This book starts off slowly, with sweeping descriptions of the landscape and the perfection of the Mulvaney family's idyllic life on their farm in upstate New York. It picks up, though, and the real story begins as the family's perfect facade is destroyed.

Essentially, this is the story of how a single event, and our reactions to it, can shape our entire lives. The lone Mulvaney daughter, Marianne, is raped following her junior prom. The attacker is never brought to justice and the shame surrounding the event causes Marianne's parents to send her away to live with a great-aunt. Mulvaney patriarch Michael becomes an alcoholic and loses the respect of his his fellow townspeople while his wife Corinne wants to carry on as if nothing has happened. Michael, Jr. distances himself from his family by joining the Marines while Academic middle brother Patrick becomes consumed with hatred for their father. The story is told by the youngest son, Judd, who is recruited by Patrick in his quest to avenge their sister's honor. The family is never quite able to overcome the shadow of the attack, and their story is heartbreaking.

Sometimes the bleakness can be a little oppressive and it's true that the characters are a little cookie-cutter in the beginning, but as the story moves on they become more complex and unique. I found the story powerful and the prose beautiful, and I couldn't out it down until I was weeping as I read the final pages.

I really needed Joyce Carol Oates to give me a break on this one. I was still reeling from the horrible experience I had of accidentally reading part of "Zombie" but I was prepared to try to forgive her. But even though no one in this book gave anyone else an ice-pick lobotomy, it was entirely devoid of any heart, hope, or mercy. I just don't need this in my life - there's nothing about this book stylistically that elevates it above its oppressively miserable 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?

I Mulvaney, una famiglia americana degli anni sessanta/settanta: una famiglia numerosa, quattro figli, due genitori molto innamorati, una tenuta. Felicità e prosperità erano il loro marchio distintivo.

“Eravamo i Mulvaney, vi ricordate di noi?

Forse pensavate che la nostra famiglia fosse più grande. Ho incontrato spesso persone convinte che noi Mulvaney fossimo virtualmente un clan, ma in realtà eravamo solo sei: mio padre, che era Michael John Mulvaney Sr., mia madre Corinne, i miei fratelli Mike Jr. e Patrick e mia sorella Marianne, e io, Judd.”

Fino a quando Marianne non fu stuprata.
Attorno a questo tragico evento la famiglia si sgretola e perde la propria unione.

Non sapranno più riconquistare la propria identità. Ci proveranno più e più volte, senza però riuscirci. Perché non avranno il coraggio di scoperchiare il tetto della casa in cui chiudono i propri segreti.

“Marianne leggeva avidamente Charlotte Brontë. Non solo l’obbligatorio Jane Eyre che aveva già letto al liceo, che amava e la faceva piangere, ma anche Villette: che eroina inattesa, l’appassionatamente casta Lucy Snowe. E un’antologia delle lettere di Charlotte Brontë. Da cui copiò:

Dall’oscurità sono uscita, all’oscurità posso facilmente tornare.”

Ogni membro della famiglia cercherà di farsi giustizia

«Dopo che me ne sono andato quel giorno, quella domenica di Pasqua, ricordi? Mi sono svuotato. Il veleno che avevo nel sangue è colato fuori. Come fossi stato malato, infetto, e non me ne fossi accorto finché il veleno è scomparso. Però non rimpiango nulla. Penso che la vendetta debba essere bella. I greci lo sapevano. Sangue chiama sangue. Credo che l’istinto della “giustizia” sia innato, presente nei nostri geni. Il bisogno di ristabilire l’equilibrio.»

Joyce Carol Oates frantuma le certezze del mondo borghese. Va al cuore delle relazioni per dimostrare che non esistono le famiglie perfette. Esistono le persone con i loro errori e le loro qualità. Esistono i legami che durano.

“Lascio me stesso alla terra per nascere dall’erba che amo,
Se ancora mi vuoi cercami sotto le suole delle scarpe.

Difficilmente saprai chi io sia o che cosa significhi,
E tuttavia sarò per te salutare,
E filtrerò e darò forza al tuo sangue.

Se non mi trovi subito non scoraggiarti,
Se non mi trovi in un posto cerca in un altro,
Da qualche parte starò fermo ad aspettare te.

Walt Whitman ~ Canto di me stesso


Immensa Joyce Carol Oates.
P.S. Ci sono tanti echi di Philip Roth in questo romanzo. In particolare, di Pastorale Americana.

"Šeimoje nuolat stengiesi išgirsti tai, kas neištariama balsu. Kita vertus, šeimos šurmulys - geriausias būdas pasislėpti."

Gyveno paprasta, draugiška šeima: mama, tėtis, vaikai. Kol nenutinka "tas įvykis". Malveinių šeimoje, net garsiai nekalbama apie tai, gal net negalvojama. Prasideda skiautinis gyvenimas.

Skaičiau ir galvojau, kaip aš nekenčiu vyresniojo Maiklo Malveinio ir motinos Korinos Malveini. Nenoriu jiems ieškoti jokių pateisinimų. Žinau, kad nerasiu ir niekas jų neišgelbės.

Kai vaikai pasirodė esantys stipresni už tėvus...

Really Early Bird comment: I really strongly dislike the current narration style. Pleh!

Basic Summary: "Perfect", popular, loveable Mulvaney family is adored by their town. Until, their only daughter is date raped on prom night and the town turns on them. Only it's much snootier and more boring than it sounds. All the kids go off and implode into messes, the Father becomes a drunk (not a spoiler!). I wouldn't call the book predictable but I wouldn't call it riveting.

The narration style drove me nuts and, I know, that is 100% personal opinion. There were dashes of 1st, 2nd and 3rd person narrative. Like someone dumped the storytelling into a blender and spit it back out. Despite the first chapter making it clear that the entire story is supposed to be narrated by the "journalist" youngest son.

Finished 8/28: I would rather have someone drop a brick on my face from a 3rd story building than have to re-read this book ever again. That being said, I know why it was recommended to me and the writing was pretty darn good and I may need to check into a different Joyce Carol Oates novel to test it out.

Final note: They describe the mother as a "graying redhead", which everyone knows is a rarity! Us natural redheads don't gray, we blonde!

Quotes:

1) "But I believe in uttering the truth, even if it hurts. Particularly if it huts".
2) "If nothing can cause such tears, what might something someday do?"

Main Review. Warning. This review is almost a spoiler from one end to the other. I would recommend this spoiler not be read if you are considering reading this book for the first time, and particularly if you are ready to start reading quite soon (so you will have no time to forget much of what I relate in the spoiler).You still have time to go back! Otherwise proceed to the following at My Writing … https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...


The next section is REALLY a spoiler, since it tells how everything eventually turns out. Please be fore-warned.

Epilogue : Together Again

Corinne, who after Michael dies eventually gets together with Sable and is happy once again and pulls off the reunion and everyone is there except Michael and that seems to be okay. And we sigh with relief because we so wanted Corrine to be happy, maybe, well at least some of us, more than any other of these six characters because except for Marianne of course it has been Corinne who has suffered the most in this story, surviving in all probability only because of her innate optimism and realism, and because of (or maybe in spite of) the religious ideas that consumed and okay also supported her through all her troubles.

Mike Jr., now at the reunion playing the most solid, non-charismatic role of all the family members, yet a role which we are forced to concede is for Mike Junior, a success story that was not foreseeable early on, a role and a success and a story which we know is worthy of a hard hand shake or back slap and a sincere good work Mike you did good and were we to be honest would even have to say and you did better than your dad, though you had not much more (yet nonetheless some more) to work with.

Patrick, who unbelievably to all his siblings accepts Corrine’s plea to attend the reunion, riding a motorcycle east with, astonishingly to his family, a girl who he is now with, camping on the way. Who is now revealed to be, at age 35 now more boyish than at 15, a person who they never knew or suspected could be Patrick, having found at last what he himself had been searching for.

Marianne, who at this reunion (now in her early thirties, Michael her father dead) appears with two children and her husband Will, having finally found herself in a life that seemed to be taken away from her by the years of separation, infrequent communication with her mother and siblings, and total rejection by her father who in his own mind still loved her but couldn’t bear the thinking of her or of what had happened or of what she had done or of what he had done. And as Judd writes of this reunion, “I saw that Marianne was in the prime of her young womanhood … color restored … a fullness to her face … the liquidy yearning in the eyes eased … and her life independent of all Mulvaneys if she should wish it.”

And Judd, alone and then with Patrick in the dimming twilight, feeling a happiness that reconciles and transcends the pain and anger and sorrow that had been in those fifteen lost years, the years in which they had all found, each in their own time and way, themselves. A happiness that he fears to be like a balloon getting bigger and bigger, fearful of its bursting, and brother Patrick saying “I feel exactly the same way”.

Finally Michael. Not at the reunion because deceased. So in the end he Michael is the only one of these characters that does not find himself, or if he does, and realizes that he has found himself, it is not an uplifting affair at all, since he in most respects has neither found his own salvation nor helped the family his family to find theirs, at least not except perhaps in one thing, but that thing no different in kind and very much less in quantity that Corinne’s contribution to their children finding their way, but nevertheless for all that still important, and all that Michael could grasp; that thing being that after all the years of all of them searching for themselves, they (including Corinne) are able to find that for which they searched in part because of those twenty years that Michael gave to them all (including Corinne) when he did help, as did Corinne to an even greater extent, to bring his children up well. And it was that upbringing that Michael did in fact contribute to (before his own flaw caused him to stop contributing), which enabled all of them, after years of searching to come to that self knowledge and self acceptance and their own version of Truth and thus at long last find against the odds perhaps that they, the (remaining) Mulvaney’s, despite losing him, became again and were again that family whose name he contributed – the Mulvaney’s.



And one more thing. (Some uninteresting literary comments.)
This is a book that I found to be infuriating in a way, but rewarding in many ways also. Infuriating because the author chooses to write in a disconnected timeline, so that when I got to writing the main text in this review, I could not for the life of me place the events in the exact chronological order that they occupied in the novel's actual timeline. Maybe just a problem with my memory and my inattention to detail. Based on this, I would advise anyone who wants to “study” (that is read the novel, get all you can out of it, and write a really incisive review, which I know I have not done) take notes as they read, particularly noting dates that things are said to have happened, when they run across them.

But rewarding because I found the structure of the story, though it reads smoothly, is exciting, and is quite frankly a wonderful sort of book for “Oprah’s Book Club”, is at the same time disconcertingly and unexpectedly complex. (To me, at any rate.)

Judd the narrator threw me a little, when I started the review. There are many things “he” relates in the story which there is little likelihood he could ever have known, even in hindsight. That is, how could he know really anything about what happens in the chapter “The Bog”? True, years later (even after the end of the Epilogue it would have to be) he could have pumped Patrick for all these details. But there is no plausible indication in the novel that he ever did this, despite his statement a couple pages before the end that there were many questions “he would have to ask Patrick”. To my mind, information gained at or after the reunion could not plausibly be written into the “family album”, but whatever. Ms. Oates has put in her time as a novelist, and certainly can do anything she wants and get a pass from me at any rate, she deserves it. Nothing but a quibble really.

But another thing you need to realize about Judd’s narration is the curious way that he is sometimes “I” in this narration and at other times “Judd”. What, is Judd the narrator, or only a part-time narrator with an author standing behind him? I choose to believe that this is just Judd switching between first and third person for some reason which is not clear to me, other than flow of the story maybe? Perhaps when he is “Judd” he is narrating something he is dredging up from memory, and when he is “I” he is writing his thoughts as they occur to him as he is writing? I don’t know. What I do know is that this is done so seamlessly that for this not-very attentive reader, it was something I never even really noticed until I started re-reading.

Here’s a little item that I noticed a couple times as I was reading, then as I went back through the book noticed more and more. Someone in school might want to write a term paper about this little tic, and what it might be used for. Here’s a few examples to show you what I’m talking about:

And Michael would laugh, laugh.
How Patrick had laughed, laughed.
She gave Corrine’s fluttery hand a tap and the women laughed, laughed.

(and it’s not confined to laughter)

Mom cried, cried.

I’’ve never seen this construction of a sentence before, the leaving out of the word “and” where it would normally go. Maybe Oates does this all the time, maybe it’s a patented quirk of her writing, I wouldn’t know because I’ve never read anything else by her. (Soon to be corrected I hope.)

And here’s something about Michael Mulvaney which might be the biggest mystery of the whole story. Unless I really missed it, there is no indication what exactly it was that caused Michael to bolt from his home at eighteen years of age, after his father pronounced Go to hell then! No son of mine. (I’ll let anyone who wants to find that quote find it on their own.) We are told (and how could Judd ever know this) that Michael resented the way his father had turned his sisters against him, though not his brothers. We know the way that Michael simply cannot think about not only what his daughter couldn’t do (provide evidence against her attacker), but also about simply what happened to her. So a suspicion builds in my mind that Michael may have done something when he was eighteen to a girl, very much like what was done to Marianne. And since his sister Marian is mentioned at least twice in the narrative as causing Michael, in his memory, particular anguish – could the girl he have done this to have been his sister Marian? Incest? And if so, how would one live with that, how would one get any self esteem, except through the eyes of others who (not knowing the truth about Michael Mulvaney) could give him the respect that he had lost irrevocably from his father and family. If anyone wants to see if they can make anything more of this than my maybe ridiculous speculations, the chapters to pay special attention to are “The Lovers” (in which we find that Michael had a pretty cavalier attitude toward women) and of course “The White Horse”, the story of Michael’s demise after leaving Corinne (concluding with the elegantly enigmatic section starting with The white horse. So much more alive, vivid, than Michael Mulvaney who was but smoke. Of course, ending this on a note which it began on, the frustrating thing about putting clues together about Michael is that they can occur virtually anywhere in the novel, not just in chapters that you know are principally about him.



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous review: Farewell to Cricket
Random review: Temporary Kings Dance to the Music ...
Next review: The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Previous library review: The Conquest Yxta Maya Murray
Next library review: The Things They Carried

As a first time reader of Joyce Carol Oates, I have to say I was impressed by this. She writes purposefully with a clear understanding of her subject, the subject here being family. We all have one, and love them or hate them, our lives are more often times than not a reflection of them and the choices they make.
The story here, a rather sprawling one, is about how an unfortunate event tears one such family apart. Sometimes heartbreaking, it took me a while to read mainly because of its length, plus I read multiple other books at any one time.
Some parts of the book seem to go on for too long, and there were a few times I was ready for it to end, but I can’t say that at any point I felt like this was a bad book. A very strong 4 stars.

n  The Mulvaneys: Gold Medal Winners for Bad Parentingn

I've read reviews by those who think this book is "what happens when a horrible event poisons a happy family" or something similar to that. Uh uh. Not quite. This book is all that, PLUS two ferociously bad parents, who stick to their ferociously bad parenting, and learn nothing, all through their journey.

(Forgive me if this review sounds catty, I'm still kinda pissed off.)

The Mulvaneys start off well. Michael Sr is so good looking his vivacious red-headed wife Corinne doesn't always know what he sees in her (aside: why must red-heads always be 'vivacious' or full of energy in some way?? There has GOT to be a lazy, or temperate red head out there in the world. A show of hands??). He starts a roofing business. They buy a farm. People like them. They have a few gorgeous sons, Michael Jr and Patrick, and then a daughter, Marianne, who they love more than anything. Oh and then Judd comes along later and it is he who is sort of telling this story. Sort of, because his narrative voice comes and goes - I was a little bit confused by this, actually.

They're a rowdy, loving bunch, all adorned with nicknames ("Curly", "Pinch", "Button", "Whistle" and the like) and accompanied always by a gaggle of animals.

Then, on prom night, something horrible happens to Marianne. And the sweet little life on the farm goes to shit. But it ain't because of what happened to Marianne. It's the sick-ass parenting of good-lookin Michael and feisty Corinne that screws everything up. I mean, they couldn't have reacted in a worse possible way. They ship off their victimized daughter, they exclude her and ignore her for YEARS, leaving her to fend for herself, to find a place of belonging somewhere else, because it sure as heck wasn't at home. Michael drinks; Corinne puts her red, spiritual head in the sand. And everyone around them gets screwed up, royally.

This is the first book I've read by Joyce Carol Oates. I overlooked the "Oprah's Pick" sticker and went for it. Maybe I should have trusted my initial instinct. Because not only is the plot rather off-putting, but this book is so much longer than it needed to be. There's so much unnecessary detailing, that I found my eyes sliding over entire paragraphs pertaining to one of the family cats' habits, or yet another romanticised memory of the family, pre-incident. I wasn't interested in the cats, and I wasn't interested in romanticising a family parented by these two numbskulls.

And, that's all I gotta say about that. ;)

La storia della famiglia Mulvaney e la scrittura della Oates mi hanno catturato fin dall’inizio e non mi sono fermata!
Una famiglia americana che, devastata da un’evento, cerca in tutti i modi di tenersi unita..
Mi sono piaciuti tutti i personaggi, in tutte le loro sfaccettature.

Nors knygos pradžia manęs nesužavėjo, bet kokia visgi gera ši knyga! Pradžioje bambėjau, kad neįdomu, per daug smulkmeniškumo, bet istorija mane vėliau įtraukė taip, kad vienu prisėdimu perskaičiau ir po 200 puslapių. Puikiai išpildyti veikėjai, paaiškinti jų gyvenimo sprendimai. Labai pykau ant veikėjų, už tai, kas jiems tuo metu atrodė geriausia. Didelis ačiū ir knygos vertėjai Ievai, dėl kurios tekstą skaityti buvo vienas malonumas.

"È stata solo una cosa che è successa. Le famiglie sono così a volte. Qualcosa va per il verso sbagliato e nessuno sa come rimediare e gli anni passano e...nessuno sa come rimediare".

Oates è una scrittrice scrupolosa, il grado di dettaglio raggiunto in questo romanzo lo dimostra e ne attesta la sapienza dello sguardo. Raccontando il destino dei Mulvaney, una famiglia numerosa e carismatica che negli anni 70 occupa una vivace fattoria a nord dello stato di New York, decide di descriverci le minuziosità della vita domestica: i soprannomi, i loro animali domestici, i piccoli rituali familiari, la grande casa. Ne fa un ritratto solido, mai idilliaco. Ci fa capire come la violenza colpisce persone normali, non speciali. La violenza colpisce tutti, è connaturata. E quando assesta il colpo, spaccando di fatto a metà la famiglia, lo fa con una precisione inquietante.

Oates è una scrittrice disturbante, che alterna il fiabesco e il mostruoso, che non ha paura di spiare negli angoli più nascosti delle soffitte e, anzi, è proprio lì che getta la sua luce. Non fa sconti, è financo crudele. Ma in questo romanzo non risparmia bellezza, felicità, tanto amore. I suoi romanzi hanno sempre una forte componente sociale fortissima ma in “una famiglia americana” sono le dinamiche familiari della cerchia più stretta dei Mulvaney che conquistano, le loro emozioni e i loro errori madornali.