Black Water (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)
by Joyce Carol Oates
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 571)
I appreciate the concept/conceit of this novel: giving a voice to the woman who died in the notorious Chappaquidick accident which briefly engulfed Ted Kennedy's life in scandal. A scandal, which largely sensationalized the life of Mary Jo Kopechne, who died in a car accident whose circumstances are reasonably suspect. But Oates' novel (or what I can recall, having read it in high school), seems less intent on realizing Kopechne's life as it is intent on villainizing Ted Kennedy or rather the ar...more
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Read in April, 2007
Joyce Carol Oates managed to write an entire novella that, in real-time, takes place in the course of about five minutes. And very artfully done. It’s a book that can easily be consumed in a single sitting: yesterday I bought it, walked to the park and sat down on a bench, and finished it about an hour and a half later. It’s the type of read that’s broken into short segments, each segment leading you to automatically turn to the next. The rhythm of the prose synchs with the terror of the n...more
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Read in March, 2007
WARNING: Ending details may follow
Not being American and not being old enough to remember the Chappaquiddick incident involving Senator Ted Kennedy, I read this book with no prior knowledge of neither the real-life incident nor of the book depicting it. A close reading of the book tells me that it is a very good book, and learning more about the incident it depicts only makes that impression stronger.
It's the first book by Joyce Carol Oates I've read, but I can definitely see myself deve...more
Not being American and not being old enough to remember the Chappaquiddick incident involving Senator Ted Kennedy, I read this book with no prior knowledge of neither the real-life incident nor of the book depicting it. A close reading of the book tells me that it is a very good book, and learning more about the incident it depicts only makes that impression stronger.
It's the first book by Joyce Carol Oates I've read, but I can definitely see myself deve...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
interested in Chappaquiddick incident; fans of JCO and her style
As a fan of Blonde (five stars!)...I can't quite put my finger on why this novella, whose events mirror the Ted Kennedy/Mary Jo Kopechne accident, didn't work for me. I enjoy JCO's poetic prose. But the gritty realism was more off-putting for me this time around (do we really need to know that the drowning victim urinated on herself in her last few minutes of life on earth, awaiting rescue in her watery grave...or just how "sewagy" the black water really smelled?)
I understand t...more
I understand t...more
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Another of my not-so-favorites of JCO (see my review of Gravedigger's Daughter). Although timely (it's her imagined account of the Chappaquiddick incident involving Senator Ted Kennedy, from the perspective of the girl famously killed in the accident), I finished it (short read) wanting still more insight, more imagination. It felt like a string of newspaper accounts of the victim and the incident, strung together with a few metaphors. BUT, I do think that this must have been what gave JCO the i...more
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Written in short, vignette-style chapters, Oates reveals the life of Kelly Kelleher while she is drowning. One advantage of the close, third-person perspective Oates chose, is that it alters between what Kelly thinks might happen and what is actually happening which creates an eerie uncertainty to the events taking place. Oates uses refrain to shift the reader back to the accident or the events leading up to the accident.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
Just awful... the same story told several times from supposedly different points of view in different styles. It didn't work. This is the kind of book that makes me think it just can't be that difficult to get published. Of course, I haven't tried and would probably fail miserably... which is better than getting published and having everyone know I can't write I suppose.
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This book was really slow, and I didn't enjoy it very much. The author stated what was going to happen to the characters which in some cases makes you want to read on and find out how these things happened, but the way this was written didn't make me want to read on and find out how the characters met their ends, it just made me want to put it down very early on.
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recommends it for:
The daring
A masterpiece in my opinion and demonstrative of why Oates may be the finest female writer of her generation. A quick read, breathtaking (literally, as you're drowning in the murky waters in a sinking car a la Mary Jo Kopechne) and startling in it's first-person narrative.
Perhaps one of my top 20 favorite books.
Perhaps one of my top 20 favorite books.
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Read in July, 2008
To be honest I felt this book was just "so-so". I didn't care for the style in which is was written or the way the words flowed on the page. For me it made it difficult to follow or discern narration from the perspective of the protagonist. I don't know if I would recommend this book.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in May, 2008
Good idea, bad execution.
154 pages of a girl dying could be done really really well.
Repetition? You know I'm a fan!
Somehow Joyce Carol Oates manages to take a really good idea and use a mass amount of repetition and come up with a crappy boring redundant novel.
Lame.
154 pages of a girl dying could be done really really well.
Repetition? You know I'm a fan!
Somehow Joyce Carol Oates manages to take a really good idea and use a mass amount of repetition and come up with a crappy boring redundant novel.
Lame.
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I was just reminded of this book. One of my students borrowed it to use for a report and then he wanted to talk about the "heart" of the story. I have always admired Oates but this might be my favorite...a comment on politics, and idealism, and hope.
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Read in March, 2008
A cautionary tale?
Very well written, except I can't understand why she felt the need to eschew so much punctuation. Unless JCO wrote the book in the time it took me to read it, which, from what I have heard, is not outside the realm of possibility.
Very well written, except I can't understand why she felt the need to eschew so much punctuation. Unless JCO wrote the book in the time it took me to read it, which, from what I have heard, is not outside the realm of possibility.
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Read in April, 1997
Chilling, haunting, Oates does a remarkable job conveying the fear and desperation, all flashing before the reader as this young woman dies. A great Trivial Pursuit question: What did Ted Kennedy wear to Mary Jo Kopechne's funeral? A neck brace.
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Read in June, 2008
This is the first book I have ever read from Joyce Carol Oates. She is a good writer. She uses very descriptive writing. I look forward to reading more of her books. This book is one on the list of 1001 books you should read before you die....
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Read in April, 2006
Take one paragraph and repeat it over and over in different ways. Who knew that a successful book could come out of that? This book could have been shortened even more (it's thin as it is), but the prose and story idea make it worth reading.
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Read in June, 1998
recommends it for:
fans of literary fiction
Oates turns her dark, perceptive eye to a fictitous account of the Chappaquiddick incident. Told from the perspective of the girl dazzled by The Senator who drowns in the car accident when he's driving, I devoured this book in one sitting.
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Haunting, even in the way its structured. Reading this book is like being drowned by someone slowly. Every few seconds they bring your head out of the water until finally they just put a bullet through your brain. Done and done.
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Read in November, 2006
Excellent exploration of cultural conditioning of women which teaches them to place their power/worth outside themselves. Also interesting is that the novel fictionalizes the true event of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne in 1969.
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Read in January, 1995
recommends it for:
everyone.
I love this book. It is my favorite book in the whole world. This was the first book that made me realize that fiction is an art form. Beautifully written, haunting, liberating and personal. Everyone should read this book.
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