You Must Remember This
by Joyce Carol Oates
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 394)
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Read in May, 2007
Even though certain chapters tend to get tedious, I felt the need to give You Must Remember This 5 stars because of its beautiful writing, its evocative scenes, and overall its authenticity. This is my favorite piece I've read by Oates so far. She manages to satirize the characters without poking fun at them and to really dig deep inside of their heads. Though I wasn't alive in the 50s, I felt like I was living in the decade--Oates captures 50s America so convincingly.
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Read in July, 2007
Well, the characters at the beginning of the book don't seem to be the same people that the end of the book is about. And I don't mean that they grew and changed in some organic way. They are DIFFERENT people. It is like there were two novels that got stuck together. I agree that JCO is a wonderful writer -- her use of words and her sentence construction is lovely. But she sure would have benefited from some semi-harsh editing here!
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Another book I read for my book club. And let me say, that if i didn't have to read this book, I nEVER would have! It was so horribly depressing, it really made me want to give up hope. Plus I was reading at a time in my Life when I didn't have much hope, so it wasn't inspiring AT ALL!! I have read other Oates that I have enjoyed, but this one is just too hopeless and I don't recommend it!!
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Read in May, 2007
Although I agree that Oates is a wonderful, contemporary, author, I only half enjoyed the book. I sometimes wonder if a book has to be so tragic to be considered literature. Yes, life is where tragedy and comedy meet to produce the ups and downs that dot periods of mediocrity, but I would prefer to read books that do not contribute to the downs.
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Read in January, 1998
What is it with JCO and the fifties? This is one of her better books, though it is about a girl's relationship with her uncle. The fifties in JCO's books are hardly ideal--they're where people do twisted things and hide them more than anything else. I still liked it though.
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Read in February, 2008
A superbly written, dark and dirty epic tale of a (typical?) family in the 50s. Enid Maria's character is especially compelling--complex, gritty, real. This novel probably starts out better than it finishes, but is still a fantastic piece of fiction.
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Read in June, 2008
I wish I could give it 3.5 stars. It was a typical Oates book in that its full of dysfunction and somewhat downbeat, but I like that kind of tone. I'm not sure I got the "grand message" of the book, but I certainly enjoyed the story - messed up at is was.
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Read in January, 2000
I read this a long time ago, but still remember the heat between the main characters: a teenage girl and her uncle, a boxer in decline... Carol Oates can really conjure up some memorable characters, not to mention vivid sexual tension.
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Read in April, 2008
Well written strange story about a dysfunctional 1950s family in a dead town in NY. Incest, sexual and physical violence and the violence of the boxing world make it hard to read sometimes. Yet unforgetable.
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Read in March, 2005
this book was depressing and made me feel sorry for the girl who seemed like the only normal one (although she cuts and dreams of suicide) until she falls in love with her uncle (yeah creepy)
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Read in January, 2003
Again, this is kind of bad but I remember reading this book and loving it, having it be one of my favorite Oates novels but I can't remember all the ins and outs and this book.
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Sometimes, Joyce Carol Oates gives me a headache. And sometimes she can produce work that is sprawling and melodramatic and yet totally engaging, like this novel.
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Read in July, 1993
recommends it for:
Most
Vibrant Oates novel of a seemingly average '50's family contending with each other without really knowing each other or the dirty little secrets that lay within.
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Read in June, 2007
I didn't finish reading this and I'm not far enough into it to be interested in finishing just yet. This is getting put on hold.
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My favorite Oates novel. She captures the look and feel of upstate New York and dysfunctional families like nobody's business.
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Read in January, 2007
This isn't my favorite book by Oates, but the character development is absolutely stunning. I wish I wrote it. :)
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One of her best books - yet again a look (and a critique)of the family as the taken-for-granted pillar of society.
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Read in January, 2008
Not Joyce Carol Oates' best, but I loved it all the same. I prefer We Were The Mulvaneys over this, though.
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Fave author's fave work. Can read again and again. No one captures, for me, the pop gothic like Oates...
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Beautiful book about life for a seemingly average family in the 50s. The title says it all.
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