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A review by debshelf
A Fair Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates
2.0
Oates is always a bit hit or miss for me; I've always preferred her short stories to her novels/novellas. That being said, if you handed me this book without any form of identification and asked me to name the author, I would probably have gotten it in one or two guesses. Oates has a very particular style and the same themes of gender, sexuality and power run through all of her works that I've read.
More than anything, Oates' observations regarding female/male relationships and cultural perception always feel spot-on, to me. There's a part in chapter three of this novel where Katya thinks about the difference between women and men where she says something to the extent of "men can be many things, not just their body. Women are only their bodies." This is maybe the part of the novel that stuck with me the most, especially since it seems to keep reappearing in the relationships between Katya and every other character in the book. The women fear her and disdain her because of her beauty, the men--even Marcus Kidder, who proclaims her his soul's mate--see only her physical being.
I wouldn't say this is an enjoyable book to read if only because the sinister feel of it that's present from the very beginning. From the moment Kidder approaches Katya at the beginning of the story, we have an inkling of his intentions and that inkling sticks with us as a sinister unsettling feeling until the end.
What I liked most about the novel was that it didn't end as expected, and I found the last few pages quite beautiful with their dream-like atmosphere.
More than anything, Oates' observations regarding female/male relationships and cultural perception always feel spot-on, to me. There's a part in chapter three of this novel where Katya thinks about the difference between women and men where she says something to the extent of "men can be many things, not just their body. Women are only their bodies." This is maybe the part of the novel that stuck with me the most, especially since it seems to keep reappearing in the relationships between Katya and every other character in the book. The women fear her and disdain her because of her beauty, the men--even Marcus Kidder, who proclaims her his soul's mate--see only her physical being.
I wouldn't say this is an enjoyable book to read if only because the sinister feel of it that's present from the very beginning. From the moment Kidder approaches Katya at the beginning of the story, we have an inkling of his intentions and that inkling sticks with us as a sinister unsettling feeling until the end.
What I liked most about the novel was that it didn't end as expected, and I found the last few pages quite beautiful with their dream-like atmosphere.