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Title: We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates ISBN: 0-452-28282-9 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: September, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.1 (420 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Gripping & distressing but ultimately a pearl of great price
Comment: The Oprah book club selections are certainly getting more complex!
This book will strike an immediate chord to a family 'putting on airs' yet within the house having its problems. It hithome for me and will most likely hit home for many others because we know of families that seem perfect.... and often we find out much later what was truly happening.
I do not believe that the choice of Mt. Ephraim as the hometown of the Mulvaneys was by accident. Ephraim and Manasseh were sons of Joseph - and while the latter committed heinous crimes against all moral authority, Ephraim was a redeemer. A striking metaphor against which much hurt is set - and one missed by the editorial reviewers.
This family functions quite well - all that we'd say is 'too good to be true' *is* actually true until Marianne, the girl so beautifully described that we actually *feel* she's the 'girl next door' to *us* is sexually assaulted. Actually, we are never told whether it was rape or consensual. And the beauty of this is that for the purposes of this story it doesn't matter.
It is the *effect* of the assault on the family that begins their descent. I will not spoil the book by telling you the details as to how each of the brothers and the parents fall off their respective wagons. But the cumulative effect is devasting, as told by the narrator, a now adult youngest brother Judd.
How can such a complete destruction of a classic nuclear family be a book I'd want to read? Because as someone once said, it is when a man stares into the abyss that he finds his character.
Suffice it to say that when you are done with this book you will feel as though you knew the Mulvaneys, suffered with them, and wonder how you would have reacted.
I believe everyone can relate to one or more of the characters in this book.
I also believe that this book is a *must* read.
If you want a book that will make you think realistically about life's challenges - and not give you answers, but rather present situations that make you think about how you would respond, this is the book for you.
The cliche that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes never applied more.
And all of us can probably stand to look at this side of life. As with 'The Dark Side of the Light Chasers', it is by looking at our human frailties and faults, shining the light on ourselves, warts and all, that we can come to true self-awareness.
Rating: 2
Summary: Slow Motion Family Disintegration and Quick Reconnection
Comment: The Mulvaneys were living the American dream . . . until their perfect daughter, Marianne, was brutally raped while drunk on Prom night. No one in the family is able to deal with the reality, and their inability to cope drives a splintering wedge into the family and into each of their lives. You can see the collapse coming, like the inevitable deflation of a large balloon after a tiny hole develops, but Ms. Oates wants to take you through every last possible humiliation before allowing healing and reconciliation to occur.
Interestingly, Ms. Oates chose to date this novel into a time when rape was still not spoken about much in public . . . and premarital loss of female virginity was viewed as a moral lapse (even when caused by rape). The events would have different consequences today. She also doesn't focus that much on the rape, so this isn't a book about how a family can recover from such a trauma. Rather, she appears to have chosen as her theme that we need to be more open and communicative with one another. The family's collapse is due to their inability to face facts, help one another and move on. In that sense, the theme of this book is very much like the theme of Ms. Oates's more recent book, The Tattooed Girl.
We Were the Mulvaneys will appeal most to those who enjoy reading about the intimate details of family life, fun with pets and the pleasures of hobbies, gardening and outdoor life. Ms. Oates brings much enthusiasm to her portrayals of everyday events and thoughts that will ring true in their details.
This book needed a strong editorial hand, but didn't get it. It's about three times longer than it needs to be to capture the story that Ms. Oates tells. She makes a big point of having the youngest child, Judd, narrate the story . . . but everyone else narrates parts of the story that are larger than Judd's narration. The Judd narration seems tacked on rather than helpful. She would have done better to have had someone further removed be the narrator and play a bigger role. Ms. Oates also telegraphs her story . . . and you just have to keep reading page after page as she plays it out in constantly repeating detail around the same themes.
To me, Marianne is by far the most interesting and sympathetic character. I would have enjoyed reading a book that developed her story much more than this one did. She struggles with the normal feelings of guilt associated with being a victim while trying to follow the right Christian path of forgiving those who sin against her. Her path is a long and hard one, and Ms. Oates decides to skip the essential moments when she is healed.
At a time when many families are living economically fragile existences, this story will resonate with some as Mike Senior's reactions to the rape cause him to destroy his business. Other than that, there is little reason to read this book. If you want to learn more about how a person and a family should recover from rape, try a nonfiction book on that subject.
As I finished this book, I realized that we cannot tell and show others too often how much we love them.
Rating: 1
Summary: Tedious and Painful... don't buy into the hype
Comment: For all the great reviews this book has received, I found it to just be terrible. The writing was overly descriptive and the characters shallow.
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Title: Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio ISBN: 0142000205 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 08 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: While I Was Gone by Sue Miller, Sue Miller ISBN: 0345443284 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Fall On Your Knees (Oprah #45) by Ann-Marie MacDonald ISBN: 0743237188 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 24 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz ISBN: 0345439104 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 31 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen ISBN: 0440226104 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 02 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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