Christopher's review of Black Water
Black Water (Contemporary Fiction, Plume) by Joyce Carol Oates
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 archetype of powerful men taking advantage of impressionable young women. I have no problem with Oates attempting to take on the latter archetype (or even Kennedy for that matter) except that she does it in the kind of one-sided screed that diminishes the agency and individualism of the Kopechne-analogue.
In speaking about her story, Where are you going? Where have you been? which was turned into a film, Oates remarked on the difficulty of adapting a story for the screen saying that a w...more
In speaking about her story, Where are you going? Where have you been? which was turned into a film, Oates remarked on the difficulty of adapting a story for the screen saying that a w...more
comments (showing 1-6 of 6)
newest »
date
I'll write an actual review later but generally I find Joyce Carol Oates to be a really shallow analyst and feminist. She identifies with female victims but in a really opaque and sensational way. I don't think I've ever read any real emotions in anything she's written-- only conceptual ideas of them and how they might be felt in hypothetical situations.
This is the only Joyce Carol Oates book I've read...mainly because every time I try to pick up another it just doesn't work. I can totally see where you're coming from. It's kind of interesting rating books that I read so long ago. Should I rate them as a 14 year old, or a 25 year old looking back? This dilemma is keeping me from rating the Redwall series. When I was a kid? Awesome. A couple years ago when I bought a bunch of them on a hangovery whim? Not so much. The question is, did I not notice they weren't that great because I was a kid, or do I find them to be not so great now because I am a jaded asshole?
Man, I am ripping all the old shit I used to LOVE. It is so liberating. Be jaded, but qualify it.In fact I am way more into reviewing books I am mortified about loving than books I think are pillars of the 20th century English letters.
I've noticed this too. Justifying a glowing review of Stephen King is WAY more fun than saying how great Brave New World is for the thousandth time. 