I first became interested in Emile Zola after seeing the 1937 movie in high school. The film starred Paul Muni as the FrencI first became interested in Emile Zola after seeing the 1937 movie in high school. The film starred Paul Muni as the French author and was set in the mid through late 19th century, depicting Zola's early friendship with Post-Impressionist painter Paul C茅zanne and his rise to fame through his prolific writing. It also explores his involvement late in the . I enjoyed this movie and it was one that stuck with me over the years. Since then, I have read several of Zola's works including Nana, Therese Raquin, L'Assommoir, and Germinal. I thought all of these novels were excellent showing life in 19th century France from the point of view of Zola's naturalistic writing. [image] La B锚te Humaine was the 17th novel in Zola's series Les Rougons-Macquart, where he sought to follow the effects of heredity and environment on a single family. The novel focuses on the French railway along with the violent passions of men. The main protagonist of the novel is Jacques Lantier who Zola describes as the third son of Gervaise and Lantier from the novel L'Assommoir. Jacques is a train driver tormented by a pathological desire to kill women. Later generations would describe Jacques as a serial killer. Another character in the story is Roubaud, the station master of the Le Havre train station. Roubaud is married to a beautiful young wife, Severine, who was abused by the company president when she was only 16. When Roubaud finds this out, his jealousy turns him into a beast and he ends up killing the president with the help of Severine. This act was witnessed by Lantier which is a catalyst making his desire to kill even greater. This all leads to some very deadly consequences for all the parties involved.
This novel is one of Zola's most violent and passionate works. I would rank it very high among his novels I have read maybe second only to Germinal. His descriptions of the railroad and its workings were excellent while the violence in the novel comes at you without a lot of warning. This novel was also made into a 1938 French film directed by Jean Renoir. I remember seeing this several years ago on Turner Classic Movies and this was also a motivation to read the book which I am glad I finally got around to. [image]...more
I have read several of Erdrich's novels including her 2021 Pulitzer Prize winning The Night Watchman and always find them to be vivid portrayals of NaI have read several of Erdrich's novels including her 2021 Pulitzer Prize winning The Night Watchman and always find them to be vivid portrayals of Native American life. The Round House is in my opinion one of her best. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012 and follows the story of 13-year-old Native American Joe Coutts whose mother Geraldine is brutally attacked and raped in 1988 on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. Geraldine is in shock and is very reluctant to tell what happened to the police or her family. Her husband, Bazil, is a tribal judge who uses his past experience and cases to try to determine who the perpetrator may be. But Joe becomes frustrated with the investigation and sets out to get his own answers along with his friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus.
The novel is a coming of age story involving Joe and his friends as they try to determine the events of Geraldine's attack. The novel is also full of memorable characters ranging from the bad to the spiritual to the comical. Mooshum is an elder of the tribe who tells stories of the Ojibwe including some while he is sleeping. Linda Wishkob was born as a twin with a birth deformity whose white parents didn't want her so she was adopted by an Indian family and who later donates a kidney to save the life of her despicable brother. Then there are the elder women including Grandma Ignatia who are full of humor and bawdy tales of sex. And Joe's Uncle Whitey, the owner of a gas station whose partner Sonja is a former stripper who Joe is very attracted to and who treats him like a son.
But the main focus of the novel is indigenous reservation judicial law which hinders justice because tribal governments can't prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes on their land. In the afterword to the novel Erdrich states "this book is set in 1988, but the tangle of laws that hinder prosecution of rape cases on many reservations still exists. . . 1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime; 86 percent of rapes and sexual assaults upon Native women are perpetrated by non-Native men; few are prosecuted."
This was overall a very powerful novel and at the same time it was very readable. It was insightful and compelling in its plea for justice for Native women. It also was a good coming of age story as well as providing insights into Ojibwe folklore. I'll be looking forward to reading more of Erdrich....more
In this one, Grace Alban, returns to her home on the shores of Lake Superior after her mother's death. The home is a stately mansion called Alban House and it was built by Grace's great-grandfather by bringing its materials from Ireland including what may have been a tree containing the spirit of a witch. Grace arrives there with her teen-age daughter, Amity, and right away she plunges into a decades-old mystery involving her mother's first love who supposedly committed suicide during a summer solstice party back in 1956. But did he commit suicide or was he murdered? At the same time, Grace's Aunt Fate disappeared and was never heard from again. Grace finds a packet of old love letters which leads her to other secrets. And then a mysterious woman shows up at her mother's funeral. Could she be the long lost Aunt Fate?
This was really a fun and entertaining novel that included secret passages, ghostly sitings, witches curses, and a mystery that was not as it seemed. The story had some unexpected twists and chills and was a definite page-turner. I have a couple more novels by Webb on my TBR shelves that I will look forward to reading....more
This is the second book I have read by McFadden. The first, NEVER LIE, was a really good thriller that I enjoyed a lot. The Teacher was anoth猸愶笍猸愶笍猸愶笍1/2
This is the second book I have read by McFadden. The first, NEVER LIE, was a really good thriller that I enjoyed a lot. The Teacher was another fast-paced story that kept me turning the pages. It is told from three different perspectives: Eve, a high school math teacher who is obsessed with shoes; Nate, her husband who also teaches English at the same school and is very attractive especially to the female students; and Addie, a troubled 16-year-old student who has been accused of a scandal involving a prior teacher who was fired from the school. When Addie returns to school at the start of the following school year, she is instantly bullied by another young student named Kenzie who is also one of the most popular students there. Eve's marriage to Nate is falling apart and Eve always has a frown on her face. Addie is assigned to Eve's math class where she struggles but she also is assigned to Nate's English class where she is taken under his wing and excels at writing poetry. But is there more going on between Nate and Addie?
McFadden does a good job of building up the suspense in this novel and changing the reader's mind about which characters to sympathize with, if any. This all builds up to an unexpected climax and the very ending of the novel was really a surprise although I'm not sure how it was even possible. (I may need to reread some of what happened earlier.) Overall, this did keep me interested but the subject matter of the plot was very disturbing and I would only mildly recommend this one....more
The Virgin Suicides is a rather shocking novel about the suicides of five sisters in the Lisbon family living in suburban Michigan. The novel is narraThe Virgin Suicides is a rather shocking novel about the suicides of five sisters in the Lisbon family living in suburban Michigan. The novel is narrated by one or more men who were teenagers at the time of the suicides which occurred in the 1970s. These men were infatuated with the Lisbon girls and have tried to piece together what really happened to them since the suicides happened twenty years earlier. The Lisbon girls had always been romanticized by the neighborhood boys while the Lisbon family had always seemed eccentric by the neighbors. When the youngest daughter, Cecilia, commits suicide on her second attempt, the reason for the suicide and the Lisbon family become the neighbor's main source of gossip. The remaining four girls become isolated and after 15-year old Lux misses her curfew following a dance, the Lisbon parents take the girls out of school and keep them in their home which slowly becomes derelict. Mrs. Lisbon is a strict Catholic and feels her daughters should not be exposed to any kind of pollution. No one visits the family and the Lisbons never leave the house. A year after Cecilia first attempted suicide, the remaining sisters successfully end their lives.
This was really a dark novel about a very shocking event. The novel is poignant and tragic and seems to reflect normal life in an American suburb until the unthinkable happens. Eugenides does an excellent job of portraying life at that time including what happens in the suburban environment. He talks at length about Dutch Elm disease and how healthy trees are destroyed because of the possible contamination of others. This seems to be a metaphor for what happened to the Lisbon sisters and the attitude of Mrs. Lisbon.
I really admire Eugenides writing and will probably be reading more of him. I read and really enjoyed his Pulitzer winning novel, Middlesex, a few years ago. I'll also be on the lookout for the which starred Kirsten Dunst.
T.C. Boyle is a writer I have admired for many years. I have read and enjoyed several of his novels and short story collections and I always look forwT.C. Boyle is a writer I have admired for many years. I have read and enjoyed several of his novels and short story collections and I always look forward to reading more of him. East Is East is, at the beginning, a somewhat humorous look at what happens when a 20-year old Japanese seaman jumps ship off the coast of Georgia in hopes of finding acceptance among the many races that abound in America. His name is Hiro and he has been scorned and ridiculed in Japan because he is a half-breed. His father was an American hippie who abandoned him and his mother when he was a baby. Hiro doesn't really know much about America other than what he has learned from TV, movies and pop music but he feels if he can make his way to a large American city such as "The City of Brotherly Love", he'll be able to fit in with the masses. But ultimately, Hiro is in trouble when he first sets foot on Topanga Island off the Georgia coast. He is hungry and alone and when he approaches a poor black resident cooking up some oysters, he doesn't expect to be attacked and the results leave Hiro on the lam from the law and the INS. He does finally find food at the cottage of a woman writer who is in residence at an artists' colony and she takes pity on him. But of course, this doesn't last and Hiro becomes the target of most everyone on the island.
When I first started reading this, I felt it had the feel of a Carl Hiaasen novel, full of humor and characters that deserved to be put in their place. Hiro was a character that you commiserate with and hope that he will be able to live his dreams. Another character, Ruth, the woman who befriends Hiro is also someone to root for. But the novel definitely has a darker side and is a harsh look at how we view outsiders. This story reminded me somewhat of one of my favorite Boyle novels, The Tortilla Curtain, which was also about an oppressed man who is on the run in America because he is from another culture and is misunderstood. Boyle is really a great wordsmith and I'll be looking forward to more....more
Marya: A Life as described by JCO in the preface to the Franklin Library edition of the book, is "very likely the most "personal" of my novels though Marya: A Life as described by JCO in the preface to the Franklin Library edition of the book, is "very likely the most "personal" of my novels though it is not, in the strictest sense, autobiographical. It contains some autobiographical material, particularly in its opening sections, and it is set, for the most part, in places . . . closely resembling places I have lived . . . but I am not Marya Knauer and Marya is surely not I." (Note: the version I read did not include Oates' preface but it can be read in its entirety online at this .)
The novel tells the story of Marya Knauer who grew up in the rural town of Innisfail (which resembles Lockport, NY where Oates grew up). The story opens with the brutal death of Marya's father who was a local mine worker. Marya's mother, an alcoholic, then abandons Marya and her two young brothers to the care of her aunt and uncle. Her cousin abuses her as a child, but she is able to excel in school and move out of her life of poverty. The novel's chapters are each written as a phase of Marya's life and show her progress moving away from her beginnings and being acknowledged for her intellect as a published author. The chapters tell of her exposure to religious beliefs by a local catholic priest, her introduction to writing by her high school English teacher, her college days and graduate work where she becomes the lover of her mentor, her teaching at a small college where she is harassed by the African-American janitor, her romance with the editor of a literary publication, and finally her desire to find her mother who she hasn't seen since she was abandoned decades previously.
This was an interesting telling of Marya's life and even though Oates states that it is not really autobiographical, it is still a very personal and fascinating story paralleling much of Oates life. I enjoyed this and felt that it was written much in the vein of Oates short stories (which I enjoy a lot). Each chapter can somewhat stand on its own with an ending that sometimes leaves the reader speculating on what happens next before moving on to another segment of Marya's story. JCO always amazes me and I will look forward to reading more of her....more
I've been reading the Longmire series off and on ever since I first saw the TV series several years ago. I read the book immediately previous to this I've been reading the Longmire series off and on ever since I first saw the TV series several years ago. I read the book immediately previous to this one, Depth of Winter, a few years ago and remember it was not the usual book in the series in that it took place in Mexico when Walt's daughter gets kidnapped by a Mexican drug lord. Walt is on his own and his usual cohorts Vic and Standing Bear do not come into play. Anyway, I was a little disappointed in that one but Land of Wolves has Walt back in familiar territory in Absaroka County, Wyoming. He has not fully recovered from his wounds inflicted in Mexico but he does have the comfort of his usual troop including both Vic and Standing Bear. The story starts out with the killing of a sheep by possibly a lone wolf wandering from its place in Yellowstone National Park. But then next to the sheep kill is found the itinerant shepherd dangling from a tree. Was he intentionally hung or did he commit suicide? It does get lonely for a shepherd by himself. The owner of the sheep is a powerful family of Basque ranchers, the Extepares. The head of the family, Abe, is also taking care of his grandson who may be with him illegally 鈥� the boy's family lives in Colorado and want the boy back. Later in the novel, both the boy and his father disappear. So is this related to the murder of the shepherd? Also on hand is a woman who has been tracking the wolf that may have killed the sheep 鈥� she was also involved with the murdered shepherd. Walt has his hands full tying all this together which leads to a somewhat unexpected conclusion.
I have not read this series in order and I have missed a few books prior to this one which I really need to read. Although it is a series, I think all of these books can stand on their own but some details may be less clear without reading the prior novels. Anyway, I did enjoy this one and was glad to see Walt back in familiar surroundings. ...more
The Three Hostages was published in 1924 and is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by the Scottish author John Buchan. Hannay first appeared in The Three Hostages was published in 1924 and is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by the Scottish author John Buchan. Hannay first appeared in The Thirty-Nine Steps which is the novel Buchan is primarily known for. The Three Hostages is set sometime after WWI and involves a plot by a criminal group trying to profit from conditions following the war. Hannay is persuaded to help recover three hostages seized by associates of this gang. The hostages include a young man, a young woman, and a 10-year old boy. At first Hannay is reluctant to join into the investigation but a cohort, Dr. Greenslade, and he puzzle over a cryptic poem sent by the kidnappers which refers to a blind woman spinning, a Norwegian barn, and "the Fields of Eden". Greenslade remembers hearing some of this before and it comes to him that he heard it from a man named Dominick Medina, a gifted and popular society man, poet and politician. As Hannay investigates, it becomes clear that Medina is behind the plot. So will Hannay be able to find the hostages before a deadline set by the abductors?
This was really a pretty good action adventure novel that I enjoyed more than The Thirty-Nine Steps which I read a couple of years ago. I think Buchan was influenced a lot by both Rider Haggard and Conan Doyle. The conclusion of this novel reminded me somewhat of Doyle's The Final Problem where Sherlock Holmes faces Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. The novel also included elements of mysticism and the use of hypnotism to further the plot line. This was remindful of Sax Rohmer who may have been influenced by Buchan. This one also included a bit of anti-Semitism and racism scattered throughout the novel but that was very prevalent at the time this was written. Not sure if I will try to read more by Buchan but I wouldn't rule it out if something comes my way....more
Sinclair Lewis (1885 鈥� 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first author from the United States Sinclair Lewis (1885 鈥� 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first author from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." His 1925 novel, Arrowsmith, also received the Pulitzer Prize (which Lewis declined). Lewis was influenced by other contemporary American authors including H.G. Wells, Edith Wharton, and Theodore Dreiser, author of Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy. Lewis considered Dreiser "as a master without whom his own career would probably not have been possible." Lewis was born February 7, 1885, in the village of Sauk Centre, Minnesota which is the basis for the fictionalized town of Gopher Prairie, the setting for Main Street.
Main Street satirizes small town life and is probably Lewis's most famous novel. It was at the top of the best-seller lists when it was published in 1920 and was the best-selling novel for the period 1900-1925. The protagonist of the novel is Carol Kennicott, a librarian living in Saint Paul who marries Will Kennicott, a doctor from Gopher Prairie. Carol agrees to live in the small town with Will with the idea that she will be able to change the town for the better. She joins clubs, holds parties, and even organizes a somewhat disastrous play. But she is ultimately trapped in the small town and confronted with suspicion and hostility especially by the women there. She does find some comfort with other outsiders including a young effeminate man who works as a tailor who seems to fall for Carol. However, these "friends" all fail to meet up to Carol's expectations.
The novel takes place during the 1910s including the years prior to and during WWI. It criticizes the issues of the times including isolationism, socialism, religion, business and welfare as they are seen through the small-town mentality of the residents of Gopher Prairie. This was a rather long novel at over 500 pages but it is worth reading to get a realistic view of the cultural divide among Americans that is still very prevalent today....more
This is the second book in the very compelling Jane Whitefield series. I have read several of the books in this series and have enjoyed them a lot. I This is the second book in the very compelling Jane Whitefield series. I have read several of the books in this series and have enjoyed them a lot. I put off reading this one because I thought I had lost my copy of it, but, lo and behold, it finally turned up in our garage where I think it was lost for several years behind one of my boxes full of books to be read.
Jane Whitefield is a Native-American Seneca guide who leads people to a new life when they deserve a second chance and are being sought by others. She knows how to cover her tracks and provide her clients with new identities to start a new life. But in this one, Jane sees two of the protectors of a young boy killed before she could stop the tragedy. The boy was an heir to a fortune and had been missing and was going to be declared dead so the fortune could be distributed to charities as designated in the boy's grandmother's will. But was the money properly accounted for or has someone been siphoning off these funds. And why would they want the boy dead? And then there is Mary Perkins who had stolen millions from the Savings and Loan industry. She seeks out Jane's help to disappear when she tells Jane that she is being pursued by someone after the money she may have taken. So how do the two cases relate? A very despicable bad guy, a former cop who runs a security agency is after both the boy and Mary. Can Jane successfully take them out of harm's way?
Glad I was finally able to read this entry in the series. It was a very intense thriller that I found hard to put down. The characters were very well written and I always enjoy Jane's association with the Senecas and her use of Native American skills to provide sanctuary for her clients. I have a couple more books in this series to read that I'll definitely be looking forward to....more
Another good one in the Marlowe series. Marlowe is hired to find the missing wife of a Los Angeles business man. The wife has left him but he wants toAnother good one in the Marlowe series. Marlowe is hired to find the missing wife of a Los Angeles business man. The wife has left him but he wants to make sure she is safe from harm. The trail leads to the businessman's cabin in the mountains near San Bernardino on a small lake called Little Fawn Lake. The caretaker there is also missing his wife but she is soon discovered when Marlowe goes out on a small dock; the lady's arms are seen deep in the water. How was she drowned? Was it an accident, suicide, or murder? And what happened to the businessman's wife? She was last heard from in El Paso on her way to get a divorce in Mexico. But the man she was supposedly with, denies this story and he later ends up dead. So Marlowe has some detective work to do and all is definitely not as it seems.
As usual, I really enjoyed this ride with Marlowe in his noir world of the 1940s. The novel has some hints of WWII going on but this is not a focal point of the novel (It was published in 1944). I enjoyed the leisurely world of the San Bernardino mountains as well as the seamier side of Chandler's Bay City where a lot of this takes place. The plot was somewhat convoluted as most of Chandler's novels tend to be but this really adds to the story. This one was also made into a playing Marlowe. Another one to look out for!
This is the third book written by Chandler in his Philip Marlowe series. I read the first two books, THE BIG SLEEP, and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY a few yearThis is the third book written by Chandler in his Philip Marlowe series. I read the first two books, THE BIG SLEEP, and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY a few years ago and really enjoyed both of those classic noir novels. In this one, Marlowe is hired by a wealthy Pasadena widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Murdock, to try and recover a very valuable missing gold coin called the Brasher Doubloon which she thinks was stolen by her daughter-in-law who has apparently left her husband, Elizabeth's son. Mrs. Murdock is a very controlling woman and does not like her daughter-in-law who worked as a dancer in a nightclub. She also has a secretary who she is very condescending to and who seems to have something she is hiding. A coin dealer had contacted Mrs. Murdock about the gold coin which led her to find it was missing. Marlowe is on the case and heads to see the coin dealer. Along the way, he is followed by another young private detective who doesn't seem to know what he is doing. And then the case gets more complicated with a couple of murders. So who committed them and how do they relate to the stolen coin? Marlowe of course is able to put together the clues which include blackmail, murder, and possible rape to get to the bottom of the case. As usual, all was not as it seemed.
I enjoyed this one almost as much as the first two novels. It was full of Chandler's witty dialogue and descriptions of Los Angeles in the 1940s. The dialogue was typical of some of the noir movies made at that time. In fact, HIGH WINDOW was made into a movie in 1947 called starring George Montgomery as Marlowe. I'll be on the lookout for it! I also found out that a rare ! [image] [image]...more
Fugitive Pieces is a book about the holocaust and how it affected the survivors. However, it is not by any means a straight forward look at the devastFugitive Pieces is a book about the holocaust and how it affected the survivors. However, it is not by any means a straight forward look at the devastation but is rather an oblique look through the eyes of a Jewish boy, Jakob, who was rescued from a Polish city during the war and taken to a Greek island by Athos, a geologist and scholar. After the war, Athos and Jakob move to Toronto where Jakob marries, divorces, and falls in love again. He often thinks of his sister Bella who disappeared during the war and dwells upon her memory. Jakob and his wife, Michaela, move back to Greece into the former house of Athos where he is able to focus on his poetry and try to forget the horrors of the war. The last part of the novel is told from the perspective of Ben, whose parents escaped the holocaust. He is an expert on weather and an admirer of Jakob's poetry. It is hard for him to cope with the horrors his parents went through, especially how it affected his father. Towards the end of the novel, Ben goes to Greece to try to recover Jakob's lost journals.
The novel is told through the use of lyrical and rhythmic language including relationships to the earth through history, geology and the weather. Anne Michaels is a poet and it definitely shows in her writing that can be quite compelling. However, she doesn't let the reader forget the nightmare of the holocaust by including some rather graphic descriptions of what could have happened to both Jakob's and Ben's family. ...more
I remember that this book was very popular in the late 60s and early 70s. When I was in the military in the 70s, one of my friends was very literate aI remember that this book was very popular in the late 60s and early 70s. When I was in the military in the 70s, one of my friends was very literate and had recommended this to me. Unfortunately, I never did read it until now. It is basically a very philosophical novel showing the different sides of mans' psyche. The protagonist, Harry Haller, is near 50 and considers himself as half man and half wolf or a "Steppenwolf" and he feels that he is ill-suited for frivolous bourgeois society. He considers himself an intellect and associates himself with such greats as Mozart and Goethe. As he wanders the city, he comes upon a person who gives him a small book, Treatise on the Steppenwolf. This addresses Harry by name and describes himself including his dual personalities (shades of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), but also poses the possibility of multiple facets of every man's soul. It also describes Haller's suicidal tendencies. As Haller wanders the city, he meets Hermine who introduces him to the indulgences of the bourgeois including learning to dance, casual drug use, and finding a lover. He is also introduced to the "magic theater" where he is able to experience some of the fantasies in his mind including going back to meet again all the women he casually met during the previous 35 years. He also has a fantasy about an upcoming war and the death of Hermine.
This was quite a thought-provoking novel with its ideas about multiple souls within us all and its journey to self-discovery. I know I related to a lot of this and I probably would have enjoyed this more if I read it earlier in life (I'm now in my 70s). Hesse felt that this was his most misunderstood novel and felt that "readers focused on the suffering and despair missing the possibility of transcendence and healing." This novel was originally published in Germany in 1927 and was also a critique of Germany's middle class amidst the escalating militarism that preceded Hitler's rise to power but popular interest in it was renewed in the 1960s during the psychedelic movement because it was seen as a counterculture book including its depiction of free love and explicit drug use. And of course the name "" was also taken from this novel and used by the very popular rock band from the 60s....more
Another very powerful novel from Oates dealing with "the impact of sexual violence, racism, brutality, and power on innocent lives and probing the perAnother very powerful novel from Oates dealing with "the impact of sexual violence, racism, brutality, and power on innocent lives and probing the persistence of stereotypes, the nature of revenge, the complexities of truth, and our insatiable hunger for sensationalism." This quote is from the bookflap from this novel that is a fictionalized account of the . Brawley was an African American woman from New York who gained notoriety in November 1987 at age 15 when she falsely accused four white men of kidnapping and raping her over a four-day period. Al Sharpton helped in bringing the case to national prominence.
JCO tells this story of a 14-year-old girl, Sybilla Frye, who is found moaning in the basement of a closed factory in Pascayne, New Jersey. Sybilla had been beaten, tied up, and dog feces had been smeared on her face and hair. There were also racial epithets written in marker on her body. She claimed that she had been beaten by a group of white cops but she refused a rape evaluation at the local hospital. She and her mother just wanted the incident to be forgotten but news of it got out and before long a noted African-American Reverend, Marus Mudrick gets involved in the case and uses it as a cause against the white police and discrimination against the black society in New Jersey. Pascayne had been the site of race riots in 1967 and this incident is ready to spur more unrest 20 years later. So what is the truth and will it be brought to the surface?
I have read several of Oates' novels and short story collections and I'm always amazed at her ability to draw you into the heart of societal and family dysfunction. In this novel she delves deeply into the nature of racism and how distrust can affect both family and society as a whole. She explores "complex social, political, and moral themes鈥攖he enduring trauma of the past, modern racial and class tensions, the power of secrets, and the decisions we all make to protect those we love." In the afterword to this novel, Oates states that this novel is strongly linked to her novel them where she researched the Detroit riot of 1967. I recently read them and would highly recommend it along with anything else written by Oates....more
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