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Riven Rock
This extraordinary love story, based on historical characters and
written with Boyle's customary brilliance and wit, follows the lives of
two scarred creatures living in a magical age. It is the turn of the
century. Stanley McCormick, the twenty-nine-year-old heir to the great
Reaper fortune, meets and marries Katherine Dexter, a woman of 'power,
beauty, wealth and prestige'. Two years later, Stanley falls victim to a
tormenting sexual mania and schizophrenia, and is imprisoned in the
massive forbidding mansion known as Riven Rock. He spends the next two
decades under the control of a succession of psychiatrists, all of whom
forbid any contact with women. Yet Katherine Dexter, now famous as a
champion for women's suffrage and Planned Parenthood, remains strong in
her belief that someday her husband will return to her whole.
Based on a true story of love, madness and sexuality this is a tragic
book with enormous depth and scope. Set in America at the turn of the
century, it is full of fascinating historical detail.
written with Boyle's customary brilliance and wit, follows the lives of
two scarred creatures living in a magical age. It is the turn of the
century. Stanley McCormick, the twenty-nine-year-old heir to the great
Reaper fortune, meets and marries Katherine Dexter, a woman of 'power,
beauty, wealth and prestige'. Two years later, Stanley falls victim to a
tormenting sexual mania and schizophrenia, and is imprisoned in the
massive forbidding mansion known as Riven Rock. He spends the next two
decades under the control of a succession of psychiatrists, all of whom
forbid any contact with women. Yet Katherine Dexter, now famous as a
champion for women's suffrage and Planned Parenthood, remains strong in
her belief that someday her husband will return to her whole.
Based on a true story of love, madness and sexuality this is a tragic
book with enormous depth and scope. Set in America at the turn of the
century, it is full of fascinating historical detail.
482 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1998
90 people are currently reading
1,134 people want to read
About the author
T. Coraghessan Boyle
157Ìýbooks2,896ÌýfollowersT. Coraghessan Boyle (also known as T.C. Boyle, is a U.S. novelist and short story writer. Since the late 1970s, he has published eighteen novels and twleve collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner award in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York. He is married with three children. Boyle has been a
Professor of English at the University of Southern California since 1978, when he founded the school's undergraduate creative writing program.
He grew up in the small town on the Hudson Valley that he regularly fictionalizes as Peterskill (as in widely anthologized short story Greasy Lake). Boyle changed his middle name when he was 17 and exclusively used Coraghessan for much of his career, but now also goes by T.C. Boyle.
Professor of English at the University of Southern California since 1978, when he founded the school's undergraduate creative writing program.
He grew up in the small town on the Hudson Valley that he regularly fictionalizes as Peterskill (as in widely anthologized short story Greasy Lake). Boyle changed his middle name when he was 17 and exclusively used Coraghessan for much of his career, but now also goes by T.C. Boyle.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 229 reviews
May 16, 2012
When you’re in a tight spot, it’s not unreasonable to turn to the familiar folks of the past for comfort, so I turned to T.C. Boyle when I needed an airplane book quick. Oh, well, I suppose he did his best, but I wonder why he turned his considerable talents to this lugubrious subject.
Riven Rock is a cheerless tale of obsessions. A novelized account of the life of Robert Stanley McCormick, Youngest son of Cyrus, the reaper inventor, it details the descent of a dashing, eccentric, young aristocrat into a demented schizophrenic. His childhood fastidiousness and fearfulness becomes ritualistic neatness and paranoia, and his unnatural attachment to his mother transforms into a hate for and disgust with all women.
Katherine Dexter, the brilliant Boston socialite who married McCormick when she was twenty-nine, should have known better. She was a scientist, one of the first female graduates of MIT, headed for a distinguished career in a field dominated by men. As an proponent and practitioner of rational thought, she should have seen that McCormick didn’t seek her love but her thralldom. But she not only fell for him, but acted on her passion. Whenever he pulled one of his shenanigans—disappearing for days at a time in an open auto in the rain, for example—and refused to talk to her about it, or wrote or drew endless garbled nonsense, she’d buy back into the charm. So she married him. And before long Katherine, her marriage unconsummated, her husband a maniac ready to sexually attack any female he came across, her heart (but not her will) broken, had him committed.
His commitment was to a Gothic horror of a house called Riven Rock—after a boulder split by a sapling on the property—near Santa Barbara. The place had originally been built for Stanley’s similarly manic sister, but the family had since moved her to Arkansas. Walls of stone, bars of iron, twenty-four hour nursing (all males) care, and the denial of any female company whatsoever became Stanley McCormack’s lifelong lot.
And Stanley the obsessed became Katherine’s obsession. The McCormack fortune was enormous, and Katherine had plenty of money of her own, so the funds poured into the project of healing Stanley reached gigantic proportions. In addition to the nurses, the household staff, the gardeners, and the cook, Katherine hired a series of the best psychiatrists she could find. There were fits of improvement. Stanley even reached the point of being able to lunch civilly, even pleasantly with Katherine during one period, but he always returned to his violent, uncontrollable self. Still, Katherine stuck with it. Not that she didn’t develop a life of her own, immersing herself in a series of women’s causes from suffrage to birth control, but every December, at minimum, she returned to Stanley, fighting the McCormack’s who called him hopeless, always ready to try something new—injections from monkey glands, for example—in hopes of finding a cure.
And finally, there’s Eddie O’Kane, the head nurse. A big, handsome, jovial guy who took good care of McCormack most of the time, but was led astray time and again by his penchant for alcohol and women. He’s always conscious of the possibility that he’ll ruin himself with drink the way his father did, but always sure he’ll stop short of that. Hates hitting women, really does, but sometimes� , and so on.
In short, Riven Rock, puts together a pretty sad group of characters in a hopeless situation. The most admirable character in the book is Katherine, but she’s not the pivotal figure, so we don’t spend enough time with her to get a sense of anything positive or admirable at all. The psychiatrists are bumblers at best, charlatans at worst, the families are greedy vultures. O’Kane is a weak, aimless boozer and wencher, who couldn’t keep a commitment if he locked it in a safe deposit box.He invokes his Irish Catholicism the most hypocritical and inappropriate circumstances.
The book did fill up some air miles, but I trudged through it and wouldn’t advise anyone else to trudge the same path.
Riven Rock is a cheerless tale of obsessions. A novelized account of the life of Robert Stanley McCormick, Youngest son of Cyrus, the reaper inventor, it details the descent of a dashing, eccentric, young aristocrat into a demented schizophrenic. His childhood fastidiousness and fearfulness becomes ritualistic neatness and paranoia, and his unnatural attachment to his mother transforms into a hate for and disgust with all women.
Katherine Dexter, the brilliant Boston socialite who married McCormick when she was twenty-nine, should have known better. She was a scientist, one of the first female graduates of MIT, headed for a distinguished career in a field dominated by men. As an proponent and practitioner of rational thought, she should have seen that McCormick didn’t seek her love but her thralldom. But she not only fell for him, but acted on her passion. Whenever he pulled one of his shenanigans—disappearing for days at a time in an open auto in the rain, for example—and refused to talk to her about it, or wrote or drew endless garbled nonsense, she’d buy back into the charm. So she married him. And before long Katherine, her marriage unconsummated, her husband a maniac ready to sexually attack any female he came across, her heart (but not her will) broken, had him committed.
His commitment was to a Gothic horror of a house called Riven Rock—after a boulder split by a sapling on the property—near Santa Barbara. The place had originally been built for Stanley’s similarly manic sister, but the family had since moved her to Arkansas. Walls of stone, bars of iron, twenty-four hour nursing (all males) care, and the denial of any female company whatsoever became Stanley McCormack’s lifelong lot.
And Stanley the obsessed became Katherine’s obsession. The McCormack fortune was enormous, and Katherine had plenty of money of her own, so the funds poured into the project of healing Stanley reached gigantic proportions. In addition to the nurses, the household staff, the gardeners, and the cook, Katherine hired a series of the best psychiatrists she could find. There were fits of improvement. Stanley even reached the point of being able to lunch civilly, even pleasantly with Katherine during one period, but he always returned to his violent, uncontrollable self. Still, Katherine stuck with it. Not that she didn’t develop a life of her own, immersing herself in a series of women’s causes from suffrage to birth control, but every December, at minimum, she returned to Stanley, fighting the McCormack’s who called him hopeless, always ready to try something new—injections from monkey glands, for example—in hopes of finding a cure.
And finally, there’s Eddie O’Kane, the head nurse. A big, handsome, jovial guy who took good care of McCormack most of the time, but was led astray time and again by his penchant for alcohol and women. He’s always conscious of the possibility that he’ll ruin himself with drink the way his father did, but always sure he’ll stop short of that. Hates hitting women, really does, but sometimes� , and so on.
In short, Riven Rock, puts together a pretty sad group of characters in a hopeless situation. The most admirable character in the book is Katherine, but she’s not the pivotal figure, so we don’t spend enough time with her to get a sense of anything positive or admirable at all. The psychiatrists are bumblers at best, charlatans at worst, the families are greedy vultures. O’Kane is a weak, aimless boozer and wencher, who couldn’t keep a commitment if he locked it in a safe deposit box.He invokes his Irish Catholicism the most hypocritical and inappropriate circumstances.
The book did fill up some air miles, but I trudged through it and wouldn’t advise anyone else to trudge the same path.
February 3, 2013
So, I've had a few days to think about this one. An oddity. Off-kilter and skewed in more ways than one. But I liked it! So, yes, odd is good.
And this is one of the oddest (and saddest) of love stories. The power of love (whatever that is) unites Stanley and Katherine, and a peculiar, unidentified force (call it madness, insanity, dementia praecox, schizophrenia, or the prescribed treatment of said diagnoses)keeps them apart for ...decades. The long, mostly uneventful saga moves forward in time only. Little or no 'progress' is ever made, and Boyle's fictionalized account of the McCormick's lives feels as slow and drawn-out as the long, unconsommated marriage and prison sentence that it portrays. In a word: frustrating. And this is where, as a reader, I think, damn, this isn't going anywhere!! My patience is limited! But looking back at the lack of progress made in Stanley's treatment, strangely echoed in the stunted romantic and business aspirations of his head nurse, O'Kane, I feel a little overwhelmed by such a crushing sensation of frustration, as well as a gentle, inevitable decline and decay.
But we're in Boyle's territory here, and the exuberant language and playful tone (yes, he occasionally overdoes the comical similes, but I, for one, love them) offset what is ultimately a story of grim destinies.
Strange and touching, and definitely worth reading,
And this is one of the oddest (and saddest) of love stories. The power of love (whatever that is) unites Stanley and Katherine, and a peculiar, unidentified force (call it madness, insanity, dementia praecox, schizophrenia, or the prescribed treatment of said diagnoses)keeps them apart for ...decades. The long, mostly uneventful saga moves forward in time only. Little or no 'progress' is ever made, and Boyle's fictionalized account of the McCormick's lives feels as slow and drawn-out as the long, unconsommated marriage and prison sentence that it portrays. In a word: frustrating. And this is where, as a reader, I think, damn, this isn't going anywhere!! My patience is limited! But looking back at the lack of progress made in Stanley's treatment, strangely echoed in the stunted romantic and business aspirations of his head nurse, O'Kane, I feel a little overwhelmed by such a crushing sensation of frustration, as well as a gentle, inevitable decline and decay.
But we're in Boyle's territory here, and the exuberant language and playful tone (yes, he occasionally overdoes the comical similes, but I, for one, love them) offset what is ultimately a story of grim destinies.
Strange and touching, and definitely worth reading,
June 10, 2021
As others have said - this is not my favorite TC Boyle; however, it paints a very clear picture of psychiatric treatment about 100 years ago. This novel made me so extremely grateful for psychotherapy of today! It covers the mental illness of a very wealthy American man and the reactions of his wife to his illness including his mandated seclusion - particularly from women. Boyle also created an excellent character in Eddie O'Kane one of the patient's long time nurses. Interesting, but not a favorite.
May 12, 2009
At first, great. Very engaging. The characters grow on you, then begin to suffocate you. I was so sick of the main character's alcoholism, the protagonist's mental illness, and his wife's reluctance to get free from her sick husband.
This author is one of my favorites, but this may be my least favorite of his books.
This author is one of my favorites, but this may be my least favorite of his books.
September 4, 2016
I was very mixed on this one. As usual, Boyle's writing was wonderful, descriptive, and puts you in every scene in the story. However, to me the plot seemed lacking. There didn't seem to be any momentum to the story. The same things seemed to happen over and over without change. I'll admit there were some fascinating aspects to the story of Stanley McCormick who was the mentally unbalanced heir to the McCormick reaper fortune. The story shifts between Stanley's inability to get along in society, his marriage to Katherine Dexter McCormick, their futile sexless relationship, and his time at Riven Rock in the care of several doctors and male nurses. Probably the most interesting character in the story was Stanley's longtime nurse Eddie O'Kane, who goes with him to California in search of ultimate wealth, but who has a weakness for alcohol and women. In the end, however, nothing seems to change as the story progresses: Stanley is insane and stays that way, Katherine tries to help and remains loyal, and Eddie never achieves his dreams and remains hooked on the bottle. I would still give this one a mild recommendation mainly on the basis of Boyle's excellent prose.
July 8, 2012
Surprisingly I am sort of bugged down here. I love T.C.Boyle. I totally swallowed "Talk talk" (oh, well, it is a thriller :), and really liked "Women" and many stories. "Tortilla Curtain" was also quite good. "When the killing is done" was tough but I muddled through because the issues were very important IMHO (illegal immigration in "Curtain" and environmental conservation in "Killing"). But "Riven Rock"... well... I just cannot seem to care about any of the characters... learned plenty about the lifestyles of the 1%ers in early 20s century, Boston and Chicago high society, but the bizarre marriage of the main characters is just weird, and after 50% or so of the book it is not going anywhere. The third character Eddie the male nurse is also played out with his women, children, unfulfilled dreams of an orange grove... I will probably finish it since it is on my e-reader, and is so convenient but not thrilled.
June 18, 2012
There were a lot of things that I greatly enjoyed about this book. As usual, Boyle is a master of description. He sets each scene so that you feel you are there reading the faces of the characters and feeling the emotion of the room. Riven Rock is written just as cleverly and well as his other books. The historic nature of the book is also really interesting. Boyle is clearly interested in aspects of the treatment of mental illness (in this book and others) and the book provides a nice overview of how psychoanalysis and treatment changed during this period in time - which is no less interesting since these are real life people he is writing about. Overall though, the plot lacks momentum, it is a repeat of same struggle over a few decades and nothing much changes. I found it tiring by the end and I was ready to be done.
August 12, 2011
The brilliant T. C. Boyle, modern-day Dickens, here gives a fictionalized account of the lives of Stanley McCormick, sex fiend and heir to a harvester fortune, and Katherine McCormick (nee Dexter), his loyal wife, who, ironically since she never enjoyed sexual relations with her husband, contributes to the development of the Pill.
There's a lovely counterpoint in this fiction: the story of Eddie O'Kane. O'Kane is presented as one of Stanley's carers. O Kane's problems with women are almost as great as McCormick's; O'Kane's life, almost as much as McCormick's, is effectively limited by the boundaries of Riven Rock, one of the McCormick mansions; and O'Kane needs McCormick as much as MCormick needs O'Kane.
Brilliant comic writing!
There's a lovely counterpoint in this fiction: the story of Eddie O'Kane. O'Kane is presented as one of Stanley's carers. O Kane's problems with women are almost as great as McCormick's; O'Kane's life, almost as much as McCormick's, is effectively limited by the boundaries of Riven Rock, one of the McCormick mansions; and O'Kane needs McCormick as much as MCormick needs O'Kane.
Brilliant comic writing!
December 29, 2019
Riven Rock was named by it's prisoner, Stanley McCormick, heir to the corporation that was to become International Harvester. The house in California was acquired and fitted out for Stanley's older sister, whose schizophrenia made it impossible for her to live normally. The estate has a boulder in the middle of which a tree grew and split the boulder in half. This is a metaphor for Stanley's own brand of mental illness, which ultimately led to his being incarcerated there.
While his wife Katherine isn't the first or last woman to find out she married a madman, the story goes back and forth between their courtship and the ensuing years of marriage, discovery, frustration and bitterness. It would be hard to believe a woman would stay in a marriage for decades under these circumstances, but actual history bears this out. Katherine Dexter McCormick was one of the first MIT graduates, majoring in biology. Perhaps it was her scientific mind that allowed her to go on advocating for her husband, or perhaps she just had an enormous supply of hope.
Boyle can write historical fiction like no one else. He speaks with the language and cadence of the era, and BOOM - you're transported.
While his wife Katherine isn't the first or last woman to find out she married a madman, the story goes back and forth between their courtship and the ensuing years of marriage, discovery, frustration and bitterness. It would be hard to believe a woman would stay in a marriage for decades under these circumstances, but actual history bears this out. Katherine Dexter McCormick was one of the first MIT graduates, majoring in biology. Perhaps it was her scientific mind that allowed her to go on advocating for her husband, or perhaps she just had an enormous supply of hope.
Boyle can write historical fiction like no one else. He speaks with the language and cadence of the era, and BOOM - you're transported.
December 11, 2007
My favorite book by one of my favorite authors. This is one of those books that I truly wish went on forever. Here is where I fell in love with T.C. Boyle and his slow-build-to-rollicking-crescendo storytelling.
December 19, 2019
But this wasn't the sort of romance she'd dreamed about, this wasn't being swept off her feet and wooed with tender intimacies and anticipatory pleasures--this was psychodrama, this was crazy.
This book is billed as an "extraordinary and heartbreaking love story," and while I agree it's extraordinary in several ways and definitely heartbreaking, I think it's a stretch to call it a love story. It is extraordinarily well-written and at times pretty funny. Relatedly, Boyle puts on an extraordinary display of zoomorphism, describing virtually all the novel's many characters in some type of animal terms [e.g., 9-year-old Stanley had "skittish eyes and a burrowing instinct"; Nick, one of the nurses, "spoke in a measured growl, like a chained dog"; the main nurse, O'Kane (pretty much the closest thing this book has to a protagonist) has the grin of a hyena, but his wife, Rosaleen, "drank like a brewer's horse" and her voice was "the high agitated hoot of a seabird"; Stanley's mom, Nettie, one of the book's main villains, is described "crouching nightly ... like some beast with its kill, dragging it up and down the length of the drawing room in her clamped and unyielding jaws" and, alternately, as being "entrenched in her suite of rooms at the Elysee Palace like a fat swollen tick, sucking the blood out of everyone"; clergymen are seen "fluttering on the periphery like a flock of crows"; McCormick family attorney Cyrus Bentley "was a worm, a creeping spineless thing that made its living in the gut of something greater, or at least larger"; Gladys Brush, the wife of one of the several doctors, has "a squared-off beak of a nose and two staring black eyes no bigger than a crow's"; and the group of antisuffragists are "yammering like animals, big testosterone-addled beasts out of some Darwinian nightmare"]. It is often extraordinarily outrageous. But where the love story is concerned, it's just extraordinarily frustrating--the opposite of a romance--where the reader, like Katherine, waits in vain for Stanley, the story's potential hero but also an obsessive-compulsive sexual hypochondriacal neurasthenic, to rise to the occasion. With all his debilitating neuroses, Stanley is never a very likable character, and somehow Katherine never really struck me as sympathetic either, which makes this all the more an achievement for Boyle because it's still an engaging and memorable read.
First line:
"For twenty years, twenty long dull repetitive years that dripped by with the sleepy incessant murmur of water dripping from a gutter, Stanley McCormick never laid eyes on a woman."
January 18, 2022
Also sprachlich sehr gut. Bei einigen Beschreibungen und Vergleichen merkt man das Geschick des Autors den Inhalt sprachgewaltig auszudrücken. Am Anfang bauten sich interessante Spannungsstränge auf, aber die Spannung ließ dann sehr nach und es zog sich sehr in die Länge. Ich hatte auch erwartet, dass dann nicht nur das Geschehen beschrieben wird, sondern man eine Einsicht bekommt, wie es der psychisch erkrankten Hauptperson geht, aber das war nicht sehr oft der Fall. Am Ende machen dann die zwar auch in der Mitte des Buches für meinen Geschmack zu sehr ausgeschmückte Passagen Sinn und dienen wirklich dem Gesamtbild, und man denkt am Ende des Buches auch über das Leben und wie einzelne Entscheidungen das Leben beeinflussen können nach- aber insgesamt war das Buch für mich dann nicht ganz so gut.
January 15, 2020
This is a well written tale with a peek into the world of mental illness. Based on a true story, TC Boyle doesn’t fail to deliver. The story is as sad as they get, though. Mental illness is so challenging and treatment, at this time, at least, very random.
July 3, 2010
This lengthy novel is based on real characters. Stanley McCormick is an heir to Cyrus McCormick, and Katherine Dexter is a socialite, suffragist and scientist. They meet and marry, but the marriage is never consummated. Soon after, Stanley is diagnosed as a schizophrenic and sexual psychopath and locked away -- far from the company of women -- for decades. Katherine is active in the budding woman's movement and as a birth-control advocate. She also oversees her husband's business interests and tries to find a doctor who can restore Stanley to health.
Our therapeutic society makes it easy to take for granted the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Riven Rock makes that point again and again. Restraint and imprisonment seem the only options for Stanley, though Katherine tries to make his surroundings as comfortable and safe as possible.
I almost stopped reading the novel early on because of strong misogynistic sentiments expressed by its characters. Their contemporary manner of expression led me to believe the author was speaking, and the novel was just an opportunity to express those politically incorrect views in a setting safe from criticism. Katherine's story is as interesting as her husband's. But her character is very flat, which reinforces the impression of bias. What a missed opportunity!
The book is too long by 100 pages, repetitive and overwritten. (The word "florid" came to mind while I was reading it.) I've read T.C. Boyle's short stories, but I'm not sure I'll bother with him again.
Our therapeutic society makes it easy to take for granted the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Riven Rock makes that point again and again. Restraint and imprisonment seem the only options for Stanley, though Katherine tries to make his surroundings as comfortable and safe as possible.
I almost stopped reading the novel early on because of strong misogynistic sentiments expressed by its characters. Their contemporary manner of expression led me to believe the author was speaking, and the novel was just an opportunity to express those politically incorrect views in a setting safe from criticism. Katherine's story is as interesting as her husband's. But her character is very flat, which reinforces the impression of bias. What a missed opportunity!
The book is too long by 100 pages, repetitive and overwritten. (The word "florid" came to mind while I was reading it.) I've read T.C. Boyle's short stories, but I'm not sure I'll bother with him again.
March 31, 2019
I love how TC Boyle writes. His stories are so character driven and his books immerse you in the thoughts, feelings, actions of ALL of the characters in his stories. That said - it took me a very, very long time to read this book. The writing is dense and the story encompassed the lives of a number of different characters in depth and over a time period of almost 30 years. The story is especially good at delving into the main character - Stanley McCormick - and his descent into madness. His wealth allows a very personalized routine and nurses/doctors/servants/family that try their utmost to help him. But it is his wife who refuses to give up and just wants the man she first met back even though his descent into sexual deviation and psychosis is evident almost from the beginning of their relationship. Their story becomes narrated by one of Stanley's nurses - Mr. McKane who has problems of his own with alcoholism and violence to women. He always believes his luck will change and keeps believing that through years and years of being the gatekeeper to the madness and self effacement of his "boss". The story takes place in the early 20th century so it also gives an overview of the psychiatry of that time (pretty scary methods) and the political and cultural mores of the time. The history behind the story was just an added bonus.
March 3, 2018
I picked up this book having previously read TC Boyle and enjoyed his writing. This book did not disappoint. But it is not a happy tale. Riven Rock is the story of a madman, Stanley McCormick, his long suffering wife, Katherine, and the nurses and psychiatrists who cared for him over many years. Stanley was locked away in a California mansion with male staff and nurses, without contact with his wife or any other female. Stanley, despite many years of care never really gets better although at time he has more lucid moments and even is able to have lunch for a period of time with his wife (after many years of not seeing her). The long running love story of nurse Eddie O'Kane and Giovannella Dimucci is also an important thread through this story.
One thing that fascinates me is how Boyle adeptly uses old-fashioned words to describe things that are just outside of my vocabulary. Rather than let them slide by with only a dim understanding based on context, I used online dictionaries and looked them up. This extra effort was well worth it.
One thing that fascinates me is how Boyle adeptly uses old-fashioned words to describe things that are just outside of my vocabulary. Rather than let them slide by with only a dim understanding based on context, I used online dictionaries and looked them up. This extra effort was well worth it.
April 5, 2013
T.C. Boyle is one of my favorite contemporary writers. This novel did nothing to sway me from that judgement. The central element of the novel is Stanley McCormick, son of the famous Cyrus McCormick. Stanley suffers from a form of psychosis that causes him to brutally attack women. The leading experts of the time decree that he must be totally isolated from women in order for healing to occur. He is thus isolated at a California mansion called Riven Rock, where he is cared for by a team including head nurse Eddie O'Kane, another major protagonist. The book centers around the struggles of O'Kane (who has his own issues with women) and Stanley's wife, who becomes increasingly desperate to see her husband. This is another great effort by Boyle which has strong echoes of his "Road to Wellville" which similarly explored sexual mores and medical quackery in the early decades of the 20th century.
April 4, 2015
You can find a summary elsewhere.
Suffice it to say, that this is a book about wasted lives.
Unfortunately, the time I spent reading it, also feels wasted.
Rich and poor, sane and insane, thrown together or obsessing over one another.
Bad judgement, inadequate care, quacks and feeble characters make this less than an enjoyable read or tale.
Few female protagonists, one-dimensional harpies but one of note:
the one with both the love, the morals and the fibre.
But she too, gets nowhere, ends up empty-handed.
T.C. Boyle came highly recommended but I won't be picking up another one any time soon.
Suffice it to say, that this is a book about wasted lives.
Unfortunately, the time I spent reading it, also feels wasted.
Rich and poor, sane and insane, thrown together or obsessing over one another.
Bad judgement, inadequate care, quacks and feeble characters make this less than an enjoyable read or tale.
Few female protagonists, one-dimensional harpies but one of note:
the one with both the love, the morals and the fibre.
But she too, gets nowhere, ends up empty-handed.
T.C. Boyle came highly recommended but I won't be picking up another one any time soon.
November 7, 2016
The prose itself is great, T.C. Boyle has great style, but the story goes nowhere. The scenes just repeat themselves over and over again. Like the treatment of Mr. McCormick and the alcoholism of O'Kane there is no improvement, no momentum, nothing. And since not a single one of the characters is likable, you don't really care what happens next anymore and sink into the dark abyss of boredom. At least I learned a little about life at the start of the 1900's.
Not his best book. Try instead.
Not his best book. Try instead.
November 11, 2016
Fascinating historical fiction about the youngest son of Cyrus McCormick, Stanley Robert McCormick, schizophrenic and reluctant heir to the McCormick Reaper, later International Harvester, fortune. Told mostly from the perspective of his male nurse with flashbacks to his early life and relationship with his wife, Katherine Dexter.
I liked the time period and Katherine's involvement in women's issues of the early 1900s.
I liked the time period and Katherine's involvement in women's issues of the early 1900s.
September 6, 2016
Crisp, elegant writing style. Riveting story in the beginning - however a star taken off because the plot became a bit tedious, and many points felt belabored. Despite that, it's an excellent character study.
June 19, 2007
I love TC Boyle, but I just thought this book sucked. It put me off reading his novels for awhile, but then last year I picked up Drop City and it was so much better.
September 1, 2011
God what a hard book to get through, I am still left wondering if it was worth the read : (
February 26, 2013
This is not his best but still he's so good.
August 19, 2017
After reading this I felt...icky. Icky because sex was so shameful in this book. There wasn't love--only base animalistic desires, obsession, duty, repression, guilt, hate, shame, and regret. I don't think this was a love story as much as it was a hateful, cynical exploration of different extremes of human sexuality.
You have Stanley, whose sexuality is tied up in shame, self loathing and violence, who was ruined forever by one childhood incident where he saw his sister peeing on a toilet. Can you imagine how many ruined men we'd have in the world if seeing your mom or sister pee when you're a small child were really that damaging? The author throws in comments about an overbearing mother but she doesn't seem particularly religious or abusive about sex, aside from warming him not to masturbate, which was a familiar motherly refrain well into the 20th century.
Then Katherine, whose sexuality is repressed out of her own choice and only explored with another woman out of desperation or convenience, rather than love or genuine desire (like a prison romance.) Boyle never even develops that relationship beyond innuendo, clouds of cigarette smoke and one cold kiss on the side of the mouth. Why didn't Katherine take a male lover or divorce and remarry unless she really were a lesbian? She mentions that she chose career over family, which is fine, but what did she choose over love? Duty? Appearances? Not sure what motivates her after all those years.
Then we have handsome Eddie O'Kane, whose sexuality is like that of the hominids--uncontrollable, indiscriminating and wanton. He forces himself upon women with an insatiable hunger, claiming he can't go without intercourse for more than six days. Women throw themselves at him and he responds enthusiastically, yet in a shallow, hollow way. He's not looking for intimacy--just a place to "stick it in."
The odd sexual exploits of Stanley with Julius the hominid were vile and horrifying. What did that mean, Boyle? Why did you put that in there? Are we all just animals? Just yuck. And no!
When Stanley finally starts making progress in his therapy his nurses decide it would be good to tie him up and have him raped by a prostitute. He gets permanently set back by this. Speaking of rape, O'Kane drags Giovanna off out of the pub and rapes her until she gives in and let's him have his way with her again, on his terms.
Nowhere in this book do we see any men or women with loving, joyful, responsible, healthy sex lives. Not sure where Boyle was in his life when he wrote this, but this was definitely an icky, sad take on sexuality.
Reading this book was uncomfortable, and unsatisfying. The finish is perfunctory and comes too soon. We only hear that Stanley died and what Katherine did with all of his money--as if any of us were in this for the money. Boyle doesn't round this out by having those poor characters learn something and find sustaining love. They just die. The end.
You have Stanley, whose sexuality is tied up in shame, self loathing and violence, who was ruined forever by one childhood incident where he saw his sister peeing on a toilet. Can you imagine how many ruined men we'd have in the world if seeing your mom or sister pee when you're a small child were really that damaging? The author throws in comments about an overbearing mother but she doesn't seem particularly religious or abusive about sex, aside from warming him not to masturbate, which was a familiar motherly refrain well into the 20th century.
Then Katherine, whose sexuality is repressed out of her own choice and only explored with another woman out of desperation or convenience, rather than love or genuine desire (like a prison romance.) Boyle never even develops that relationship beyond innuendo, clouds of cigarette smoke and one cold kiss on the side of the mouth. Why didn't Katherine take a male lover or divorce and remarry unless she really were a lesbian? She mentions that she chose career over family, which is fine, but what did she choose over love? Duty? Appearances? Not sure what motivates her after all those years.
Then we have handsome Eddie O'Kane, whose sexuality is like that of the hominids--uncontrollable, indiscriminating and wanton. He forces himself upon women with an insatiable hunger, claiming he can't go without intercourse for more than six days. Women throw themselves at him and he responds enthusiastically, yet in a shallow, hollow way. He's not looking for intimacy--just a place to "stick it in."
The odd sexual exploits of Stanley with Julius the hominid were vile and horrifying. What did that mean, Boyle? Why did you put that in there? Are we all just animals? Just yuck. And no!
When Stanley finally starts making progress in his therapy his nurses decide it would be good to tie him up and have him raped by a prostitute. He gets permanently set back by this. Speaking of rape, O'Kane drags Giovanna off out of the pub and rapes her until she gives in and let's him have his way with her again, on his terms.
Nowhere in this book do we see any men or women with loving, joyful, responsible, healthy sex lives. Not sure where Boyle was in his life when he wrote this, but this was definitely an icky, sad take on sexuality.
Reading this book was uncomfortable, and unsatisfying. The finish is perfunctory and comes too soon. We only hear that Stanley died and what Katherine did with all of his money--as if any of us were in this for the money. Boyle doesn't round this out by having those poor characters learn something and find sustaining love. They just die. The end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 9, 2020
Any time spent in the company of T.C. Boyle's skills is time well spent... however...
Riven Rock tells a slight story by Boyle standards. The lead characters' teeter-tottering between hope and despair is heart-wrenching, and wrought with his usual enviable prose, but terribly repetitive. Further, we are driven forward by little more than the quality of the writing itself, as none of the characters are relatable or likable to the point of drawing the kind emotional investment that turns pages.
A portion of the book takes place in 1918, concurrent with the Spanish Flu pandemic. Having read it during the Covid-19 pandemic, I was hoping for more detail, but that was not to be. The story goes on to cover 1929, the year the stock market crashed and, once again, given our current financial situation, I hoped for some context, but again, this momentous time in history was glossed over. Of course, Boyle could justifiably state that that simply wasn't what his story was about, but it would have been nice if it were about, well, more.
If I could choose a superpower, it might well be the ability to write as well as T.C. Boyle, but given that power and this subject matter, I may have tried to leap a taller literary building in a single bound.
Riven Rock tells a slight story by Boyle standards. The lead characters' teeter-tottering between hope and despair is heart-wrenching, and wrought with his usual enviable prose, but terribly repetitive. Further, we are driven forward by little more than the quality of the writing itself, as none of the characters are relatable or likable to the point of drawing the kind emotional investment that turns pages.
A portion of the book takes place in 1918, concurrent with the Spanish Flu pandemic. Having read it during the Covid-19 pandemic, I was hoping for more detail, but that was not to be. The story goes on to cover 1929, the year the stock market crashed and, once again, given our current financial situation, I hoped for some context, but again, this momentous time in history was glossed over. Of course, Boyle could justifiably state that that simply wasn't what his story was about, but it would have been nice if it were about, well, more.
If I could choose a superpower, it might well be the ability to write as well as T.C. Boyle, but given that power and this subject matter, I may have tried to leap a taller literary building in a single bound.
August 17, 2017
T. Coraghessan Boyle is one of my all-time favorite writers - so why I hadn't read Riven Rock is beyond me. It came out in 1998 and I have a beautiful SIGNED first edition, inscribed to me with his usual "Con amistad." Okay, I was working at the time. Now I'm retired - and out it came. WOW. I was mesmerized from day 1 when I began to day 5 when I finished all 466 pages. I knew the basics - it was a literary rendition of the life of Stanley McCormick - the heir to the reaper fortune - and his wife, Katherine, the woman who funded "the pill." I knew that he had lived in Riven Rock, which is now an upscale community of beautiful home only a mile or so away from us, here in Montecito. But, this was so much MORE than just a literary retelling. It looked at so many issues and shed such a brilliant light on those heady days of early Santa Barbara. It's always fun to be able to "see" the streets they are using and the trees and the light and the ocean, and....
I must add that this is also a book that is nearly perfect in its pacing. The backstory is interwoven with the present brilliantly. So.....sit back and expect a whole week of great literary enjoyment. READ THIS BOOK.
I must add that this is also a book that is nearly perfect in its pacing. The backstory is interwoven with the present brilliantly. So.....sit back and expect a whole week of great literary enjoyment. READ THIS BOOK.
March 15, 2018
Grabbed this for my train trip to Chicago. Its about 8-9 hours round trip, and I had just read some TC Boyle short stories that were fabulous.
This was not. I, for complete lack of other entertainment, got about half way. I did not care about any of the characters. And, because both this is historical fiction and Boyle tells us upfront, I knew that Stanley is never cured, and that Katherine never leaves him. The story seemed to mostly focus on Eddie (the head nurse), but he wasn't interesting at all. He was a drunk who abused his (many) women. He has no insight into his issues (his father was an alcoholic, but not him), and repeats the same troubling acts over and over. Yes, this IS how real life works, but its not of much interest to me. He has no more insight than Dr. Hamilton's apes. The apes were vaguely interesting, but that Dr and those animals get shipped out halfway through the book. (with no noted medical progress or character or plot development.) So what was the point? After looking at other reviews, it seems apparent that these diverse chracters and lines of thought are never pulled together for any purpose, so I'm out.
This was not. I, for complete lack of other entertainment, got about half way. I did not care about any of the characters. And, because both this is historical fiction and Boyle tells us upfront, I knew that Stanley is never cured, and that Katherine never leaves him. The story seemed to mostly focus on Eddie (the head nurse), but he wasn't interesting at all. He was a drunk who abused his (many) women. He has no insight into his issues (his father was an alcoholic, but not him), and repeats the same troubling acts over and over. Yes, this IS how real life works, but its not of much interest to me. He has no more insight than Dr. Hamilton's apes. The apes were vaguely interesting, but that Dr and those animals get shipped out halfway through the book. (with no noted medical progress or character or plot development.) So what was the point? After looking at other reviews, it seems apparent that these diverse chracters and lines of thought are never pulled together for any purpose, so I'm out.
June 3, 2018
Boyle digs deeply and imaginatively into the story of real life Americans Stanley McCormick and his wife Katherine Dexter. McCormick was mentally troubled in ways the medical and psychiatric community of the time (the book is set mostly between 1903 and 1929) could not properly treat. Dexter married him and then his troubles expanded to a level of danger to her, himself, and others. Boyle adds a third major character, one Eddie O'Kane, one of the male nurses who reside with McCormick in the mansion where he received private treatment for the last 40 years of his life. Misogyny is the primary theme - the problem with the "morals" of the early 20th Century are magnified when mental illness has to make sense of them. The novel is filled with painful events, but it is often quite funny, it is beautifully told, and its structure, alternating between the present, mostly through the eyes of O'Kane, and the past, through the eyes of the other two leading characters, kept things moving in a very entertaining way.
January 25, 2022
Another strikingly original novelisation of the rich and famous and downright weird of America. Stanley McCormick, heir to the harvester fortune, $35m on his death in 1947, was a handsome fellow, intelligent, artistic and passionate about Eugene Debs and socialism but also mad as a snake. Schizophrenic, diagnosed as having dementia praecox, he was disastrously screwed up and aggressive in his attacks on women. His wife Katherine, a feminist and main founder of the development of the birth control pill thought that she could bring him round but ended up having to immure him at Riven Rock a mansion/prison near Santa Barbara. The story is partly told from Katherine's PoV and partly from that of Eddie O'Kane his handsome and feckless male nurse and eventual companion and gaoler for most of his raving adult life. Madness is a bummer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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