We Were the Mulvaneys - Softcover

Oates, Joyce Carol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184115699X ISBN 13: 9781841156996

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2020

Synopsis

The unforgettable story of the rise, fall and ultimate redemption of an American family.

About this title

Review:

Joyce Carol Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys is the story of a happy family. After decades of marriage, Mum and Dad are still in love--and the proud parents of a brood of youngsters, which includes a star athlete, a class valedictorian and a popular cheerleader. Home is an idyllic place called High Point Farm, and the bonds of attachment within this all-American clan do seem deep and unconditional:

Mom paused again, drawing in her breath sharply, her eyes suffused with a special lustre, gazing upon her family one by one, with what crazy unbounded love she gazed upon us, and at such a moment my heart would contract as if this woman who was my mother had slipped her fingers inside my rib cage to contain it, as you might hold a wild, thrashing bird to comfort it.

But as we all know, Eden can't last forever. And in the hands of Joyce Carol Oates, who's chronicled just about every variety of familial dysfunction, you know the fall from grace is going to be memorable. By the time all is said and done, a rape occurs, a daughter is exiled, much alcohol is consumed and the farm is lost. Even to recount these events in retrospect is a trial for the Mulvaney offspring, one of whom declares: "When I say this is a hard reckoning I mean it's been like squeezing thick drops of blood from my veins."

In the hands of a lesser writer, this could be the stuff of a bad made-for-tv film but this is Oates' 26th novel, and by now she knows her material and her craft to perfection. We Were the Mulvaneys is populated with such richly observed and complex characters that you can't help but care about them, even as you wait for disaster to strike them down. --Anita Urquhart, Amazon.com

Review:

‘I read this book over a year ago, but this family still haunts me.’ Oprah Winfrey

‘“We Were the Mulvaneys” works not simply because of its meticulous details and gestures...What keeps us coming back to Oates Country is something stronger and spookier: her uncanny gift of making the page a window, with something on the other side that we'd swear was life itself.' The New York Times Book Review

'It is a book that will break your heart, heal it, then break it again every time you think about it.’ Los Angeles Times

'A brilliantly detailed and varied picture of family life and a succession of dramatic set pieces...These are people we recognise, and she makes us care deeply about them.' Kirkuss

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 184115699X
• ISBN 13: 9781841156996
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464