mecross75 's review for:

The Sacrifice by Joyce Carol Oates

4.0

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This novel challenged my prejudices and judgement of a book about black Americans written by a white, female, upper-middle class citizen. I don't have to suppose that was the point and the thesis, (if not the larger thesis, certainly a sub-thesis) of "The Sacrifice." Using a true story to light her way, Oates examines more than anything the human existence, the human capacity for hypocrisy, cruelty, self-promotion and protection, pain, revenge, and survival. Each one of us is a sacrifice at times, if not consistently. Each one of us makes a sacrifice of others. Each one of us must sacrifice those things to which we may egocentrically believe to be an entitlement; pride, rights, feelings, privacy, food, in the pursuit of something to which we deem even more basic, more essential. What will we do for that? What have we done?