story of the Mulvaney family. The family is split apart so completely that bridging the chasms that have grown up between them would have to take place slowly and gradually. Oates handles this story of family forgiveness and division delicately and realistically, with all the steps forward and backward such a reconciliation would take.
• I liked how Oates created the feel and personality of a small town, where everyone knows everyone’s business and you are defined by your place within the community, who your siblings are, and where your home is located. Just like in Richard Russo’s Empire Falls, the town of Mt. Ephraim becomes a presence in the book.
• I disliked how Oates chose to have Judd be the all-knowing narrator of the book, including having a little disclaimer about how he would know the inner workings of everyone’s experiences and minds. I just didn’t think this device was needed and was a bit distracting. It seemed to me the book would have worked just as well (if not better) with a multiple narrator format. In addition, every so often there would be this jarring use of exclamation points, which started to really get under my skin.
5 stars or less for my rating:
I’m giving the book 3.5 stars (saw flashes of genius but didn’t work for me). I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I often felt like the story was plodding along. Although I give Oates credit for writing a realistic portrayal of family life and reconciliation, I found myself getting antsy at the mid-point of the book. Plus it bothered me that we’d spend a long time with some of the characters, and then they’d just disappear for extended periods. This was my first Joyce Carol Oates book, and I don’t know how representative it is of her writing. I know she is revered as An Important Author, but I just didn’t get drawn into this book as I thought I might. However, if you like realistic portrayals of family life and love (with all its shades and nuances), this book might be very rewarding for you.
3 setting where the book took place or characters I met
• Setting: Mt. Ephraim, New York, with the story spanning from 1976 until 1999
• Marianne Mulvaney is the only daughter in the big boisterous Mulvaney family. Religious and sensitive, Marinanne is a pretty and popular girl who is fond of her three brothers, a good daughter to her mother, and beloved by her father. When something bad happens to Marianne after a Valentine’s Day dance, the repercussions tear the family apart and thrust Marianne out into the the big, cold world with only her faith and the love for her family to keep her whole.
• Judd Mulvaney is the youngest of the Mulvaney boys. Only a small child when events tear his family asunder, Judd attempts to make his family whole again by telling the Mulvaney family history and bringing the love that they have kept hidden back out into the open.
4 things I liked or disliked about the book
• I liked all the little details of family life that Oates brings into the story―from the family bulletin board in the kitchen to the way the family uses the main staircase. These details brought the book alive and made it feel authentic and real.
• I liked how Oates takes her time telling the story of the Mulvaney family. The family is split apart so completely that bridging the chasms that have grown up between them would have to take place slowly and gradually. Oates handles this story of family forgiveness and division delicately and realistically, with all the steps forward and backward such a reconciliation would take.
• I liked how Oates created the feel and personality of a small town, where everyone knows everyone’s business and you are defined by your place within the community, who your siblings are, and where your home is located. Just like in Richard Russo’s Empire Falls, the town of Mt. Ephraim becomes a presence in the book.
• I disliked how Oates chose to have Judd be the all-knowing narrator of the book, including having a little disclaimer about how he would know the inner workings of everyone’s experiences and minds. I just didn’t think this device was needed and was a bit distracting. It seemed to me the book would have worked just as well (if not better) with a multiple narrator format. In addition, every so often there would be this jarring use of exclamation points, which started to really get under my skin.
5 stars or less for my rating:
I’m giving the book 3.5 stars (saw flashes of genius but didn’t work for me). I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I often felt like the story was plodding along. Although I give Oates credit for writing a realistic portrayal of family life and reconciliation, I found myself getting antsy at the mid-point of the book. Plus it bothered me that we’d spend a long time with some of the characters, and then they’d just disappear for extended periods. This was my first Joyce Carol Oates book, and I don’t know how representative it is of her writing. I know she is revered as An Important Author, but I just didn’t get drawn into this book as I thought I might. However, if you like realistic portrayals of family life and love (with all its shades and nuances), this book might be very rewarding for you.
100122's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
crypuppy's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
moirab71's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars.
I had high hopes for this book but unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations. Long-winded and disjointed in parts, it’s one redeeming feature was the gradual demise of the father figure which was well recounted and vividly depicted.
I had high hopes for this book but unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations. Long-winded and disjointed in parts, it’s one redeeming feature was the gradual demise of the father figure which was well recounted and vividly depicted.
thetenaciousbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
I really struggled with this one. It started out really strong and then halfway through it dragged on and on, with no real direction to the plot. The Mulvaney daughter is exiled from her family and everything she's known because her father can't deal with the fact that his daughter was date raped. Yet we never really understand his process or hers, or how anyone in this family feels about anything. I think this book had a great opportunity to really explore the nuances of how families deal with and process when a loved one is assaulted and brutalized, but instead the characters were lost in this grandiose notion and collective identity of 'The Mulvaneys'. But even that is vague and expressed at the end of the book when the narrator is confused by the statement that they all look like such Mulvaneys? What does it even mean to be a Mulvaney, much less an individual within the Mulvaney family? Character development was weak and I was underwhelmed by the ending of the story. The father dies from drinking himself to death and the book ends with the family joyfully reunited at a July 4th barbecue. The central characters are alienated from their own stories by a narrator who, to no fault of his own, knows nothing about their journeys and hardships. I'm aware that these are intentional decisions by the author, but I had a really hard time with this book. I hated the characters because I didn't get to know them well enough.
karieh13's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book - but I HATE this family (except for the daughter). And because I HATE this family? I don't like the book as much. Sorry, but that's the way I work.