Joyce Carol Oates, one of my favorite authors, has written another sweeping family epic, much like her well known novel “We Were the Mulvaney’s”. We witness firsthand a once stable family collapse after the death of the patriarch of the family. ⁣
Unlike “We Were The Mulvaney’s” though, I struggled to finish this one. I was intrigued at the beginning of the novel, when we meet the much lauded Whitey McLaren, and then become a bystander to a vicious crime and his ultimate demise. I love books that have alternating character viewpoints, and we get several here, with the surviving members of the McLaren family: the matriarch Jessalyn, and their children Thom, Beverly, Lorene, Sophia, and Virgil. Each chapter is a detailed & lengthy glimpse into their lives before, during, and after the tragedy that has befallen them. ⁣
I feel guilty because of how much I love Ms. Oates and her previous works, and I tried to enjoy this book more, but it honestly became a chore to read it and the reason it took me over a month to complete it. Much of the prose in the chapters, particularly Jessalyn’s, were much too long. As a frequent reader of Oates’s work I’m accustomed to her unique style of prose, but after a while it grew tiring. Although I did feel quite sorry for Jessalyn as a character not only because of her husband’s passing, but mainly because her children, (especially Thom, Beverly, and Lorene) were so vile. They had no redeeming qualities and their chapters revealed more of the same. I much preferred Sophia and Virgil and looked forward to reading their chapters. ⁣
Despite not enjoying this one, I do eagerly look forward to Ms. Oates’s next book. If this is your first time reading this author, I would recommend skipping this one and picking up “We Were the Mulvaney’s” & “The Hazards of Time Travel” instead. (read less)

Joyce Carol Oates, one of my favorite authors, has written another sweeping family epic, much like her well known novel “We Were the Mulvaney’s”. We witness firsthand a once stable family collapse after the death of the patriarch of the family. ⁣
Unlike “We Were The Mulvaney’s” though, I struggled to finish this one. I was intrigued at the beginning of the novel, when we meet the much lauded (read more)

Oates frequently takes on topical issues in her novels, i.e. the murder of an abortion doctor by an extremist; the Jon Benet Ramsey murder; the exploitation of Marilyn Monroe by Hollywood, etc. So I thought I was in for a similar ride when this novel opened. Whitey McClaren, a former mayor in his late 60's, see the police pull a dark-skinned man from his car and begin brutally beating and tasing him. He pulls over and approaches, calling for the police to stop. Instead of heeding Whitey, the police turn on him (the young man they were beating, an Indian doctor, is now on the ground incapacitated). They tase Whitey several times, beat him brutally, kick him while he's on the ground and leave him unconscious. When he is later brought to the hospital in an ambulance his family are told that he suffered a stroke while driving and had an accident.
So I was ready for an Are the police really going to get away with this? ride. I was interested to see how Oates connected the dramatic opening incident with the BLM movement and the whole police brutality issue. Nope. Instead this whole aspect mostly disappears from the pages of this 700+ page novel, and it becomes a novel of family drama, an Oatesian one at that, with mostly unlikeable characters, including some very over-the-top mean people. Whitey's family consists of his wife Jesalyn and his 5 children. Jesalyn is the most sympathetic character. She loves her children and sees the best in everyone. She has always lived only for Whitey. She's also a bit annoying, because even for a 60-ish woman she is incredibly naive and unknowledgeable about ordinary skills for daily living--unable to activate a credit card and afraid to write a check. Thom, the oldest son, is Whitey's heir, and works in the family business. He is the first to suspect that Whitey may not had a stroke, or been in an accident--the airbags in Whitey's car had not been deployed. He photographs the injuries, but is stymied to pursue the matter further when Jesalyn refuses to allow an autopsy. Thom is extremely mean to other family members, especially youngest brother Virgil, and fairly early in the novel he commits an act of animal cruelty so awful I gasped and nearly stopped reading. The oldest daughter Beverly is a former prom queen, and is whiney and grasping. She's never outgrown her entitled teenage days, and is constantly exhibiting racist attitudes. She's afraid her mother will remarry and squander the inheritance she feels entitled to. She's mad Whitey's will left equal bequests to each of his children, believing she deserves more. The middle daughter Lorene is a high school principal who hates teenagers and is deservedly characterized by many of the students as a "she-Nazi." Over the course of the novel, her actions become increasingly bizarre and paranoid. One of her first actions is to hack into student accounts to change grades, activities, and/or recommendations to be less favorable so that students she thinks have "trolled" her won't be able to get into the colleges of their choice. She also interferes in various ways in the personal lives of the teachers she supervises, dividing them into those who like her and those who against her, ultimately devolving into what appears to be full-blown paranoia. The two youngest children are not as bad as the older three. (How on earth gentle Jesalyn raised such deplorable specimens is beyond me.) Sophia has dropped out of a Ph. D. program, is involved with a married man, and is mostly ignored by her family. The youngest, Virgil, is an artist, who has never held a "real" job, and mostly lives in a sort of hippie commune. So 95% of the book consists of bickering among Whitey's survivors as they navigate the first months and years after Whitey's death. There is very little about the in-your-face issue with which Oates opened the novel. This is not to say that I did not find it an interesting read, though it is perhaps a bit long. It is written in Oates's typical prose style--lots of parenthetical asides--almost breathless, but at the same time in no hurry to get to the point. I think a lot of people are opinionated about Oates; I happen to like her, and despite the unlikeable characters I recommend the book. 3 1/2 stars (read less)

Oates frequently takes on topical issues in her novels, i.e. the murder of an abortion doctor by an extremist; the Jon Benet Ramsey murder; the exploitation of Marilyn Monroe by Hollywood, etc. So I thought I was in for a similar ride when this novel opened. Whitey McClaren, a former mayor in his late 60's, see the police pull a dark-skinned man from his car and begin brutally beating (read more)