This book was extremely hard to follow.

I managed to finish it, but I must admit that I am deeply disappointed in Joyce Carol Oates.

She has always been regarded as a superb author, with a reputation for crafting engaging and thought-provoking works.

However, this particular book left me completely confused.

The plot seemed convoluted and disjointed, making it difficult to keep track of the story.

The characters were not as well-developed as in her previous books, and I found it hard to connect with them on an emotional level.

Overall, I was really looking forward to this book, but unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations.

I hope that Joyce Carol Oates will return to her former glory in her future works.

I wasn't a fan of this book at all.

To begin with, I think the title was extremely misleading. It gave me the impression that the book would be about one thing, but in reality, it was something completely different.

I went into this reading experience with certain expectations, but unfortunately, they were not met. The only reason I managed to finish the book was because it was relatively short.

In my opinion, the book was rather odd. The writing style was choppy, which made it difficult to follow and understand. It felt as if the author was jumping from one idea to another without any clear connection.

Overall, I found the book to be rather meaningless. It didn't seem to have a clear message or purpose, and I didn't gain anything from reading it. I would not recommend this book to others.

The voice of this novel belongs to Genna. She was brought up by a militant lawyer and a drugged-out mom in the 70s.

She reconstructs the death of her college roommate 15 years ago. The roommate was a non-intelligent, prickly, and belligerent black girl.

The story is quite interesting. It explores what happens when a young woman struggles to make amends for her own elite upbringing to a black woman who has no interest in it.

I've just reread the rating star's definitions. I'm realizing that I have rated many of my books too high. However, I wish there was one more star between 'liked it' and 'really liked it'. This would provide a more nuanced way of expressing my level of enjoyment for different books.

Perhaps I need to be more critical when rating books in the future and not be so quick to give a high rating.

It's important to consider all aspects of a book, including the plot, characters, writing style, and overall impact.

By doing so, I can provide more accurate and useful reviews for myself and others.

I have not delved deeply into the works of Joyce Carol Oates. This particular book was a serendipitous find at the wonderful bookstore, William James Books, in Port Townsend, Washington.

Whenever I visit Port Townsend for a writing retreat, I have a rather peculiar little ritual. I enter William James, reach up my hand, and randomly select a book from the fiction section. That's precisely how I chose this book during my February visit to Port Townsend.

The subject matter of this book is of great significance. It explores the race relations between black students and white students in a small (fictional) liberal arts college in New England during the 1970s. The story is narrated by a white student from a peculiarly activist liberal-hippie-type family. In her freshman year, she gets a roommate who is a black girl from a sheltered fundamentalist Christian family.

The initial atmosphere is tense and becomes increasingly and strangely strained as the novel progresses, both within the white girl narrator's family and in the black roommate's experiences. I highly commend the author for delving into these extremely difficult racial issues through this book. However, I also believe there was ample opportunity to transcend the rather oddly contorted family backgrounds and behaviors depicted and present a more meaningful narrative.

It could have delved deeper into what it's like to be black in an almost all-white school, what it's like to be white and not understand or grasp the experience of a minority in an Ivy-League type school, and how those backgrounds interacted during the time period of the novel (the 1970s). I felt that the novel got side-tracked in a sort of "detective-style" mystery regarding the apparent racist incidents that occur during the novel.

I am aware that this author is an extremely prolific one, and I think she should have dedicated more time to this narrative to make it more relevant to reflecting on today's issues of racism.