Iš pirmo žvilgsnio atrodo, jog Malveinių šeimai netrūksta nieko. Nuostabūs vaikai, pelną nešantis verslas bei paprasčiausiai laiminga šeima, kuriai viskas sekasi. Tačiau 1976 metais per Šv. Valentino dieną šeimos vienybę sugriauna nutikusi nelaimė. Nuo tos dienos Malveinių šeima nebebuvo tokia pati..
Jauniausias šeimos sūnus nusprendžia papasakoti visą Malveinių šeimos istoriją.

Tai buvo tikrai pagauli istorija, kurią buvo tikras malonumas skaityti. Akivaizdu, jog Oates turi talentą kurti šeimyniškas bei tikroviškas istorijas. Manęs ši istorija aikčioti neprivertė, tačiau tikrai puikia praleidau laiką skaitydama šią knygą.
Autorė puikiai sukūrė atmosferą, kurioje juntama, jog tuoj įvyks kažkoks įvykis, kuris pakeis visų veikėjų likimus. Mane be galo sužavėjo brolių ir seserų vienybė, kuri galbūt iš pradžių atrodė gana sunkiai apčiuopiama, tačiau vėliau broliai susivienijo dėl bendro tikslo.
Tai jausminga, jautri, bet tuo pačiu ir šviesą nešanti istorija. Nei kiek neabejoju, jog patiks mėgstantiems šeimos sagas.

3.5 stars, closer to 4, but the ending was a bit stilted.

I think this is one of Ms. Oates' best books. Everyone I know who's read it agrees that indeed its one of her more carefully constructed efforts. The characters do stay with you- Patrick, Judd, Marianne Mulvaney; and their parents Corinne and Michael Sr. Their downfall from their place in the sun truly is a tragedy that we do not want to witness for they are at heart good people brought down by tragic events.

But its also a novel where the end is a bit forced, and drags a bit, especially after the death of one of the major characters. But still, it definitely is worth reading.

n  Who doesn't desire his father's death?n
Fyodor Dostoevsky

<<2.5 stars>>

I want to write a few words about this novel while it's fresh on my mind instead of moving it to the back of my review line.

A first point would be that Oates could have shown what she wanted to show--the disintegration of a seemingly typical family--in three-hundred pages instead of four-hundred and fifty plus.

Besides its verbosity, the chief problem I had with the novel was that Oates kept trying to make the point that the family's downfall was not due to "any one person's fault." It was no doubt set in motion by the date rape of the daughter by a guy who attended high school with her and one of her three brothers. Yet, to assign no fault to the parents defies reason and truth when the father turned out to be a pathetic jackass for his absolute indifference or at least reckless cruelty to his daughter and the mother a complicit rag-a-muffin, recklessly indifferent to her baby girl.

It was just too much for me to believe the dad's unexplained refusal to have anything to do with his daughter after the rape, and the mom's role in casting the daughter out into the world on dad's behalf, as if the rape was their daughter's fault. I didn't get any indication (despite how much Oates seems to go on and on and on) that the parents believed their daughter was not credible or that she was "asking for" the rape, no matter how illogical such a belief would be.

Daddy Mulvaney is eaten up by resentment, and certainly that isn't unrealistic, as the reader watches him become a cancer to the world around him, including to his family. Most men cannot deal with problems that they cannot fix. And, a high school daughter cannot be "fixed" from the harm she has suffered from a rape. When Daddy realizes this, he is consumed with rage at the boy who raped her, at the boy's family, at the law, at the members of his country club, at everyone.

Mom is Daddy's hick flop who shows no reservations or guilt or shame about the treatment of her daughter.

Last, I found it nearly absurd that a mother would treat household pets and farm animals better and as more important than her own children.

There are simply too many unexplained oddities for the novel to feel true to me.

I hate to say that this novel could lead one to agree with Dostoevsky's rhetorical.

He querido leer este libro desde hace años, cualquiera que me conozca sabe lo mucho que lo busqué por todos lados, incluso en librerías en Estados Unidos, por algún motivo su edición había sido descontinuada y se habían retirado todas las copias disponibles de librerías.

Por fin lo puedo tener en mis manos y he podido darme el enorme gusto de leerlo, no solo ha cubierto mis expectativas, las ha superado, no me ha defraudado.

Cuando leí hace algún tiempo el Libro de los Baltimore de Joël Dicker, alguien comentó que era un tipo remake de este libro, bueno, es verdad que tienen su punto de coincidencia, creo que sobre todo en el estilo literario escogido por ambos autores y que cuentan la historia de una familia, por lo demás, bueno, no puedo compararlos.

Ya había leído a Joyce Carol Oates antes, así que si, conocía su enorme calidad literaria, pero por sobre cualquier tema técnico que se pueda decir de su estilo narrativo, hay algo que la caracteriza y es su gran y tremenda capacidad para transmitir, es apabullante leer cualquier cosa que ella escriba porque indudablemente te enfrentarás a sentir cada cosa que cuenta y muchas veces no son cosas agradables, sin embargo en mi caso particular me encanta encontrarme con libros que me muevan la fibra, que me lleguen.

Este libro está contado en mi primera persona por el hijo pequeño de los Mulvaney, Judd quien nos va narrando toda la historia del gran declive de esta preciosa y perfecta familia americana.

No voy a decir o a comentar nada sobre la historia porque de verdad es algo que vale la pena conocer y lo que en ella se desvela es tremendo, leerlo sin saber nada es algo que hay que vivir.

Solo decir que es un impresionante libro, en historia, en narrativa y por sobre cualquier otra cosa, en hacer que se te mueva desde la punta de los pies hasta el último de los cabellos.

Con esta autora siempre termino preguntándome ¿cómo le hace para sentarse a escribir en primera persona cosas como estas?

Un libro absoluta, completa y totalmente recomendable, un libro que tiene una reputación completamente ganada.

Why I Stopped Reading on p. 14: Yes, I would normally give a book more time to hook me (I try to give 10% or 50 pages, depending on the length), but there's no reason to do so this time. I can't abide the profusion of italics and exclamation points and pointless run-on sentences. I can't abide the cutesy voice of Judd, the 30-year-old baby of the family, gushing descriptions of his family without giving me any clue as to his own personality (except that he's a gusher). And I can already tell Judd is going to mess with me, withhold things, bait me and then not tell me The Big Secret. For 450 pages? No. Can't do it.

Oh, and this:

Everything recorded here happened and it's my task to suggest how, and why; why what might seem to be implausible or inexplicable at a distance--a beloved child's banishment by a loving father, like something in a Grimm fairy tale--isn't implausible or inexplicable from within. I will include as many "facts" as I can assemble; and the rest is conjecture, imagined but not invented. Much is based upon memory and conversations with family members about things I had not experienced firsthand nor could possibly know except in the way of the heart.

So the author here is warning me that 1.) The story is implausible, but the narrator will try to make me believe I missed something if I conclude that the story is implausible; 2.) The narrator will be unreliable in other ways as well; 3.) The author fully intends to break point-of-view rules.

I'm okay with a well-done unreliable narrator, but one that's badly done (purely to manipulate the reader) is one of my literary pet peeves, so ... Overall, plenty of reasons for an enthusiastic pass on this one.

4'5 ⭐

I have now read a few of Joyce Carol Oates' novels. Them comes immediately to mind. Initially this novel, including the writing style, seems so very different from Them. JCO makes extensive use of foreshadowing, and I find myself hoping for a different outcome than what has been indicated. The characters that JCO creates are rich in detail and depth, although at times I struggle trying to understand them. In the case of Corinne and Mike Sr., I had difficulty reconciling who these characters were at the beginning of the novel and who they became as the novel progressed. It just did not seem very likely or logical. I could not draw a line from where they started to where they ended up. With that said, the characters did become real to me. I found myself wanting to shout at them, to do something to help them recognize the impact of their behavior and actions.

I am impressed with JCO's skill as a writer. She delivers a complex plot with richly drawn characters and events that frustrate the reader as much as they challenge the characters. I did not like how the story ended; I felt the ending was not honest to the story.

Joyce Carol Oates nos ofrece un relato detallado de cómo una familia perfecta se precipita a los infiernos a raíz de un incidente de abusos sexuales. Es un tema frecuente en la literatura, de cómo el sueño americano puede convertirse en pesadilla a raíz de un imprevisto que altera el curso natural de las cosas y desata una serie de reacciones individuales y sociales que hacen que algunas personas – y especialmente las relaciones familiares – entren en una espiral destructiva.

En casi 600 páginas escritas sin prisa, demorándose en las descripciones de personas y ambientes, entramos en la vida de la familia Mulvaney – padre, madre, 3 hijos y una hija – con su vida idílica en la granja de High Point cerca de la pequeña población de Mt. Ephraim. El padre tiene un negocio y una posición social reconocida en la comunidad, para él es muy importante ser aceptado en el Country Club y otras asociaciones y ser respetado por las fuerzas vivas de la localidad. Su mujer, Corinne, es un personaje muy inusual, dedicada a su familia y a su pequeño negocio de antigüedades, con un punto de locura y excentricidad que no le impide ser una madre atenta y cariñosa. Los hijos son populares en la escuela y todo marcha sobre ruedas hasta que se produce un incidente de abusos que cambiará sus vidas para siempre.

Creo que la reflexión de la autora es si fue lo que pasó o más bien la reacción de los implicados lo que trajo tanto dolor. Hay también énfasis sobre el papel de la víctima y cómo es rechazada por la sociedad sin tener culpa alguna, de manera que el machismo se impone.

Junto con el drama familiar, esta novelaza (¡) viene a ser una ‘Comedia humana’ de los años 70 en la costa este de los USA, en la que se retratan diversos ambientes con movimientos y tendencias alternativos que se estaban desarrollando en aquel tiempo tan interesante. Hay una contraposición entre la sociedad rural y tradicional de Mount Ephraim y la cooperativa ecologista dirigida por Abelove - una especie de guru - o el refugio de animales también inspirado por una persona que quiere romper los límites estrechos de lo establecido.

Pero creo que el valor principal es que Joyce Carol Oates es una grandísima narradora, y lo que en manos de otro escritor habría resultado algo tocho, ella consigue que sea una lectura interesante y adictiva.

Su estilo nos ofrece continuos regalos, como cuando habla de las chicas populares en el instituto:

Sus sonrisas eran monedas de oro distribuidas descuidadamente en los corredores de la escuela, sus saludos – ‘Hola’ y ‘Qué tal!’ y ‘Cómo estás’ – eran melódicos como los gritos de las aves primaverales.

O cuando habla de la fugacidad de las cosas:

Extraño: que cuando una luz se apaga, inmediatamente después es como si nunca hubiera existido. La oscuridad lo llena todo de nuevo, por completo.

Al mismo tiempo que valora la familia, también es crítica con todo los aspectos negativos que puede comportar:

Nuestras vidas quedan definidas por los antojos, caprichos, crueldades de otros. Esa telaraña genética, los lazos de sangre. Era la más antigua maldición, más antigua que Dios. ‘¿Me aman?, ¿me quieren? ¿Quién me querrá, si no lo hacen mis padres?’.

En cuanto a la traducción, en general me ha parecido correcta, pero… hay cositas, cositas aquí y allá como:

…aquel apagado color pardo del abrigo (coat) invernal de los ciervos.
Yo diría que los ciervos no llevan abrigo, la traducción de ‘coat’ aquí tendría que ser ‘pelaje’. Y hay unas cuantas más, pero bueno, se deja leer.

Como síntesis de la historia – y de casi cualquier historia – tal como dice la autora:

¿qué palabras se pueden utilizar para resumir toda una vida, tan repleta de confusa felicidad interrumpida por aquel dolor absoluto en cámara lenta?

This book made me furious. I'm temporarily living in Princeton, and I told my housemate I'd like to track down JCO and throw it on her lawn.

After 400 pages of unremitting misery, suddenly everything turns sunny again and there's a happy ending. Jeez...I think the term for this is "deus ex machina." The "machina(s)" ("machinae") for these five main characters were:
1. bidding on items at auctions
2. a motorcyle
3. a drunk's last request
4. unclear
5. the Marine Corps

The Chicago Tribune characterized this book as demonstrating something along the lines of "the abiding ties of love," or some such crap.

Give me a break.

Confidential to Joyce Carol Oates: enough with the exclamation points to show that a character is excited or enthusiastic or whatever.

I have seen this movie on TV several times and finally found the book at the library. I was suprised at how long it was...nearly 500 pages...but I was excited to finally be reading it. In this novel, Oates tells the story of a near-perfect family...mom and dad in love, 4 loving siblings, all living in a small town on a farm filled with love and animals. Everything is going along fine until the only daughter, who is beautiful and universally loved, suffers a tragedy. From this point on, the entire family dynamic changes. Instead of coming together and working together to get past the tragedy, each member of the family drifts away and the family is irrevocably torn apart. The storyline is wonderful, but the book was too long and there were too many unnecessary details. I kept waiting for more to happen and kept reading faster and faster, hoping to get to some major plot development, but things dragged on and on. When I finally finished the book, I just felt incredibly depressed. The ending wasn't payoff enough for watching this family which has once been so loving and happy, tear each other and themselves up and ruin years and years of their lives. Just very, very sad.

I give this 3 stars because it is well written. But, I did not enjoy this novel. It felt like I was taking a relentless beating. The first couple hundred pages are so slow that one begins to wonder when the 'teasers' will end and the reader will find out what has happened to the family. This is such a downer of a story. Depressing and then infuriating. No one behaves in a manner that I could respect or admire. It's just one bad thing after another. Lest you remain unscathed by the human downfall, the animals and pets do not escape to a happily ever after either. I felt like I was being manipulated by JCO...I could just imagine her thinking that to cover all bases and have all readers thoroughly depressed, let's include the animal lover portion of the audience. First I felt depression, then I felt anger and I guess I was so turned off by the bludgeoning I felt with every page, every chapter, I ending up feeling disgust. This is a long novel and a lot of bad things happen until you get to the very end. The finale made my blood boil because after being beaten up for 500+ pages, there is a family reunion of sorts that puzzled me. Are we supposed to think all is okay now? Are we supposed to feel relief? I thought it was ludicrous. It actually ticked me off to create an ending that makes it seem like the members of this family are now ok.
'We Are the Mulvaneys' made me very grumpy and dissatisfied. (And I will not rant about the actual characters...I will save that for my book club, but needless to say, I did not like any of them.)

3.5 stars

You might know the Mulvaneys. You might be them, or want to be them. They might live next door, or across town. Their son might date your daughter, or you might have a beer with Michael Mulvaney, Sr., sometimes. The fact is that we all know the Mulvaneys. They are all of us, in every town.

But the Mulvaneys are also our worst nightmare. Our greatest fear realized, made flesh and bone. They are the worst thing that could happen, mostly because it could happen. And you know it.

The Mulvaneys are what we are when our children are small. Idyllic, smiling, happy. Hosting neighborhood barbecues, hiding nothing. They are, as Oates even says at one point, that perfect point of drunk intoxication, that blend of happy sociability and lack of inhibitions and optimism and energy.

Until it all comes crashing down.

Because the Mulvaneys are also who we are when our children grow up. The potential unraveling, the disappointed promises. The public embarrassment.

The novel is not a perfect novel. I hated the way the women were portrayed, I was constantly irritated and disappointed by their one-dimensional representation. Furthermore, I remember when the novel first came out, and my desire to read it. I wish I had read it then - over 20 years ago - because now it is most definitely dated. Unlike Hawthorne, who was haunted by his inability to write about the present, Oates has an uncanny ability to write about the present, so aptly that it limits the value of her otherwise infinitely valuable work. And I was further saddened by the societal indictment of the family and the things that happened to them. Is this really who we are - as families, as neighbors, as Americans?

But I related. And that perhaps is Oates’ gift - beyond her beautiful ability to wind prose descriptions on top of one another (yes repetitive but still largely resonant) - her ability to relate. The Mulvaneys are definitely people I know. They are people we all know.

We Were the Mulvaneys.