A review by pbraue13
The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates

3.0

An interesting Gothic novel that is the final one in Joyce Carol Oates' proposed "Gothic Quartet" that mixes real life historical figures like Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland, Mark Twain, Jack London, and Upton Sinclair into a fictional world set on Princeton campus in New Jersey. It is a sprawling familial saga in ways and also a horror story which uses the "curse" on the people in it as a metaphor for the coming sociopolitical change in the United States at the time. It was an interesting romp and the historical figures were fun to toy with (especially since many of them I believe were caricatures of themselves behaving in the most over-the-top or melodramatic of ways), but I had a bit of a problem in how the story was told as it hindered my reading process; thus, making what would have been a four or even five star review a 3.5/5 instead. It is told from the perspective of a historian compiling information on the events which transpired and the meandering (oft times unnecessary) footnotes and details about people or events that had nothing to do with what I was reading had my eyes sometimes glazing over. Again, Oates tends to overwrite and loses the plot/reader at points. But it was blurbed by Stephen King so I thought, "it cannot be all bad" and I/Stephen King was right. Like "Bellefleur", Oates blended magical realism in easily with demon lovers and fairy kingdoms easily finding their way into this supposedly historical text. That element had me enraptured, helping me plod through the less fun sections. If you want an atmospheric, gothic, historical novel set against the autumn of academia this is one for you.