I just finished a book I saw at the library last week that wasn't on my original Spring Thing Reading Challenge list. Joyce Carol Oates is one of the great modern American authors but I just can never really get "into" her writing. I really can't. There was one I liked but I can't remember the name of it. This one caught my interest as parts of it was set in a fictitious county in the real southern Adirondacks and one part of the book mentions my hometown county (Herkimer County, NYS). The description of the settings in southern NY, the southern Adirondacks, the poverty-stricken areas of central NYS, and the New England area were excellent.
The story itself was somewhat intriguing but by about half way through the plot, it became bogged down for me and just too confusing and weird. It was a bit "gothic" and "dark". It was a little creepy too.....Mudwoman's character was.....well.....confusing. She is in some kind of psychosis or emotional battle and I just couldn't get into the whole depressing plot.
I understand the author wanted to point out the horrors of child abandonment and the struggles children face later in life after being abandoned, left for dead, raised in foster care and then later adopted. The character, Mudwoman, is described as strong (the first female president of a major Ivy League University in New England) BUT....she is also weak. I just couldn't connect with this story.
I'm not going to bother summarizing the plot because I just didn't care for this book. I don't think I really enjoy this author and I've tried several of her novels, only to give up about half way through!! This one I did read, although by the end I was just skimming.
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 3.
It was NOT my kind of novel.
2 comments:
Well good for you for giving the author one more shot.
LOL...Susanne! i really wanted to LIKE this book but UGH!!! i'm now reading Defending Jacob and it is excellent!!!!
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