Joyce Carol Oates

I had initially thought I would enjoy this book which is a trilogy of shorter tales rather than a novel, although there are connecting characters and an underlying theme. The hero, only 16 at the start, is an engaging young would-be detective Xavier Kilgarvan, whose heroes include Sherlock Holmes. A horrifying case occurs at a mansion belonging to another branch of his family - where two uncles live and the three daughters of the eldest, both being brothers of his father. Xavier's father has been disinherited and ostracised by the rest of the family, and as the stories progress the general consensus is that this was unjust.

Xavier falls for his young cousin Perdita, one of the three daughters in question, and his life is governed by his unceasing passion for her despite her faithless and generally sociopathic behaviour. Meanwhile he remains oblivious to the unrequited love of her sister Therese, who is good-natured, intelligent and self-sacrificing.

The first story is a tragedy, where Xavier keeps secret the solution given the scandal it would cause the other branch of the family. Although it is effectively spooky in places, it is rather a cheat in that the detective genre which this supposedly fits into (the author's afterword makes it clear that in her five gothic novels she tackled particular genres, and the detective-mystery genre was the target here), it has a solution which would never be contemplated in any genuine story of the genre since it is entirely supernatural.

In the second story, echoes of Jack the Ripper and similar serial murders are evoked. Xavier is now twenty-eight, and lives in New York where he makes a successful living as a detective, but he returns to Winterthurn to try to track down the killer. He soon knows who it is, but his difficulty is in proving it. The reader also knows early on if they picked up on the MO used to kill a certain character's sister in the first story. The case ends ignominiously for Xavier when the killer presents a supernatural excuse for his crimes in court, and it is Xavier's own family who end up suffering, with him being cut off by his own parents as a result. He now seems permanently estranged from Perdita also, and she informs him of her decision to marry a good Christian man who will counteract her perceived inner evil.

In the final story, Xavier is having a midlife crisis as his fortieth birthday approaches. He responds to an anonymous summons back to Winterthurn and arrives shortly after a gruesome triple murder at the vicarage which, over time, leads directly to the rekindling of his relationship with the now widowed Perdita. Xavier is convinced of the killer's identity, pursues him, and eventually the community is also convinced he is right - yet he suffers an existential crisis and lives at a friend's for months, sunk in depression. There is a supposed happy ending for Perdita and he, and yet I couldn't help thinking that the real killer was much closer to home given certain clues dropped into the story. I found myself growing increasingly impatient with Xavier, especially in the final story. I also felt sorry for the ever faithful Therese, although her eventual 'settling' for a good man was probably the best thing she could have done.

The stories are held together by the interjections of an editor who in some places has omniscient insight into the thoughts of the characters - even those who die immediately afterwards without passing on those thoughts to anyone - and yet at other times is totally ignorant of what happened (a case in point being the 'quicksand' episode in the second story). The style is also a very laboured pastiche of 19th century style, not seen in actual classic novels, and in any case inappropriate - the editor makes it clear that he or she is writing some time after the last case which occurred shortly before WWI. So a more appropriate style would be something along the lines of Erskine Childers' "Riddles in the Sand" or even Agatha Christie whose first novel was published in 1920, not this laboured cod-Victoriana. All in all, I found this book rather a disappointment and am therefore rating it at an OK 2 stars.… (mais)

This book was a real ragbag of elements. I think I can see what the author meant to do but it didn't really come off.

On one level it is a portrayal of early 20th century North America among the privileged. It deals with the racism, misogyny, social injustice and downright nastiness of a lot of the people in power, centring around the feud between the president of Princeton University and the dean of the university. I recognised the name of Woodrow Wilson as a real life president of the USA, and the narrator (supposedly a son of one of the participants in the events, who was only a baby at the time and frequently inserts asides about rival historians who have also produced books on the events of the time) confirms that this is Wilson before he became the actual President. Other names, more well known to me as literary figures - Mark Twain, Jack London, Upton Sinclair - also crop up and eventually appear as minor characters, although there is quite a bit of material from the viewpoint of Sinclair. That material in particular came over as rather dragging down the pace of the book, though there was the irony that a socialist writer who deplored exploitation of the poor apparently is unable to see that he is exploiting his own wife. However, I have no idea if that bore any relation to the real-life author.

It is soon apparent that the historian-narrator is unreliable in the extreme. He sets out scenes in detail, where the main character often died soon after with no opportunity to tell what had happened to anyone else, and although many of the characters left journals, he tells us that quite a few were destroyed - and he eventually confesses to destroying one diary himself, an unforgiveable offence for a real historian to commit. It is quite clear that he can't possibly know what really happened and the confessions of certain characters to actually be devilish can't therefore be taken on face value. Also his harping on about things being 'unspeakable' and therefore his refusal to spell out what happened becomes rather tedious.

In the main plot, set against the political rivalries of Wilson and his circle, a series of murders or unexplained deaths occur, which are eventually indicated by the narrator as being caused by certain characters who have the ability to take on any appearance they wish in order to misdirect others. These characters are literally devils, or perhaps one devil in particular, who rules over a God-forsaken land called the Bog Kingdom. A great deal of violence, especially against women, is portrayed, and many of the female characters are shown as self deprecating and as going along with the general misogyny which insists, among other things, that it is pointless to allow women to have the vote. And certain men, one saintly one in particular, supposedly hide dark secrets although, as the only evidence of this is provided by the same unreliable narrator, it is anybody's guess if any of that is true either.

I did like a few of the characters, but soon learned this was the sort of book where it didn't do to become fond of particular characters due to the accelerating body count; however, there was a pleasant surprise about some of them near the end of the story. The book is well-written, but too rambling and frustrating on the whole, with sections inserted just to provoke a sensation in the reader, such as Sinclair's long narrative of the Carnegie Hall debacle and drunken meal afterwards, and in the end served to irritate rather than entertain. So I can only grant this an OK 2 stars.… (mais)

This book tackles a difficult subject matter, that of a young girl who is groomed by a 68-year-old wealthy man who has picked on her as his 'soul mate' and wants her to fulfil a particular role. She is from a poor background with a neglectful, exploitative mother and an absent father - and sisters who all got out by marriage as soon as they could leave home.

Katya has a summer job as a live-in nanny to two young children, and desperately craves affection and validation/being seen as a person in her own right. So she is set up to be the victim of Marcus Kidder, prominent citizen of the seaside town where she is working, and all round dilettante. In the course of the story we learn that he once recorded as a tenor, but did not pursue that, at some point made a lot of blown glass flowers which now decorate his house, has in the past written four picture books for children but then decided he had said everything he wanted to say, and more recently dabbles in music composure and arrangement, and in sketching and painting young women. His display of portraits of these women make not only Katya, but the reader also, wonder if he is in some sense collecting these women with her as the latest in a long line.

Kidder approaches and 'courts' her and gradually she falls under his spell, feeling that he 'loves' her although she is also repulsed at times by his physical decrepitude. But he starts making himself indispensable, first coming through with a 'loan' when Katya's gambling-addicted mother needs money fast, and later in paying Katya for sessions posing for him. But to keep him content she must go further each time - posing in daring undies and later in the nude, with disturbing scenes that at one point imply he has drugged and sexually assaulted, perhaps actually raped her. Meanwhile, so mixed up is Katya that she is drawn back to her abusive older cousin who has just been released from jail for armed robbery and who she also has recollections of raping her while getting her high on drugs.

Apart from Kidder's being rather pathetic when she becomes angry with him at times, and his obvious veneer of culture, there doesn't really seem to be much difference between the two men in their attitude to Katya. To neither of them is she an actual human being with hopes and needs of her own. And eventually the three characters end up on a collision course.

The book was quite short and a quick page-turning read. I did find it repetitive at times, especially Katya's monologues in which she often refers to herself by her full name in the third person. None of the characters is that sympathetic, even Katya herself. It has to be said though that she is the least culpable, being a minor at the receiving end of mistreatment from her employers, mother, cousin and Kidder.

The ending is pretty odd, especially with the seeming acquiescence of Kidder's chauffeur and housekeeper - is there no penalty for aiding/abetting suicide? And aren't they doing themselves out of a job, even if this is just anticipating either Kidder's death from old age or a recurrence of the cancer he is currently in remission from. If the latter did not reoccur, he might live to a ripe old age and they would enjoy many years of gainful employment so it is odd how they go along with it. And despite the marriage night motif and mention of a pre-nuptial, Katya is not actually married to him, so unless he has made her his beneficiary in a will, it isn't clear how she is going to financially benefit.

Altogether, and with that weird ending, the book for me balanced out at an 'OK' read, no more, so I am awarding it 2 stars.… (mais)