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Carey's review

Missing Mom: A Novel (P.S.)
by Joyce Carol Oates

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11782.Missing_Mom_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Missing Mom: A Novel (P.S.)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1166485815m/11782.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11782.Missing_Mom_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Missing Mom: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3524.Joyce_Carol_Oates">Joyce Carol Oates</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2907711?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  About thirty pages into this book, I realized I had (surprisingly) little to no sympathy for the main character/narrator. This, KNOWING that the woman was about to lose her mother. Bad sign, right? I just didn't get it. Okay, okay. I get the "rebellious daughter/thrift-store shopper/married-man seducer/nonconformist/blah blah blah" angle, and maybe this would have been a seedy delight for me say, er.... ten years ago. But I felt like the narrator's petulant tone and bitchy view of everyone else except for herself (plus her semi-fawning descriptions of--of all things--her choice of hair color and outfit) just made me feel intense dislike. Maybe I recognized a (very) small, (VERY) unlikable piece of myself from my drunken, angst-ridden twenties? Not sure. Or maybe it just sucked. Still, I might try to pick this book up later for a half-dozing beach read. After all, I HAVE heard many good things about Joyce Carol Oates. But unless that narrator drops the 'tude and starts thinking more interesting thoughts than the lamefest of superiority-cum-insecurity she starts the book with, well I'm just gonna have to pass on it (or pass it on). Any takers?
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/170560?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Carey's review
bookshelves: currently-reading

About thirty pages into this book, I realized I had (surprisingly) little to no sympathy for the main character/narrator. This, KNOWING that the woman was about to lose her mother. Bad sign, right? I just didn't get it. Okay, okay. I get the "rebellious daughter/thrift-store shopper/married-man seducer/nonconformist/blah blah blah" angle, and maybe this would have been a seedy delight for me say, er.... ten years ago. But I felt like the narrator's petulant tone and bitchy view of everyone else except for herself (plus her semi-fawning descriptions of--of all things--her choice of hair color and outfit) just made me feel intense dislike. Maybe I recognized a (very) small, (VERY) unlikable piece of myself from my drunken, angst-ridden twenties? Not sure. Or maybe it just sucked. Still, I might try to pick this book up later for a half-dozing beach read. After all, I HAVE heard many good things about Joyce Carol Oates. But unless that narrator drops the 'tude and starts thinkin...more

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message 1: by Linda

07/17/2007 08:45AM

Many years ago I stopped reading Joyce Carol Oates! I consistently disliked her books!