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The Gravedigger's Daughter

3.46 of 5 stars 3.46 · rating details · 4,843 ratings · 705 reviews

Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1936, the Schwarts immigrate to a small town in upstate New York. Here the father—a former high school teacher—is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. When local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty give rise to an unthinkable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca heads out into America. Embarki...more

ebook, 624 pages

Published October 13th 2009 by HarperCollins e-books (first published 2007)

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May 12, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

So what's the dark fear that lies in the inner heart of all erudite nerds? Namely this -- that no matter how educated, intelligent or well-read you are, there are always going to be a certain amount of very well-known authors you have never read at all, not even one single page of, and that at any mom...more (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

So what's the dark fear that lies in the inner heart of all erudite nerds? Namely this -- that no matter how educated, intelligent or well-read you are, there are always going to be a certain amount of very well-known authors you have never read at all, not even one single page of, and that at any moment this fact might be discovered by your fellow erudite nerds. Just take me, for example, who can count among completely unread authors such stalwarts as (deep breath, Jason, deep breath) Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Norman Mailer, Augusten Burroughs, Dave Eggers, and dozens more embarrassing admissions. So needless to say that I was excited to recently come across the latest novel by Joyce Carol Oates at my local library, 2007's The Gravedigger's Daughter, because Oates is yet another of these classic "everyone has read at least one book by her" authors who I haven't read myself; and that's apparently a shame, according to my fellow book-loving geeks, given that Oates (a lit professor at Princeton) has been a multiple nominee over the years of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, PEN/Faulkner Award and Orange Prize, not to mention the actual winner of an NBA (in 1970), a Stoker Award and a dozen other accolades. And this is to say nothing of The Gravedigger's Daughter in particular, which made the New York Times' "10 Most Notable Books of the Year" list last year; and of course all of this is small potatoes compared to the greatest achievement of Oates' entire career so far, making it into the Revered And Blessed Oprah's Book Club Hallowed Be Her Name Amen.

So I checked it out and sat down a couple of weeks ago to read it; and then about a week later, found myself finally giving up on it for good around page 250 or so (or roughly halfway through), after two days of literally dreading the idea of even physically picking the book up again. So what happened? Well, to answer that, maybe it would be better for me to ask you a series of questions, questions I've been starting to wonder more and more about the longer CCLaP has been open. Ready?

--Why is it that almost all novels revered by the academic community principally feature characters who are constantly in a state of being slightly miserable? And not miserable as in "interesting" miserable, but miserable as in "that whiny professor in the corner of the room who ruins every godd-mn party they're invited to" miserable?

--Why is it that almost all award-winning novels go way out of their way, deliberately out of their way, to show off what pretty language that author knows, completely removing the reader from the natural pace and rhythm of the story itself? Why can no academically revered novel simply let the reader get lost in the actual story, which is the entire point of a novel even existing?*

--Why is it that academes are so fascinated by mediocre EveryPeople living in bland surroundings, who do nothing with their unremarkable lives and yet somehow still manage to make a whole series of terrible life decisions? Why do so many people in the academic community think that this makes for fascinating literature, and why do they think we should sympathize or even care about such oblivious, socially retarded chumps?

It's the great mystery of the arts, I'm beginning to understand, as CCLaP has me reading academically-revered award-winning novels on a regular basis for the first time in my life; that the exact novels most lauded by this community are the very ones least fitting the definition of an entertaining novel, the ones that instead most call attention to themselves as "precious works of art" more fit for years of overeducated analysis instead of simple pleasure. And in this I guess the so-called "mainstream literature" community is just like any community of genre fans as well, in that they are constantly in need of justifying their existence too, constantly in need of explaining why anyone should devote such time and energy doing delicate little analyses of barely readable books. It's disappointing to be sure, to realize that these revered prize lists are in actuality not a reliable way at all to simply find good books by good authors; it's a lesson about the arts I'm reminded of again by The Gravedigger's Daughter, a lesson I think I'll be paying more attention to in the future.

Out of 10: 4.8

*And since we're on the subject....Sheesh, Oates, will you please stop using exclamation marks! Over and over! In awkward places in your paragraphs! To make your point! Crazy you are driving me! Good literature this is not! Oh, and speaking of which, why like Yoda all your Jewish characters talk? Slightly offensive in a hazily defined way it is! UGH, this book drove me crazy. (less)

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Jan 04, 2011 Nate D rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: the sadness of being a girl

Recommended to Nate D by: Christmas

I've not read a great deal of Joyce Carol Oates' copious publication list, but the Gravedigger's Daughter seems to be at the more reserved, conventional end of her spectrum. It is the story of a lifetime, a classic American lifetime from blighted immigrant upbringing to eventual success, or success-through-children as is often the case. In the meantime, much contemplation of the perils of being a women, and of being a single mother, and of being a foreigner. Of perseverance and the loneliness of...more I've not read a great deal of Joyce Carol Oates' copious publication list, but the Gravedigger's Daughter seems to be at the more reserved, conventional end of her spectrum. It is the story of a lifetime, a classic American lifetime from blighted immigrant upbringing to eventual success, or success-through-children as is often the case. In the meantime, much contemplation of the perils of being a women, and of being a single mother, and of being a foreigner. Of perseverance and the loneliness of steadfast purpose, and the necessary but insurmountably isolating walls we build. Strange that other reviews complain that the prose is excessive, as I would actually say that with her more markedly modernist or gothic tendancies reigned in somewhat, Oates' deft, precise touch for the description of details both internal and external is her strongest asset. Her words are crisp and effective, and occasionally glittering, without ever slowing from a brisk and utterly readable presentation. Which is to say that this reads essentially like the literary bestseller that it was, I suppose. I have to admit that such heartfelt realist narratives aren't entirely to my taste these days, but I managed not to be bored for almost 600 pages, which says something. Slows a bit towards the end (inevitably, I was more interested in the protagonist's tumultous youth than ever more stable middle age) but even then, Oates chooses her scenes well to keep things moving along. Oh, and Oates can't possibly shake off her all her gothic predilections, either -- one seemingly inconsequential point resurafaces rather startlingly, tying things a little tighter than expected. And now time to go back to some bizarro sci-fi or something.

...

Lengthy past thoughts at the mid-point:

For christmas. This is something like Joyce Carol Oates' 53rd novel (not exaggerating, she's written at least one a year for the length of her productive career, plus buckets of stories). And I'll admit, though I loved her eerie 1976 5-voice stream-of-consciousness nocturne Childwold (a totally random used bookshop selection whose design and first page seemed perfect), that I'm always a little unsure of picking up her others. Why? Because they can't all be good, can they? And I can't possibly dig through all of them in search of more Childwold-caliber material (it's barely on goodreads, and the reviews that there are are pretty middling). And I hear lots of conflicting things about her. Some people complain about her often dense prose and weirdo gothic modernism, some seem to steer clear based on the mass exposure and Oprah-book-clubbing of We Were the Mulvaneys which seems to suggest over-sentiment or something (what it probably actually suggests is overwhelming tragedy, sentimental or not). Some complain that her entire catalog is solid but increasingly redundant as you read more and more of it. So, tricky. So I'm actually pretty grateful for this well-placed gift, to slice through my indecision.

And so how is this? I'd worried that modern, more popular Oates might be a little more conservative in prose style, and compared to Childwold, it certainly is. But by normal bestseller standards, it's clear that Oates can really write. With sharp, finely-worked prose, with a decent sense of how to juggle chronology for juxtaposition and pacing, with conviction and convincing voice and convincing, lived sense of the inevitability of tragedy (and a little of that Faulknerian sense of familial doom). So it's pretty good. It captures well the sadness of being alive, the sadness of being an immigrant, The Sadness of Being a Girl (borrowing the phrase from an old Vietnamese psych rock song from this comp), which is what I gather a lot of "serious" (i.e. non-gothic, non-pseudonym) Oates is essentially concerned with. But at 600 hundred pages, a lot of this seems inessential, too. Rebecca Schwart's story is perhaps sadly quintessential, and the prose is great line-for-line, but there's nothing here that burns to be spoken, exactly, or that burns to be spoken slowly, over hundreds of pages of carefully-wrought description. (The inessentialness of a long, dense career, maybe. The inessentialness of telling things in great detail just because you can. Or maybe I've been spoiled by compact, concise storytelling lately.) But this sill moves well under its own momentum. I guess I'll have to see where the second half takes me.(less)

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Apr 02, 2009 Robin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book would have had much higher marks from me if it would have ended differently.

This is my first Joyce Carol Oates read and was for a face to face bookclub. In general I'm not drawn to "women in jepordy" stories but I'm always willing to give something new a try.

I was drawn to the character Rebecca and wanted to see her life work out for the better. And ultimately things did get better for her. She finally did re-marry although she was permenently damaged from her first husband.

The worst t...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Alisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first half of this novel was so angry, practically dripping with Jacob Schwart's spittle-rage and Tignor's controlling misogyny! The unpleasant feeling of reading about all this anger, together with the deft anxiety-inducing plot, made me read fast, fast, fast, barely skimming some sections. It is a tribute to the author's ability that I kept reading at all. A less well-written book I certainly would've put down. But Rebecca's unique survival story, one in which she crafts a new identity to...more

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Jul 03, 2008 Madeline rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I guess I liked this book, but reading it once is plenty for me. It was very well-written, but I just could not handle how ungodly depressing it was. Honestly, the main character can't seem to go ten pages without getting the shit kicked out of her (literally and figuratively) by all the Mean Bad Men in her life. First there's her father, who goes apeshit when his daughter dares to enter a spelling bee (I still don't get that); then there's her husband, who chooses beating the shit out of her as...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008february

A character's worst fear should be to appear in a Joyce Carol Oates novel. It's pretty well guaranteed his or her like is going to suck.

Still, though, I keep picking them up. And as decently written as they may be, I'm miserable right along with everyone else. There's never a glimmer of hope, a break from the compounding gloom. As a reader, the weight lands firmly on your shoulders for the length of the book. Join us for a walk of pain.

Gravedigger's Daughter is no exception. I felt for the prota...more

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Apr 30, 2008 Ruth rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my necessary breezy read after the last one. It's the second thing I've read by this author, who seems to be really well-appreciated by the world, but I am still ambivalent about her work. It is easy to get into but also easy to fall right back out of- I guess that's what I will say. She is very prolific, though- it could be that I'm just reading the wrong things. This one is about a woman who has a really hard childhood and young adulthood and gets a lot of abuse, and then she goes on...more

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Dec 03, 2007 Deb rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Joyce Carol Oates is probably our most prolific writer. I've read so many of her novels, and she always gets me in her spell. She often writes of troubled young women who become victims to brutish men because of making bad choices and having low self-esteem. She has killer lines, which she often uses as repetitive phrases or tropes effectively throughout the book. She can do so much in one line, for example:

"Mrs. Chester Gallagher
Each time she signed her new name it seemed to her that her handwr...more

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Feb 10, 2008 Jenny rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Once again, I must diverge from the critics who loved this Joyce Carol Oates novel. Apparently I didn't learn my lesson with "We Were the Mulvaneys." I don't know where to start, so I'll just list the major problems: a bloated and disjointed narrative, overwrought prose, and a nonsensical epilogue. Good times...

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Aug 05, 2009 Christina Stind rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, fiction, random-picks

This is a book about identity, about coming to terms with your past and being who you are. About family, battered women and their husbands. About the immigrant experience.

Oates details the story of Rebecca Schwart's life from her earliest childhood and on. Rebecca is the third child of poor, immigrant Jewish parents who arrived in the States in the 30 and Rebecca was actually born in New York Harbor, making her a US citizen as the only one in the family.

The book starts with Rebecca thinking back...more This is a book about identity, about coming to terms with your past and being who you are. About family, battered women and their husbands. About the immigrant experience.

Oates details the story of Rebecca Schwart's life from her earliest childhood and on. Rebecca is the third child of poor, immigrant Jewish parents who arrived in the States in the 30 and Rebecca was actually born in New York Harbor, making her a US citizen as the only one in the family.

The book starts with Rebecca thinking back on her parents - and we learn that her father came to a violent end, but not how - I was instantly hooked. Then the book follows Rebecca in her life as a wife to Niles Tignor and mother of little Niley (Niles Jr.) with flashes back to her childhood with a father being more and more mad and feeling like it was them against the others. He forbade Rebecca's mother to speak German and in that way stripped her of her ability to communicate and be an individual and he controlled everything in the house. In Germany, he was a teacher and a cultured man - in the States he works as the gravedigger doing manual labor and is not respected at all - he and his family are actually victims of some anti-semitic 'jokes', both real and imagined.

In Rebecca's current life, she is married and a mother - but her husband perhaps isn't all he claimed to be and Rebecca has to escape with Niley and she starts a new life - as Hazel Jones. She chooses that name because she meets a man one day who thinks she's Hazel Jones and she stars believing she could be.
The truth of that encounter is revealed towards the end of the book - in a way, only Oates can pull off.

But Hazel manages to - cunningly - create a new life and two new identities for her and her little boy, Zacharias who turns out to be a wonderful piano player - a skill he inherited from his maternal grandmother.

In the end, Rebecca comes full circle and face to face with her past.

As always, I love the way Oates writes. She seems so in control of her language and her story and characters and everything works together beautifully. Her way of letting a person's thoughts and imaginations being part of the text but written in cursive, makes the characters have so much depth and this was another wonderful book by her.

I always say - and write - that Oates write about the American dream gone bad. In this book, she doesn't. Rebecca actually achieve the American dream - she creates a great life for herself and her son. But she does so at a cost - no one knows who she actually is (except Niley/Zacharias who grows detached because of this shared, but hidden, knowledge) and she constantly wears a facade as the perfect woman, always smiling, always pleasing her man. She pays a huge price for this, her chosen way of life - and even though she had to go into hiding to get away from her abusive husband, the question remains whether the way she chose to do it was worth it in the end.
And she learns the wisdom of her father's advice: In animal life the weak are quickly disposed of. So you must hide your weakness, Rebecca. We must.. And she does.(less)

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Aug 27, 2007 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This story depicts the tale of the Shwarts who, in the mid 1930s, fled Nazi Germany and have been reduced to life in a tiny cottage while their father, a former school teacher, can only find work as a cemetary caretaker. Perceived and actual intolerance by members of the community only exacerbate the family's frail mental health and, ultimately, tragedy strikes when our protagonist, Rebecca, is only 13 years old. The reader witnesses Rebecca's trials of youth, her struggles to escape an abusive...more

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Jun 17, 2009 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I'm exploring the works of Joyce Carol Oates (though she writes so prolifically that this could take a lifetime). I chose this novel after reading a review of it in the NY Times. I agree with the reviewer that she is too long-winded, particularly in the first half of this 582-paged novel, but I found it worth reading nonetheless. I knew nothing of the terrible treatment Jews received in America (yes, America) during WWII and following, and this is one of the several topics woven throughout this...more

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May 17, 2008 Tina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recently-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 08, 2009 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Joyce Carol Oates is really an amazing writer, however, I don’t necessarily love her dark themed writing. This book is the saga of Rebecca Shwart, a daughter of Jewish immigrants to America whose lives don’t correspond so nicely with the American dream. After losing both brothers (they ran away) and parents (her father shot her mother), she marries to find happiness but instead finds abuse and loneliness. She and her son escape the abusive relationship and eventually find a sort of happiness but...more

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Dec 27, 2008 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've read her short stories but this is my first novel. She can surely write. I love her style and while the story is quite graphic in its violence and abuse, it was not gratuitous, but necessary, handled well.

It was a story of survival, escape. One family escapes the holocaust only to confront isolation and prejudice in America, eventually leading a father to insanity and self-destruction. The journey of the surviving daughter reveals another from of persecution--the persecution of women/ a wo...more

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May 14, 2013 Bonnie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The setting is upstate New York in 1936 where a Jewish family desperate to escape Nazi Germany has immigrated. The father, a former high school teacher, is demeaned by the only job he can get: grave digger and cemetery caretaker. The family is ridiculed and mocked for being Jewish and the degradation finally results in the father killing his wife and himself. Rebecca is the only daughter and her father repeatedly says, "You will not be harmed; you were born here." The novel is extreme realism an...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Tina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Es un muy buen libro en el cual hay una unnumerable mezcla de acciones y sentimientos. Trata de una familia judía alemana que emigra a Estados Unidos huyendo de los nazis; es una familia disfuncional, llena de resentimientos, carente de amor y buenos modales en la que sólo se ve dolor y desgracia. Así que la hija menor, la hija del sepulturero, que es el empleo del padre, crece desubicada, sin conocer siquiera su verdadero apellido, sin conocer su verdadero lugar de nacimiento pero sabe abrirse...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Desiree rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was confusing for me. She alludes to some things that made me stop and think to myself, "...wait, what?". I'd move back several pages, re-read them, and find myself still confused.

For instance, her miscarriage. I feel like an idiot admitting that I didn't get it, but: Rebecca's husband catches her chattering on happily about how much they both want the pregnancy, and he gets angry when he over-hears it. He tensely asks for "a word" with his wife, making it clear to the reader that som...more This book was confusing for me. She alludes to some things that made me stop and think to myself, "...wait, what?". I'd move back several pages, re-read them, and find myself still confused.

For instance, her miscarriage. I feel like an idiot admitting that I didn't get it, but: Rebecca's husband catches her chattering on happily about how much they both want the pregnancy, and he gets angry when he over-hears it. He tensely asks for "a word" with his wife, making it clear to the reader that something unpleasant is about to come. "The cramps came about a half hour later...." and THEN author clearly states that he had not "struck her there, nor was Tignor to blame....[he] was not a man to strike a woman with his fists, and not a pregnant woman in the belly." The last sentence is him telling her: "The next one you can keep," implying that he did, indeed have something to do with it.

Maybe it was just too subtle for me to understand, but the book was full of moments like this, where she contradicted herself and I couldn't figure out what parts were Rebecca fooling herself and what parts were the author's failure to connect to and make her points clear to the reader. Were we supposed to get that, while he may not have directly caused the miscarriage, Tignor's need to control Rebecca had him planting the seed in her head that he had that much power over her that he could cause one merely because he wished it so? Were were supposed to be left to draw our own conclusions, instead, or was the author merely missing the boat at trying to say he DID in fact do something something, but Rebecca fooled herself into forgetting/blocking it out?

This was frustrating, having to fill in my own plot, in a sense, and instances that are similar happened frequently throughout the whole book.

On top of that issue, a lot of this text seemed superfluous to me, like parts of the book were like muck to wade through, trying to figure out how it had relevance to the plot; and most of the time there was no relevance. Big chunks of the book seemed to be only included for the sake of putting words on a page, and did nothing to further the story.

Someone else said they felt this book was missing a sense of "conflict and resolution" and I'll agree with that. Rebecca leaves Tignor and great effort is put into having the reader on pins and needles for a conflict when he eventually finds them, only to be dropped down flat when it's revealed he died a long time before and they were paranoid for nothing. The end of the book is also very abrupt and many of the book's other loose ends do not end up resolved or tied up, at all.

I'm also going to assume, by the fact that Rebecca did not respond to Freyda's last letter (which was full of confusion on Freyda's part and clearly asked for a response) that Rebecca died before another letter could be returned.

Also, I have to mention, the name "Schwart" just annoyed me. I'll never understand why she didn't just tack the Z on the end of it. THAT, like the rest of the novel, left me feeling frustrated and like the book had huge pieces of being incomplete within it. My mind wanted to fill in Z, and the blanks, through the entire book. It was unsatisfying. (less)

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Mar 24, 2012 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a very hard book to read. It’s not that it is poorly written; it’s that the protagonist’s situation struck a raw note and was so painful for me to read about.

Rebecca Schwart’s life is all about fear. From the time she is a small child, fear rules her life. Daughter of immigrants who fled the Nazis, she lives in horrible poverty, her father being reduced from a high school math teacher in Germany to a cemetery caretaker in America. Understandably bitter by their reduced circumstances an...more This was a very hard book to read. It’s not that it is poorly written; it’s that the protagonist’s situation struck a raw note and was so painful for me to read about.

Rebecca Schwart’s life is all about fear. From the time she is a small child, fear rules her life. Daughter of immigrants who fled the Nazis, she lives in horrible poverty, her father being reduced from a high school math teacher in Germany to a cemetery caretaker in America. Understandably bitter by their reduced circumstances and the way they are treated by Americans, her father is authoritarian and abusive, taking his anger and defeat out on his family. Rebecca learns to be what her father wants her to be to keep things running smoothly. After tragedy turns her out on her own, she uses this talent of being what others want her to be to her advantage. It keeps her alive through brutal marriage; it enables her to run and start a new life.

Sadly, although Rebecca (now living under the name of Hazel Jones- even that name is a case of her becoming what someone else wants her to be) manages to make her way to a good life, she loses herself. She’s incredibly perceptive as to what people want, and very adept at giving them that. While she certainly has standards- she is firm as to what lines she will not cross- she does not present her real self to a single person. She is more mirror than human.

It’s what most every person in an abusive relationship learns to do; Rebecca just takes it much further than most do. After getting involved with her first husband, she has not pursued a single thing she really wanted to do other than raise her beloved and musically gifted son. In this novel of 580 pages, we never do find out what Rebecca wanted out of life other than to raise her son safely.

It’s a powerful book. I found it painfully long and slow, but could not stop reading, wondering if Rebecca could keep up the act and not make a misstep that would cause her house of cards to tumble down. If you want to see some of the psychological effects of being in an abusive, manipulative, relationship are, read this book. If you have been in that kind of relationship, you might find this book to be very triggering.
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Mar 11, 2012 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-school, own

This is my first review of a book so bear with me.
I decided to read this book as an independent reading book for my Literature Class.
I cannot say that I enjoyed this book. I would give it 3 1/2 stars if I could. It was long and boring and seemed to drag on forever without any remorse for poor Rebecca. Even in the end, I could tell that Rebecca was not entirely happy with her life, but she knew it was as good as it was going to get. However, I liked the fact that it produced a strong female char...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Meredith rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 18, 2011 TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-authors, contemporary-authors, literary-fiction

When I pick up a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, I want to feel I’m in the hands of a writer who really knows what she’s doing. Oates has published so many books, I’ve lost count of just how many, though I’m pretty certain this is her thirty-sixth novel. But even though I want to trust this author to take me on an interesting and unforgettable literary journey, there’s always been something about Oates’ work that won’t let me get truly involved. Some of her books, like Soltice, just leave me cold, w...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Geetha rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Joyce Carol Oates’s “The GraveDigger’s Daughter” is a powerful story. It is not a pleasant book to read given that the main theme of the book is male violence. But then life is not always pleasant, is it? To me however, the main theme of the story is survival. The human instinct for survival is strong and a mother’s instinct to fight for the survival of her child is even stronger. One of the main elements required to successfully survive horrendous life experiences is the ability and willingness...more Joyce Carol Oates’s “The GraveDigger’s Daughter” is a powerful story. It is not a pleasant book to read given that the main theme of the book is male violence. But then life is not always pleasant, is it? To me however, the main theme of the story is survival. The human instinct for survival is strong and a mother’s instinct to fight for the survival of her child is even stronger. One of the main elements required to successfully survive horrendous life experiences is the ability and willingness to leave the past behind. Jacob Schwart allows himself to become a victim of his past. He cannot forget that he was once a math teacher, he cannot forget what the Nazis did to his people. By dwelling in the past he neglects his own and his children’s future. Thus he does not survive. Whereas his daughter Rebecca reinvents her life and consciously leaves her past behind and therefore survives. Some readers will see Rebecca as an opportunist. I saw her as someone who does what she has to in order to cope with a very difficult life.
Another theme covered in the book is the immigrant experience. Jacob Schwart and his family are allowed to immigrate to America. But his manhood and dignity are taken away from him when racism in the new country will give this cultured, math teacher no job but that of gravedigger. In our society today we have engineers and doctors newly immigrated, driving taxis. How does this situation negatively impact the new immigrant and his family and how therefore does it negatively impact the society he immigrates into? The book raises these important questions.
Some readers may find the book a little verbose (582 pages) though it does move along without losing steam. Also I felt that a few subplots of the novel were not completed as also we don’t know about the background of some of the main characters in the book which leaves us wondering how they came to be the way they are portrayed in the book.
I recommend this book as a choice for book clubs; it will stimulate plenty of discussion.
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Jan 25, 2011 Darryl Mexic rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

** “The Gravedigger’s Daughter” by Joyce Carol Oates. Ms Oates is a prolific, popular, and critically acclaimed author. She also teaches humanities at Princeton University. Maybe those credentials raise expectations too much. This novel is at best only mildly interesting. The heroin, Rachel Schwarts, was born as her parents’ ship, taking them in their 1936 escape from the Nazis to the United States, lands in New York. The father, who had been a math teacher in Germany, takes the only job he can...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel is narrated by the main character, Rebecca, in the third person, primarily using free indirect discourse. Oates’ style is to make liberal use of sentence fragments, and these seem consistent with the FID approach. The initial section of the first of three parts of the book reveals Rebecca as a young woman of about 23, working in a sweatshop factory to support herself and her three-year-old son. Her husband, Niles Trignor, is often away from home at unknown locations for days and weeks...more This novel is narrated by the main character, Rebecca, in the third person, primarily using free indirect discourse. Oates’ style is to make liberal use of sentence fragments, and these seem consistent with the FID approach. The initial section of the first of three parts of the book reveals Rebecca as a young woman of about 23, working in a sweatshop factory to support herself and her three-year-old son. Her husband, Niles Trignor, is often away from home at unknown locations for days and weeks at a time and is narcissistic and abusive, Rebecca accepting the passive role as her lot and making no attempt to challenge him or extricate herself from the situation. References are made to her hatred of her deceased father, who seems to have died violently.

The second major section of the novel jumps back to Rebecca’s childhood. Her parents were immigrants from Germany in 1936, settling in rural upstate New York. Her two older brothers traveled across the Atlantic with her parents, but she was actually born on the ship in NY Harbor, just as they arrived in the US. Her father, a university-educated high school math teacher in Germany (and the narrative suggests that the family is Jewish, although the parents deny and hate Judaism), is given the job of cemetery caretaker and gravedigger. Rebecca’s home life is very emotionally impoverished and physically abusive.

Oates’ use of dialogue is skillful; each character speaks distinctively, consistent with his or her personality, contributing to Oates’ development of psychology and plot.

Among other things, this novel is an exploration of the role and experience of the outsider, the “other.” And of the extent to which environment determines one’s character and fate. Rebecca’s family is accused of being Jewish, “Krauts,” Nazis, and their place as poor, uneducated, of marginal occupation make them perfect targets for the citizens of their small community. This part of the novel draws to a close as the mystery of what happened to Rebecca’s parents is revealed. After a few chapters outlining her life during the following few years, Niles Tignor enters the story. He and Rebecca eventually marry, largely because she will only submit to him sexually if they are married. Their relationship, which becomes physically abusive to her (she accepts that as “what she deserves”), is based on his intense sexual desire for her and her need to be needed and desired, there being little mutual sharing in any other way - she knows little about him and is not welcome to ask. One wonders how her background has driven this dynamic. Finally, after another severe beating from her “husband” (having learned that her marriage might not be valid), Rebecca flees with her son, thus ending Part I of three parts of the novel.

Oates has skillfully crafted an atmosphere that is oppressive and claustrophobic, the reader being powerfully drawn into Rebecca’s consciousness. The metaphors in this writing are sharp and effective, often passing subliminally in the reader’s own awareness.

In Part II, having changed her name and that of her son, Rebecca (now “Hazel”) works in a variety of menial jobs in a series of small towns in Upstate New York, always on the move, always providing little information about her background to those who ask. And increasingly the narrative moves into using free indirect discourse to explore the consciousness of “Zack,” her son. During the following few years, Hazel establishes a new identity, gradually becoming less vigilant about being found by Tignor. She is romantically pursued by Chet Gallagher, a well-to-do jazz pianist who is emotionally estranged from his wealthy family and very needy in his own right. Zack, in the meantime, is proving to be a musical prodigy, excelling at the piano. But Hazel continues to be wary, refusing to commit herself to a new relationship and hiding all aspects of her background. Eventually, though, she and Zack move in with Gallagher. Later, Hazel learns that Tignor is dead.

Part III, containing an Epilogue, is by far the shortest part of the novel. The denouement is as fitting as it is unexpected and thought-provoking.

This is a masterfully written novel, technically skillful and emotionally insightful, opening up new worlds and experiences to the reader and thus enlarging the reader’s own humanity, a privilege to have read and pondered.
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Nov 28, 2010 Jenny Shank rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news...

Grave affair
Oates' compelling novel digs up somber themes buried in past
Jenny Shank, Special to The Rocky
Published June 15, 2007 at midnight

The Gravedigger's Daughter is Joyce Carol Oates' 36th novel (not including the 11 she's written under pseudonyms), but according to a press release, she has been at work on this book for 12 years. The harrowing story, the publisher notes, is "based on her own family's history in the upstate New York towns of the early...more

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Feb 10, 2010 Annie McCall rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 20, 2010 Harry McKinley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For me The Grave Diggers Daughter is almost entirely a book of dichotomies; of contrast and harsh juxtapositions and so, indeed, is my opinion of it.

In plot terms it is the progression of one girl's life from blighted beginnings to a drastically altered adulthood, but in more philosophical terms the debate as to whether life is a game of chance or whether we carve our own destiny.

We follow Rebecca Schwart, born in New York Harbour, the daughter of Jewish WWII refugees. The family, as immigrants,...more For me The Grave Diggers Daughter is almost entirely a book of dichotomies; of contrast and harsh juxtapositions and so, indeed, is my opinion of it.

In plot terms it is the progression of one girl's life from blighted beginnings to a drastically altered adulthood, but in more philosophical terms the debate as to whether life is a game of chance or whether we carve our own destiny.

We follow Rebecca Schwart, born in New York Harbour, the daughter of Jewish WWII refugees. The family, as immigrants, begin a meagre existence living in a barely habitable stone cottage on the graveyard where Rebecca's father Jacob holds the unenviable post of gravedigger. Torn apart by destitution and the paranoid insanity of the bitter Jacob Schwart Rebecca's childhood culminates in the most hideous of circumstances and she is left to begin the journey of life with the most appalling of emotional wounds.

The readers relationship with Rebecca is sacrasanct in the telling of the story. It is with her we are to form a bond and with her we are to trek the progression from child to elderly woman. The problem with this relationship is that the character of Rebecca changes so dramatically over the course of the book. This is of course reflective of life and, indeed, her extreme circumstances but the person Rebecca becomes is not necessarily altogether likeable. As Rebecca turns to 'Hazel' it is not only a name change but the starched rigidity of the character means a less relatable personality on the page and her obstinance and intravercy are, at times, mildly irritating characteristics. It is only at the end, in fact, that the desperation of her situation in terms of unresolved issues becomes truly clear and we come to deeply feel for the gravedigger's daughter once more, leaving her life as readers, with a note of poignancy.

The book had several highs for me. Firstly was the implosive marriage of Rebecca and Niles Tignor which veritably sizzled on the page. The relationship was so intrinsically brutal and yet the naivety and emotional honesty of Rebecca's perception of it give it a tenderness and a resonance that allowed that brutality to remain compelling and even compulsive. So believable were the more dramatic of instances that I felt a genuine angst and was entirely absorbed.

I also felt Oates's use of language was thrilling. Completely ignoring any prescribed concepts of grammar she scatters words liberally, but with great consideration, in a way that is initially confusing but ultimately thought provoking and inventive.

There's also a chilling twist which, whilst I of course wouldn't spoil, is utterly shocking and makes us ponder the simple decisions in life and whether they are in fact quite so simple.

less positively, and to go back to the idea of dichotomy, some of the second half of the book worked less well. It was necessary in pushing the story forward but felt a little laborious as, we hung on waiting for the vibrancy of life to kick back in and it felt a tad like going through the motions of normality in a rather monotonous way.

Overall I think it's a splendid enough book but not spectacular. For me it succeeds with the challenges it poses; Does 'God's Breath' truly push us towards our destiny or, in believing that, are we in fact simply making the decisions that will guide us to the same place? In the end the message I shall take will be that we all have the power to overcome circumstance if only we have faith in the power of selfbelief(less)

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Jun 12, 2009 Kani rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A tale of America at a difficult time in our history. This story is told without all the pieces, just like an adult's memory of a difficult childhood where the memories are pieces to a bigger puzzle. You only know what you know once others who knew are dead and gone and it's too late to ask. Some never had a chance to ask. This is a difficult and sad story that made me angry at my fellow citizens and at prejudice in my own heart when I see people who scare me or intimidate me or are "weird" in m...more

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May 29, 2009 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Gravedigger's Daughter is a long, dark book and the tragic story of a German/Jewish immigrant family. The father, once a teacher in Germany, becomes a gravedigger after he immigrates to the United States in the face of Hitler's Nazis.
With greatly reduced circumstances and in disillusionment, the father kills the mother and then himself. His daughter escapes and later marries a man who beats her and her child. To save herself and her child, she takes everything she can and runs with her son...more

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About Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Prix Femina for The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. Pseudonyms ... Rosamond Smith and Laure ...more

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“For the first time driving that day I could feel the motion of the Earth. The Earth rushing through the emptiness of space. Spinning on its axis but they say you don't feel it, you can't experience it. But to feel it is to be scared and happy at once and to know that nothing matters but that you do what you want to do and what you do you are. And I knew I was moving into the future. There is not PAST anybody can get to, to alter things or ever to know what those things were but there is definitely a future, we are already in it. ” — 7 people liked it

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