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A review by bookhoarding
The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates
3.0
I call Oates a master of new American Gothic. She doesn't slant toward the Romance genre, but instead beats her own trail that isn't anywhere near what we've read in historical fiction.
The Accursed is written from a historian's perspective about the events surrounding the Princeton elite during the early 1900's. There are author's notes, hints at translations and numerous other accounts that create the feeling that you, the reader, are following the paper trail alongside the author.
The story itself is strange, beguiling and yet captivating. I don't think any descriptions (whether on book sleeves or reviews) really do justice to what this book is. The author is as much of a detective as we are and allows for the strange, metaphysical to be real.
I will say the Sinclair and Wilson chapters were the hardest to get through, and overall the book moved rather slowly. In the defense of the style chosen, going through public record and journals in real life is slow-going. Trying to independently piece together a story from fragments in special collections is something I've had experience with, which is probably why I excuse the sometimes monotonous or pointless passages. It all adds to the authenticity of this fake history. Its ability to appear real is really what make it more haunting than the demons within the pages.
The Accursed is written from a historian's perspective about the events surrounding the Princeton elite during the early 1900's. There are author's notes, hints at translations and numerous other accounts that create the feeling that you, the reader, are following the paper trail alongside the author.
The story itself is strange, beguiling and yet captivating. I don't think any descriptions (whether on book sleeves or reviews) really do justice to what this book is. The author is as much of a detective as we are and allows for the strange, metaphysical to be real.
I will say the Sinclair and Wilson chapters were the hardest to get through, and overall the book moved rather slowly. In the defense of the style chosen, going through public record and journals in real life is slow-going. Trying to independently piece together a story from fragments in special collections is something I've had experience with, which is probably why I excuse the sometimes monotonous or pointless passages. It all adds to the authenticity of this fake history. Its ability to appear real is really what make it more haunting than the demons within the pages.