Helpful Score: 3
This being only the second Joyce Carol Oates book I've ever read, I don't know what to make of her! I really didn't enjoy this book. A colorful woman is murdered in a small town. The lives of the two 'persons of interest', her husband and her lover, are turned upside down by both her death and the police investigation. The woman and her lover are very interesting characters, she especially colored in the woman; I could picture her on the stage, singing her heart out and loving her audience by night, serving ice cream to her regulars by day. It is mainly the story of his daughter and her son, told 3 different times in different voices, getting more boring with each voice. Oates is 72 years old and her sex scenes show her age. She tries to be racy but sentences like this -- "There was no part of me he had not appropriated. I thought of neuro-anatomical lesions - a part of the cortex injured, a corresponding sense (sight, smell) appropriated, erased." -- did not come off steamy. They all three, woman, lover, husband are damaged sexy people to begin with, all of the children suffer with them, but the suffering and destruction are vague. It could have been a very good story but it seemed like an outline. A very long outline. This is one of those books that I finished because I almost always finish a book. I enjoyed the other book authored by her, 'Missing Mom' more, but her writing style is weird to me. Maybe she wouldn't like my writing style, either. I will try more by her but I wouldn't recommend this particular one at all. I'm glad I got it from the library and didn't spend money or points!
