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okenwillow's review against another edition
5.0
Joyce Carol Oates fait ici ce qu’elle sait faire de mieux en plongeant à nouveau dans les méandres de la société américaine. Au travers de la correspondance d’une ancienne étudiante fictive, l’auteur retrace son parcours chaotique, ses origines modestes, son enfance dans la misère de Detroit, pour illustrer une réalité pesante.
[Vous pouvez lire la suite sur mon blog, merci :)]
[Vous pouvez lire la suite sur mon blog, merci :)]
ashleyhoss820's review
3.0
I really struggled with rating this book. I think it's really more of a 3.5 star rating for me. There were times when I absolutely could not put this book down...and there were times when I got annoyed with the "Everything's empty. I'm empty. I feel nothing. Life is meaningless" rhetoric. I suppose that's more a personal opinion because I have no sympathy for characters/people like Maureen. But so many characters having almost the same emotions? I dunno. I also had a hard time with all the missing space. Huge chunks of time seemed to be missing. ("Wait...when did Howard get back from the war How'd he find them?) And for the love of all that's holy, WHAT HAPPENED WITH BETTY!? OR RANDOLPH!? OR NADINE!? Overall, I did enjoy the book, and it was just on the edge of REALLY liking it.
edboies's review
4.0
I read this in Austin. I remember doing this on a beautiful day Les Ami (RIP). I hated the cover and put a photo of a Genie on instead. The book was good, impeccable, but I think she is better in smaller doses than a long novel like this. I have gone to Detroit since.
quoththegirl's review
1.0
Someone, somewhere, sometime ago recommended Them by Joyce Carol Oates to me. I have no idea who, so I don't know at whom to be miffed right now. I know Oates has won various literary awards and is supposed to be really good, but...ugh. I'm maybe 150 pages in, and so far it's sordid in a terribly dull way. It's not shocking or anything, it's just very blandly ugly. 500 pages of that may be more than I care to suffer through, but I'll at least give it a bit longer to get its act together.
Update: I finished Them, and if I ever recall who recommended that book to me, there will be hell to pay. So bleak, and no redeeming qualities to the bleakness. Full of Detroit-hate and half-alive people. Comparing this book to one of Bradbury's stories, it's as if Them is only capable of describing a tiny, dismal sliver of human experience, as though it doesn't even know anything else exists. Also, for the love of all that's holy, there should be a limit on how many times you're allowed to use the word "damp" in a book.
Update: I finished Them, and if I ever recall who recommended that book to me, there will be hell to pay. So bleak, and no redeeming qualities to the bleakness. Full of Detroit-hate and half-alive people. Comparing this book to one of Bradbury's stories, it's as if Them is only capable of describing a tiny, dismal sliver of human experience, as though it doesn't even know anything else exists. Also, for the love of all that's holy, there should be a limit on how many times you're allowed to use the word "damp" in a book.
lolaleviathan's review
3.0
them is like nothing I've ever read, really. Sometimes I feel like Oates is describing another planet. Maybe it's just another century.
As a reading experience, though, I'm tempted to compare it to The Corrections. Both are sprawling, absorbing realistic novels with a similar project: to explore the lives of ordinary people so deeply and precisely that the reader realizes there are no ordinary people. These characters are as alive as you and me, and as remarkable, tragic, surprising, brutal and fascinating as all people are underneath. They are sympathetic even when they are far from likable, and the third-person narration flashes between consciousnesses at hummingbird speed.
Of course, Oates's tone is wildly different from Franzen's, which I'd wager is as much a function of era as personality. Franzen is never far from satire, but Oates's gritty, Gothic seriousness, with its sudden flashes of intensity, reminds me of other socially conscious '60s novels: since James Baldwin is my area of expertise, I flashed on him, but I think there are a lot of novels from that era that have a similar tone. It has a slightly dated feel. In fact, it also reminds me of something much older: Look Homeward, Angel, and I'm also getting a possible D.H. Lawrence influence.
As a reading experience, though, I'm tempted to compare it to The Corrections. Both are sprawling, absorbing realistic novels with a similar project: to explore the lives of ordinary people so deeply and precisely that the reader realizes there are no ordinary people. These characters are as alive as you and me, and as remarkable, tragic, surprising, brutal and fascinating as all people are underneath. They are sympathetic even when they are far from likable, and the third-person narration flashes between consciousnesses at hummingbird speed.
Of course, Oates's tone is wildly different from Franzen's, which I'd wager is as much a function of era as personality. Franzen is never far from satire, but Oates's gritty, Gothic seriousness, with its sudden flashes of intensity, reminds me of other socially conscious '60s novels: since James Baldwin is my area of expertise, I flashed on him, but I think there are a lot of novels from that era that have a similar tone. It has a slightly dated feel. In fact, it also reminds me of something much older: Look Homeward, Angel, and I'm also getting a possible D.H. Lawrence influence.
danbydame's review
3.0
Anyone who knows me knows I am a JCO fan. So please take that into account when weighing my review.
Quick summary. them is a portrayal of the other side of post WWII America. We all know about the Donna Reed, Dick Van Dyke, Father Knows Best idea of what life in our country should have been in the 50s and 60s. This is the flip side of that coin -- the ugly bit of city life for the (sometimes) working poor.
But don't go looking for the main characters to be redeemed, to save themselves from their circumstances. Small spoiler here: they all take what they can get, without too much worries about how. It's survival mode. It's ugly. It's violent.
The story and setting are nothing particularly unique. But it's written by JCO, which makes all the difference. Oates is fearless. She dives into the twisted, bruised psyches of her characters like a cliff diver diving for pearls. She jumps into that pool of water with no tether, no lifeline, no idea how deep the water is or if she'll make it back to the surface. And as she is rocketing downward to the darkest deepest regions, she has you, her reader, firmly in her grip. Can you hold your breath that long (and I do think you almost hold your breath reading some particularly intense passages)? Or do you have to look away from the page, come up for air?
There were things that bothered me. Actual dialogue seemed uncomfortable, or uneven, or maybe unlikely? I'm not sure how to describe it, but I definitely found it odd. And at times, motives and emotions were alluded to where I think I needed more in order to "get" it.
And I learned something! Wikipedia Detroit riots. I've heard of them, but never really looked into them.
Quick summary. them is a portrayal of the other side of post WWII America. We all know about the Donna Reed, Dick Van Dyke, Father Knows Best idea of what life in our country should have been in the 50s and 60s. This is the flip side of that coin -- the ugly bit of city life for the (sometimes) working poor.
But don't go looking for the main characters to be redeemed, to save themselves from their circumstances. Small spoiler here: they all take what they can get, without too much worries about how. It's survival mode. It's ugly. It's violent.
The story and setting are nothing particularly unique. But it's written by JCO, which makes all the difference. Oates is fearless. She dives into the twisted, bruised psyches of her characters like a cliff diver diving for pearls. She jumps into that pool of water with no tether, no lifeline, no idea how deep the water is or if she'll make it back to the surface. And as she is rocketing downward to the darkest deepest regions, she has you, her reader, firmly in her grip. Can you hold your breath that long (and I do think you almost hold your breath reading some particularly intense passages)? Or do you have to look away from the page, come up for air?
There were things that bothered me. Actual dialogue seemed uncomfortable, or uneven, or maybe unlikely? I'm not sure how to describe it, but I definitely found it odd. And at times, motives and emotions were alluded to where I think I needed more in order to "get" it.
And I learned something! Wikipedia Detroit riots. I've heard of them, but never really looked into them.
yulelogue's review
2.0
I wish I got to know those characters that were introduced and sorta just written off the face of the planet.
ericka_reads's review
4.0
Joyce Carol Oates is not for everyone! Mostly, she writes books about characters you would avoid in life, but can't turn away from when their lives are laid out on the pages. I thought Them really sunk it's teeth into what it means to be human. The characters are like so many people living in the world today. Oates is a great storyteller, even when you may not care for the story she is telling. I have really enjoyed the Wonderland series, even though Them is not my favorite book from it.
myrthekorf's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75