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abaugher's review against another edition
4.0
Joyce Carol Oates' life story, and the stories of those she knew and loved. Very nice.
pbraue13's review against another edition
3.0
A decent and simple look at parts of this author's adolescence, mainly focused on her relationship with her parents. They are, by far, the heart of this book. It is not so much a true memoir of a life, but rather small looks at things that influenced Oates as a writer and shaped her, yet I felt that the writer herself was never really revealed fully. I guess she wasn't meant to? I don't know. What I do know is that I liked what I read, but was left a little bit wanting. I have noticed that sometimes this happens with Joyce Carol Oates and me, either her books are too long and meandering or (in this case) not long enough and it is the ones that are just in between that tickle that sweet spot for me. She's a fabulous writer, no doubt. As a writer myself, this book I think is one I am glad to have read and recommend to other aspiring authors and writers, especially fans of Oates.
marionhoney's review
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
I have had this on my bookshelf for many years having originally acquired it for free. I was reading it to charity shop it, but ended up liking it so much that I am keeping it now to read again one day. She writes, her style is how I imagine I would write if I were to pen a memoir.
There were a couple moments of unexamined antiblackness-in-the-US that didn't sit well with me (imagery of a boy eating watermelon, her proximity to race riots in Detroit). That I wish had been acknowledged or explored further. Also the way she speaks about her autistic sister... I don't want to judge someone's grief and how they process difficult circumstances. But I kept thinking about how much I've been exposed to disability justice in the last year and how this felt so far from that framework. These elements complicated my feelings toward the author for what otherwise was close a 5-star reading experience for me.
There were a couple moments of unexamined antiblackness-in-the-US that didn't sit well with me (imagery of a boy eating watermelon, her proximity to race riots in Detroit). That I wish had been acknowledged or explored further. Also the way she speaks about her autistic sister... I don't want to judge someone's grief and how they process difficult circumstances. But I kept thinking about how much I've been exposed to disability justice in the last year and how this felt so far from that framework. These elements complicated my feelings toward the author for what otherwise was close a 5-star reading experience for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Suicide, Sexism, Racism, Animal cruelty, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Violence, Child abuse, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Cancer, Classism, Sexual violence, Cursing, Dementia, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, and Rape
mcfade28's review against another edition
4.0
A very engaging Autobiography from Joyce Carol Oates. It focuses on her early years, with much time devoted to her childhood, a pet chicken, flying in a glider with her father and the sad death of a friend. Despite not knowing much about the author before I found it very compelling, and look forward to picking up more of her books in future.
amymo73's review against another edition
5.0
Some books hit you at the right time. Or you pick them up at the right time. I'm not sure which it is, but that was definitely the case with this memoir from Joyce Carol Oates. I've known about Joyce Carole Oates my whole life. How could I not, growing up in Lockport (not quite her native city, but close enough) and longing to be a writer myself. I have not read many (any?) of her novels and find myself drawn more to her short stories and non-fiction. That being said, I was excited for the opportunity to read her memoir of growing up in the same general area I did a few decades before me.
The memoir is rich with stories, of course, but also rich with feeling. Regardless of where you grew up or when you grew up, she examines the landscape of her childhood which drew me into examining my own. I found myself recalling long drives with my parent, the activities which drew me close to them and childhood/college friends whose lives intersected with mine and left huge imprints on my world view, even if I don't fully comprehend how.
Through her own stories, she weaves some powerful thoughts on memory and how we all construct, or reconstruct, our childhood.
Also, Joyce Carol Oates uses plenty of sentence fragments and inserts explanations/digressions in parenthesis which is so very much how I write I feel a kinship with her on the page. A very distant kinship (as I never became the writer I so longed to be) but a kinship nonetheless.
"We learn our awe of the world as children staring eagerly out the windows of a moving vehicle."
"What is vivid in memory is .. not routine but what violates routine. ... The fact is -- We have forgotten most of our lives. All of our landscapes are soon lost in time."
"We are all in dread that we will be loved less if we are revealed to be flawed -- surely sometimes that dread is not misplaced."
"In life, we don't see the shadows of things-to-come. It is always high noon, and we are likely to be blinded by such brightness."
The memoir is rich with stories, of course, but also rich with feeling. Regardless of where you grew up or when you grew up, she examines the landscape of her childhood which drew me into examining my own. I found myself recalling long drives with my parent, the activities which drew me close to them and childhood/college friends whose lives intersected with mine and left huge imprints on my world view, even if I don't fully comprehend how.
Through her own stories, she weaves some powerful thoughts on memory and how we all construct, or reconstruct, our childhood.
Also, Joyce Carol Oates uses plenty of sentence fragments and inserts explanations/digressions in parenthesis which is so very much how I write I feel a kinship with her on the page. A very distant kinship (as I never became the writer I so longed to be) but a kinship nonetheless.
"We learn our awe of the world as children staring eagerly out the windows of a moving vehicle."
"What is vivid in memory is .. not routine but what violates routine. ... The fact is -- We have forgotten most of our lives. All of our landscapes are soon lost in time."
"We are all in dread that we will be loved less if we are revealed to be flawed -- surely sometimes that dread is not misplaced."
"In life, we don't see the shadows of things-to-come. It is always high noon, and we are likely to be blinded by such brightness."
bkish's review against another edition
5.0
I read many of Joyce Carol Oates books and will continue. This is her memoir not her autobiography. It is Outstanding. She is so so authentically herself. She begins with herself as a child in upstate New York on a farm with her family including grandparents. She is Joyce's Happy Chicken as a beginning.
I dont fully understand how she has been able to delve into the lives and psyches of the disturbed. Yes there were some unusual things with her family yet nothing Dark. Most important is her parents loved her and she loved them.
The death of her first husband Raymond Smith after 40 years I know from another book and an interview she did in San Francisco was devastating. Here she says she will not write about it.
From a child she has always been a voracious and deep reader and so so facile gifted with words
Read this book if you are interested in Joyce Carol Oates - written in 2014
I dont fully understand how she has been able to delve into the lives and psyches of the disturbed. Yes there were some unusual things with her family yet nothing Dark. Most important is her parents loved her and she loved them.
The death of her first husband Raymond Smith after 40 years I know from another book and an interview she did in San Francisco was devastating. Here she says she will not write about it.
From a child she has always been a voracious and deep reader and so so facile gifted with words
Read this book if you are interested in Joyce Carol Oates - written in 2014
leasaurusrex's review against another edition
Je ne lis pas d'autobiographie. Vraiment. Je me suis forcée parce que cela faisait partie de mon défi de lecture de l'année, et parce que j'ai apprécié quelques romans de Joyce Carol Oates, alors j'étais curieuse d'en découvrir plus sur cette autrice pleine de succès.
Même si Joyce Carol Oates prend un parti intéressant pour nous présenter un texte pas tellement linéaire, qui ne répond pas non plus à une chronologie bien établie, et qui récupère en plus des textes autobiographiques écris à d'autres occasions, j'ai franchement peiné à m'intéresser à son histoire. Je crois que j'attendais vraiment quelque chose de plus tourné vers l'écriture, vers ses débuts d'écrivaine, vers son rapport à l'écriture l'âge avançant. C'était ce que j'étais venue chercher, moi-même encore apprentie écrivaine, toujours curieuse de découvrir les processus créatifs chez mes consoeurs (et confrères).
Mais Joyce Carol Oates choisit de ne quasiment pas aborder le sujet, à part à de rares occasions, et souvent accompagnées de poncifs généralistes qui me faisaient lever les yeux au ciel. Joyce Carol Oates choisit en fait de se raconter sans parler d'elle. Et c'est un exercice déroutant, car si elle ne raconte pas son métier, si elle ne raconte pas sa vie à part dans les grandes lignes, ce qu'elle nous raconte donne l'impression d'être du vent accompagné d'un peu de poussière. On a des micro-particules de choses qui auraient pu, mais qui finalement ne resteront pas, ni ne graveront leur marque.
Il y a beaucoup de retenue dans cette autobiographie, et ce serait du voyeurisme que de vouloir en connaître plus, mais malheureusement pour moi, je l'ai trouvée passablement creuse. Ce n'est pas celle-ci qui me consolera avec le genre !
Même si Joyce Carol Oates prend un parti intéressant pour nous présenter un texte pas tellement linéaire, qui ne répond pas non plus à une chronologie bien établie, et qui récupère en plus des textes autobiographiques écris à d'autres occasions, j'ai franchement peiné à m'intéresser à son histoire. Je crois que j'attendais vraiment quelque chose de plus tourné vers l'écriture, vers ses débuts d'écrivaine, vers son rapport à l'écriture l'âge avançant. C'était ce que j'étais venue chercher, moi-même encore apprentie écrivaine, toujours curieuse de découvrir les processus créatifs chez mes consoeurs (et confrères).
Mais Joyce Carol Oates choisit de ne quasiment pas aborder le sujet, à part à de rares occasions, et souvent accompagnées de poncifs généralistes qui me faisaient lever les yeux au ciel. Joyce Carol Oates choisit en fait de se raconter sans parler d'elle. Et c'est un exercice déroutant, car si elle ne raconte pas son métier, si elle ne raconte pas sa vie à part dans les grandes lignes, ce qu'elle nous raconte donne l'impression d'être du vent accompagné d'un peu de poussière. On a des micro-particules de choses qui auraient pu, mais qui finalement ne resteront pas, ni ne graveront leur marque.
Il y a beaucoup de retenue dans cette autobiographie, et ce serait du voyeurisme que de vouloir en connaître plus, mais malheureusement pour moi, je l'ai trouvée passablement creuse. Ce n'est pas celle-ci qui me consolera avec le genre !