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92nd out of 296 books
—
393 voters
Because it is Bitter, and Because it is My Heart
Joyce Carol Oates adds to her extraordinary body of work with this stunning novel of violence and love. At the heart of the story are two people, Iris Courtney, who is white, and handsome Jinx Fairchild, the black basketball player who, in protecting Iris, kills a white man.
Iris is the only witness to the crime.
The two of them are growing up in the early 1950s in a New Yor
...morePaperback, 416 pages
Published
March 30th 1991
by Plume
(first published 1990)
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This book starts out with the introduction of a girl named Iris Courtney with a father that did not care about the family and a mother that was promiscuous and an alcoholic. She is a white girl living in a time period where racial discrimination had still existed. As the story evolves, the reader is greeted with a murder; Iris watches Jinx Fairchild, who is black, kill a man for her and she is the only witness. Also, with the eventual divorce of Iris's parents, you can also see how the actions o...more
This book was recomended to me when I was 17 by my incredible teacher Gerry Dodge. It took me ten years to finally read it, but it did not dissappoint. I read it in two days. I went to school and told my students who asked for suggestions to read it as well. This is a novelthat could help mend the racial wounds that have scarred the underbelly of our nation. It is about the pain and suffering life so often plagues the human species. However, it exhibits the healing power and strength that love p...more
Hammond, eine Kleinstadt südlich des Ontario-Sees, 1956. Die erste Frage der Polizei, als ein Fischer den Fund eines Toten meldet, lautet: Ist der Mann ein Weißer oder ein Farbiger? Der Tote ist weiß; er wird als Patrick Wesley Garlock, Spitzname Little Red, identfiziert. Ein sechzehnjähriger Mistkerl, der es nach Ansicht vieler verdient hat, um die Ecke gebracht zu werden. Der Junge war etwas schwer von Begriff und stammte aus einer Familie, in der es nicht sofort auffällt, wenn eines der viele...more
I don't know where to start, I didn't get it. The first hundred pages or so were excruciating. What was the point? The interactions between Iris and Jinx were interesting, but almost non-existent outside of the murder itself. My favorite part (and the reason this didn't get one star) was the middle section where Persia is sick and in a downward spiral. At that point I could really feel for her and Iris and actually cared what happened to them. The rest of the book seemed like nothing was happeni...more
I had a strange reaction to this book. I finished it, and thought to myself "OK, I have (finally) finished this book." Then I sat for like 5 minutes, and then I just started crying. This book is heartbreaking but not in the usual way.
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart is about a black boy and a white girl growing up in an industrial town in the 1950s, who are bonded together by a secret. It's not exactly a love story. It's really the opposite: a story about the distance between peo...more
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart is about a black boy and a white girl growing up in an industrial town in the 1950s, who are bonded together by a secret. It's not exactly a love story. It's really the opposite: a story about the distance between peo...more
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I seem to have a love/hate relationship with Joyce Carol Oates' books. I have really loved some and hated others. This story, set in a town in New York state in the segregated 1950's, quickly drew me in. But it was downhill from there. The characters, Iris Courtney (a young white girl) and Jinx Fairchild (a young black boy), are drawn together because Jinx, in defending Iris against an assault, kills a boy. The two are the only ones who know what happened.I wish I could say I liked these charact...more
How many times will I use the word “love” in this review?
I was introduced to Joyce Carol Oates in high school by a favorite teacher. We read some of her short stories and I was in love with how dark and fucked up they were. Some of my friends have told me that Oates was ruined for them in high school, and this is sad because her writing is amazing.
I’ve read several of her short story collections and novels and love how her mind works and the beauty of her writing. Even her “lighter” fiction is s...more
I was introduced to Joyce Carol Oates in high school by a favorite teacher. We read some of her short stories and I was in love with how dark and fucked up they were. Some of my friends have told me that Oates was ruined for them in high school, and this is sad because her writing is amazing.
I’ve read several of her short story collections and novels and love how her mind works and the beauty of her writing. Even her “lighter” fiction is s...more
May 31, 2011
Sondra Wolferman
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Young adult readers.
Recommended to Sondra by:
Found in the library.
Halfway through this novel I was prepared to give it five stars, mostly because of that inimitable JCO style that could make laundry spinning in a dryer sound riveting. The first half ;of the story is set in upstate New York, with interesting, working-class characters and a fast-paced plot. The characters are fully explored, especially the two mothers, Persia Courtney and Minnie Fairchild. The former is an alcoholic floozy, and the latter a hard-working but beaten-down product of our nation's ra...more
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Jun 13, 2013
Shane Malcolm
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
novels-and-novellas
A sprawling saga of racial tension, class division, and a hidden secret in late 50s-early 60s upstate New York, this was the fifth Oates novel to be nominated for the prestigious National Book Award. It's fairly long (405 pages) but reads fast. The main characters, Iris Courtney and Jinx Fairchild, are well-developed. Iris's detached quality is reminiscent of other Oates heroines, but over the course of 400 pages she stakes a claim as one of the more memorable. As is typical for Oates's novels,...more
Iris, a white teen girl from a highly dysfunctional family, forms a bond of guilt and attraction with Jinx, a talented African American basketball player who kills a local white thug while protecting Iris. The plot of this book was what drew me in, but somehow Joyce C.O.'s characters felt distant and remote, almost as though they were hidden behind a curtain...unreachable. The beginning was quite hypnotic, but, I, like several other readers, have a love/hate relationship with the author. There w...more
I found this Oates book a continuation of her novel "You Must Remember This", a story of 1950s blue collar taboo. Whereas "You Must Remember This" was a tale of incestuous love set in Upstate New York between an boxer uncle and his 15-year old niece; this much tamer novel is about the attraction between a burgeoning African-American basketball star named Jinx, and Iris, a shy withdrawn Caucasian girl who is taking care of her alcoholic mother, Persia. Ms. Oates loves to write about frail, skinny...more
I may return to this book later, as I wasn't quite engrossed enough to continue reading it at the moment, but I did find a few nuggets of interest in it. The character of Persia is actually quite interesting, and I was looking forward to learning more about the dynamics & complexity of her relationship w her husband; however, after reading nearly 7 chapters, and STILL not yet even introduced to the character of Jinx, once again I thought the story-telling pace ran slow & heavy and did no...more
Brilliant. Of course, Oates is ALWAYS brilliant. There's no other author with such an effortless feel for human misery. Contempt for self is a heavy thing to carry around.
There's a sense of life in her novels, a sense that the book is an actually living thing and the people in it to some degree autonomous. I do wonder if perhaps this book got away from her to a certain degree. It moves in unexpected directions, shifting past major events at a blinding rate and ignoring important characters for h...more
There's a sense of life in her novels, a sense that the book is an actually living thing and the people in it to some degree autonomous. I do wonder if perhaps this book got away from her to a certain degree. It moves in unexpected directions, shifting past major events at a blinding rate and ignoring important characters for h...more
Joyce Carol Oates is one of my favorite authors and I never open one of her books without a sense of foreboding. She has an ability to create characters who I care deeply for and inevitably, something shocking and terrible happens to them. Thus every moment I spend with her books carries this feeling of waiting - waiting for something horrific and unexplainable to occur.
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart was no exception. I spent the entire book waiting for the big reveal, for that...more
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart was no exception. I spent the entire book waiting for the big reveal, for that...more
While I was chaperoning choir tour last spring the professor at one of clinics remarked on what was essentially a lack of depth in the choir's gospel repertoire. "You are mostly a bunch of white kids from Utah," he said*, "What do you know of suffering?"
I just finished this book and I thought, "I am a Mormon white girl from Oregon who now lives in Provo. What do I know of suffering?"
And I felt shallow. I didn't want to ever write again.
Sure I've experienced pain and loss. But even at the heart o...more
I just finished this book and I thought, "I am a Mormon white girl from Oregon who now lives in Provo. What do I know of suffering?"
And I felt shallow. I didn't want to ever write again.
Sure I've experienced pain and loss. But even at the heart o...more
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I almost gave this book 5 stars. After taking a while to warm up to the story and almost putting it aside a few times, I found that after about 150 pages, I couldn't put it down. During those first 150 pages, I couldn't relate to or find anything I cared about in the characters. I found them a little tiresome and confusing. I only kept reading because of Oates' prose style, which I find fluid and very appealing, and my experiences with Oates' work in the past, which have so far never disappointe...more
I read this back in high school at the suggestion of my creative writing teacher at the time. I was only 15. I borrowed it, figuring it would be an okay read. To my surprise, I became completely sucked into the storyline and fell in love with JCO's style of writing. The characters of Iris and Jimmy really spoke to me and I could feel the racial tension in their town and time period oozing off the pages. I highly, highly recommend this one.
This story was set in the 1950's in an industrial town, divided along racial lines. Iris (one of the main characters) is nearly sexually assaulted when her classmate, Jinx (a young, Black man), comes to her aid and kills the perpetrator. Iris and Jinx are bonded through this secret, but this kind of bond, along with their racial differences, essentially serves to distance them. A good read, but very sad.
The story took a long time, especially the first third. It also ended so abruptly for all of it's taking forever to build.
The pacing was hard for me - but probably in a good way. Her sentences, and even chapters, range from super brief to super long, so you can't speed read. Which might have been intentional!
A lovely sad little tale. Felt like it could be made into a very compelling movie as well.
The pacing was hard for me - but probably in a good way. Her sentences, and even chapters, range from super brief to super long, so you can't speed read. Which might have been intentional!
A lovely sad little tale. Felt like it could be made into a very compelling movie as well.
I keep trying to like a JCO book...but so far, I still find them just barely more readable than some non-fiction. Maybe its a great cross-class, cross-era, cross-race lesson, but the characters are too stereotyped and superficial. The plot was relatively interesting, but I kept thinking...'something' will happen, or 'someone' will be further explored or expanded...but I was dissapointed.
Through the life of Iris Courtney in upstate New York in the mid-20th century, Oates explores relations between black and whites. When Iris is a child she witnesses a murder and is actually the cause of the murder. Not surprisingly, this event shapes her life and affects her future relationships. While Oates tells a good story, Iris's emotional coldness set the tone for the entire book.
This book started out strong, for me, and then kind of fizzled. Set in upstate (western) New York, in an industrial town in the '50s, it's the story of teenagers Iris Courtney and Jinx Fairchild. They are first linked by an attraction to each other, then by tragedy. In trying to protect Iris, Jinx kills the town bully. It's the deadly secret they both have to share for the rest of their lives. But as the book continues on, it seems to get farther and farther away from the original plot and catal...more
3 1/2 Stars
This was an intense read. The first 1/3 of it, for me, was much less enjoyable than the last 2/3. It was beautifully written, Oates is undeniably talented. But it was just so heavy and slow at first that I really wanted to be done with it. But I still liked the book, and I'm glad I read it. It is definitely one of the least predictable books I have read. Besides what is told in the book description, nothing else I expected to happen ever did. It was extremely complex, the POV switched...more
This was an intense read. The first 1/3 of it, for me, was much less enjoyable than the last 2/3. It was beautifully written, Oates is undeniably talented. But it was just so heavy and slow at first that I really wanted to be done with it. But I still liked the book, and I'm glad I read it. It is definitely one of the least predictable books I have read. Besides what is told in the book description, nothing else I expected to happen ever did. It was extremely complex, the POV switched...more
Mar 31, 2011
LA Carlson
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
those who like fearless fiction
Shelves:
fiction
Set in the 1950's it's the story of a white girl and black boy who are bound by attraction and a secret. The underlying tone of any Oates book is always uncomfortableness with splendid details. But she writes characters who are ultimately flawed, fascinating and real. It's one of my favorite books and I love the title.
I know she is considered one of America's greatest living writers. But part of me would like to (metaphorically) punch Joyce Carol Oates in the face. In a better universe, she is Harper Lee. In this one, she is not, and this book is, much like Lois' meatloaf, shallow and pedantic. And predictable. And hackneyed.
I am loving this author. I have never read anyone like her. I listened to this on audio and it ended abruptly I wondered if all of it for some reason didn't download lol. I'm listening to another audio book by her now. I also lovery the title of the book.
I first read this in eleventh grade, because its title references my favorite poem by Stephen Crane. I think it's one of Oates' most enduring novels; it's definitely the one I think back to the most.
Beautifully written and very compelling character development. Also very insightful in terms of racial tensions/relationships. The plot just lagged in many parts, with the peak coming too early on.
Read this book as a teenager and was really captivated by the depth of the story. I quite enjoyed the journey both the girl and the boy go through and the realizations at the end of it.
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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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