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A review by notoriousagk
The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates
3.0
I feel like this I'm going to love Joyce Carol Oates, though I didn't love this book. I loved the structure of the book, and the narrative voices (all of them, but especially the fussbudget historian). And in general, I liked where I thought this was going.
That a community would try to explain away a rash of acts precipitated by their own worst characteristics as somehow supernatural was fascinating; you see this plenty in history, although I've rarely seen it used to explain away recent American history. Every piece of the puzzle seemed to fit perfectly in that framework; rather than face the repression, or racism, or homophobia, or class hatred, or misogyny, the folks in the community (and the historians who relied on them as sources) invented a "Curse" that deflected blame for their own failings. Annabel Slade runs away and gets pregnant, invents fantastical story to explain it; it's a curse! Josiah Slade suffers tremendously after sister's death; mental anguish must be a curse! Horace Burr assaults his invalid wife (and then Copperstone Slade goes after Lenora)... totally a curse, guys, definitely not misogyny and/or spousal abuse. Dabney Bayard acts on homosexual, then homocidal impulses? Yup, curse. The foreign guy must be a vampire, because it's certainly not possible that a mere mortal could encourage people to act outside the boundaries of what's considered decent by repressed upper-class Princetonian standards.
Except then the whole thing seemed to tilt pretty strongly in favor of the supernatural explanation. So... okay then. It stripped a layer of cleverness and commentary away that I had been really impressed by. Or did it? I don't know.
Pretty sure I'll read more Joyce Carol Oates, though. That woman can write.
That a community would try to explain away a rash of acts precipitated by their own worst characteristics as somehow supernatural was fascinating; you see this plenty in history, although I've rarely seen it used to explain away recent American history. Every piece of the puzzle seemed to fit perfectly in that framework; rather than face the repression, or racism, or homophobia, or class hatred, or misogyny, the folks in the community (and the historians who relied on them as sources) invented a "Curse" that deflected blame for their own failings. Annabel Slade runs away and gets pregnant, invents fantastical story to explain it; it's a curse! Josiah Slade suffers tremendously after sister's death; mental anguish must be a curse! Horace Burr assaults his invalid wife (and then Copperstone Slade goes after Lenora)... totally a curse, guys, definitely not misogyny and/or spousal abuse. Dabney Bayard acts on homosexual, then homocidal impulses? Yup, curse. The foreign guy must be a vampire, because it's certainly not possible that a mere mortal could encourage people to act outside the boundaries of what's considered decent by repressed upper-class Princetonian standards.
Except then the whole thing seemed to tilt pretty strongly in favor of the supernatural explanation. So... okay then. It stripped a layer of cleverness and commentary away that I had been really impressed by. Or did it? I don't know.
Pretty sure I'll read more Joyce Carol Oates, though. That woman can write.