Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart

by Joyce Carol Oates

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 York industrial town where racial boundaries keep people apart - or bring them together in explosive scenes of fear or desire. The secret link between Iris and Jinx is not only their attraction to each other, but a murder...and a bond of passion and guilt is formed between them. How this one irrevocable, tragic act shapes their lives and alters their destinies becomes Joyce Carol Oate's finest, emotion-packed novel - a work the critics are calling a masterpiece, the best work of America's best writer of contemporary realism.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Classics, Literature, Literary Fiction, Novels

405 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1990

About the author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 people.

I've heard Joyce Carol Oates called a "realistic novelist," which I guess means things don't work out in this book just because it's a novel. There's no - oh, I don't know how else to explain it except to say that there's no symmetry in the storyline. There's tragedy but it's not the tragedy you would expect, and the closure at the end is tenuous. Something big happens, and then people just go on living their lives. Joyce Carol Oates is so wonderful that nothing else needs to happen to make this book interesting.

There's some skipping around between storylines that made me feel, at times, disconnected from some of the characters. Every time you return to one storyline, the author has to catch you up on the last few years of that character's life, which can sometimes be a little frustrating. Still, the prose is so cutting, beautiful, surprising, that it carries the book through:

"She isn't crying, she isn't that kind of young woman and never will be that kind of woman; icy-hearted, harder than nails, her husband will one day say in hurt in outrage in simple bewilderment, Why did you marry me if, why do you insist you love me if? Yes but I do love, yes but I--I do, I will, I'll make the effort, I won't be cheated..."

[AJ LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 still dark. (I just looked up her bibliography . I think I’ve read 1% of her work. I knew she had written a lot, but I didn’t know how much!) I love how her main characters are often older girls and young women who experience and do horrible things. She is incredibly gifted at capturing how girls this age can completely shut down and let things happen to them. Or, when they fight back, they fight hard and things are taken care of.

When I heard that she was writing children’s fiction, I imagined that it was going to be about a sweet little kitten who burns down a forest. When she got into YA, I was extremely happy because I knew it she would be a favorite, especially for students who liked Laurie Halse Anderson. These weren’t going to be fluffy books – they were going to be realistic moments of pure fucked-upped-ness. Big Mouth & Ugly Girl did not disappoint. Freaky Green Eyes? Holy shit. Small Avalanches and Other Stories had some previously published works and I hope a new generation of high school readers loved them as much as I did when I first read them.

And now to step back from this love fest to talk about Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart.

The book starts in the late 50s in a broken industrial city in upstate New York. Blacks and whites are clearly separated, even though the children go to school together and in some places the men work together. There is clearly a black side of town and the kids know that they should not intermingle. This is especially true for the black boys and white girls.

The book opens with the death of Little Red — a sixteen year old white trash white teen. His body is found in the river with his skull crushed. Iris Courtney hesitantly approaches one of the police officers to whisper that she heard he had caused trouble with some bikers in the area.

And then we skip back in time to learn more about Iris.

Iris’ parents are violently in love. Persia, her mother, is beautiful to the point of pain and loves the attention she gets from men. At times this attention is what she seems to allow her to even exist. Iris is used as an accessory is picked up and put aside as needed. As her parents become more and more abusive to each other and ignore her more and more, she retreats into her own world. She begins to lose her emotions and finds herself distantly watching things that happen and wonders how she should feel. She studies everything, trying to learn how people act, respond, cope, and live.

Meanwhile, on the black side of town, Jinx Fairchild is playing basketball beautifully and is beginning to be scouted by colleges, even though he’s only sixteen. When he’s on the court, everyone adores him. Off the court, he’s just another black boy. Like Iris, he tries to disappear in good behavior. He doesn’t want to be noticed or to be an excuse or target for any of the whites in town. He’ll be out of here in a few years and he needs to dominate on the basketball court while hiding everywhere else.

And then Little Red brings Iris and Jinx together.

For the rest of the book, Iris and Jinx live mirrored lives, only it’s a bent and twisted mirror and the reflections don’t quite match. Iris begins to actually feel emotions, but only when she thinks of Jinx. She tries to bring their lives together somehow. She sees that they are forever linked and wants to keep this bond and let it grow and strengthen. Jinx, on the other hand, is horrified by what happened and hates that the only other person who was there was this younger white girl. He needs to stay away from her so he can stay away from his own mind.

As they get older, their lives continue to reflect each other. Iris becomes what she thinks a young white woman should be. Jinx becomes what he thinks whites want a black man to be, and painfully, what his black community wants him to be. As Iris takes on the role of successful adult, Jinx finds himself more and more trapped by a world he willingly stepped into. When Iris escapes she continues to study emotions and practice how she should act and respond. Persia was all fire and drink and the only way Iris can think to escape this is to have no feelings at all. Jinx feels too much. He knows everything has changed and he hates how his life was decided when he was still in high school.

By the end of the book they have both made decisions that will define who they are until they die. They each do what they think they are supposed to do, not necessarily what they want. One has to wonder if they even know what they want. They seem to stop making decisions and simply let things happen.

Their mothers also reflect each other. Both start out as strong women and as they grow older and doors begin to close, they find themselves trapped by their own expectations of what they should or should not be. Respect is lost and it breaks them both.

It’s a brilliant book. Oates’ writing is simply stunning. Sometimes her words twirl and spin slowly like honey being drizzled into hot tea. Descriptions and moments spill silkily across the pages. It is especially breathtaking when she does this during the darkest moments of the book. Her descriptions of ugliness, pain and fear follow staccato beats, pulsing into your mind. It’s poetry in prose form and as I read I had to pause from time to time to simply enjoy the rhythm of the book and reread the art of her writing. I have a feeling I’m going to gloriously devour more of her books over the next few months.

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this Oates book a continuation of her novel "You Must Remember This", a story of 1950s blue collar taboo.

“You Must Remember This" was a tale of incestuous love set in Upstate New York between a boxer uncle and his 15-year old niece.

This is a much tamer novel is about the attraction between a burgeoning African-American basketball star named Jinx, and Iris, a shy withdrawn white girl who is taking care of her alcoholic mother, Persia.

Ms. Oates loves to write about frail, skinny and small girls who often are shy and withdrawn and forced into some kind of violent sexual confrontation, and this novel does get there (sorry for those of you who don't like spoilers), and of girls who often quietly persevere in their academic ambitions in spite of rape or some kind of brutal physical trauma.

I found the novel to be reminiscent of a detached Thomas Hardy or DH Lawrence novel, full of violence, sex, and racial tensions in a small town; however, totally fell flat when it got into the subject of rape and sexual abuse again.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I am not qualified to review this book. In fact, I know I’m not. So I’ll keep this short.

In Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart, Joyce Carol Oates explores themes of class and race and love over a span of ten years, or so: 1953-1964, or thereabouts. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a novel set in this period that captures the “feeling” of the era so perfectly, nor have I read — at least in recent memory — a tale that handles racism in America with such care, and precision.

This book is a masterpiece. Truly. Oates invents rules only to break them. I was literally spellbound when reading certain passages . . . hell, entire chapters . . . and I had the satisfying feeling of being in the hands of a literary giant.

I now want to throw my TBR out the window and gorge myself on this author’s entire bibliography.

[Andrea D · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 happening and if it was it didn't really matter to anyone anyway. I didn't even feel the characters really cared either.

Another problem I had was that JCO would have entire conversations (different people talking back and forth) all in the same paragraph. She also had characters thinking something and saying something else all mashed up together in the same paragraph. I find this makes it difficult to keep things straight.

This is my first book by JCO, and I'm not impressed. I wouldn't even consider trying anything else by her except she seems to have a lot of big fans. Maybe this wasn't the right book for me. Someday I may try again. Maybe.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this books 4 or 5 times by now - I just love her detached writing. the flow of consciousness. the drama and the plot. I love how she is the mousiest of humans yet her books flow with sex and booze and violence and injustice.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough book to review. On the one hand, I find Oates to be an engaging storyteller, yet there is something off for me here. In the first part of the book, when Oates is juxtaposing the lives of the two main characters, Iris and Jinx, there is a sense of balance to the book, and I found the portraits of the Fairchilds and the Courtneys to be quite fascinating. But then, after the murder of Little Red Garlock, the story becomes more and more focused on Iris, with Jinx becoming both something of a stereotype and then almost disappearing from the story. I understand that Oates is aiming to write a portrait of white privilege in the 1950s, but it feels a little like she first fetishizes Blackness for Iris, and then, at the end, by having the Black boys attack Iris, she seems to reinforce stereotypes about Black male violence. Ultimately, by the end, I wasn't sure what the intention of the novel was.

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved the first part of this book. While learning about Jinx and Iris, their respective families, and how their lives intertwine allowed the prose to shine. However, the latter half of the novel focuses more on Iris, who I found to be the less compelling protagonist when compared to Jinx. It would seem that his life is more dramatically affected by Little Red’s death and, as such, I wish the narrative gave him more attention. The literary side of me would like to hand wave it with the excuse of an example of privilege - we follow the young white woman as she is successful but privately tortured and ignore the young black man who’s sense of guilt destroys his ability to rise above - however, I don’t think that’s the case.

[Cher · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel starts off wonderfully with very interesting children characters, a white girl and a black boy who become friendly despite their impossibly difficult upbringings and clashing backgrounds. Then it totally devolves from there into a story about how race determines destiny. I found it heartless and horrible and a huge waste of time. It's put me off Joyce Carol Oates completely, and she is reputed to be quite brilliant. After reading about racial Calvinism for 400+ pages, though, I'm not willing to be vulnerable and go anywhere in her hands again.

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was a National book Award nominee. At the time she was the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University. I have a suspicion she is a Professor Emeritus now but one never knows with such a prolific author.

[Stephen Hoogerhyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first novel by Oates that I read, and I enjoyed it enough that I have been looking for other novels by her to read. Unfortunately, despite her prolific output, many of her books are now out of print., particularly the earlier works.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so annoyed by the long long long sentences and list after list after list. So how do I rate this 4 stars? It is a damn good book!

[Oliver Desbruslais · Rating 4 out of 5]

the highs of the book were truly highs while there were some sections that truly dragged, but all written with amazing prose

[Gracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Joyce Carol Oates.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iris Courtney and Jinx Fairchild are a study in contrasts (she is an only child, in a white family whose home is full of chaos and vice; he has a hard-working mother and a pious father and several siblings). And yet their lives, paths and souls overlap and intertwine in a plot that thrills and horrifies from start to finish. Late one night when Iris is threatened by an aggressive neighborhood bully, she seeks help from Jinx, which results in death. The politics of race, inequality of the system, and psychological turmoil fuel this story as both families experience great hope and achievement that then disintegrates. Joyce Carol Oates is such a master at slipping in tiny indications of what's to come, without showing her hand or diminishing intrigue. I so much loved finding out what happens to so many of these many characters, that I don't mind not knowing what comes of others - one in particular, where did Byron disappear to the weekend of the wedding? Another question I'm left with, is what was the significance of the orange boar on the Gordon's Distilled London Dry Gin bottle label? I love how Iris and Jinx are both ice people, and how they are both trying to pass, as people who have their lives together.

This is the 21st book of JCO's that I've read, she is my favorite and I'm so thankful for her productivity; I would hate to ever finish them and to not have more to look forward to.

[Ilyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title, which sounds so maudlin comes from a Steven Crane poem where the speaker encounters a goblin eating its own heart, when the narrator says: why are you doing this? The creature says 'because it is bitter and because it is my heart.'

Oates traces the lives of Iris and Jinx in the aftermath of the murder that binds the two of them together. Both of them cannibalize parts of themselves-out of guilt, shame, and are never free from the act that haunts them.

I first read this in high school after a creative writing course at summer camp, and since then it has been one of my favorite novels. Rereading it recently, the language still captivated me. However, I saw the plot as a damning description that one can transcend one's class (Iris's trajectory to the upper class, and casting off her past) but not race (the downward spiral of Jinx's family, and his eventual death as a soldier in the Vietnam War).

[Julia Felts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts were good, the last third of the book dragged. Felt like there wasn't really a story for some of it idk. I was just kinda uncomfortable for a lot of it, definitely not an enjoyable read.

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very harsh indictment of racism that exposes it for the obscenity that it is. The story takes place in the 50's and follows a young white girl, Iris Courtney, and a young black man, Jinx Fairchild, who become forever entangled when Jinx accidently kills a young insane white man, who is threatening Iris. Oates uses very blatant explicit "in your face" language in her story that leaves no doubt where she stands on racism but I must admit that I prefer the writing of other authors, mostly black, such as Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward and James Baldwin who use a more gentle and subtle approach that is more effective in bringing out the true horror that racism is.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 provides on this tumultuous planet. Oates is truly amazing.

[Lisa Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[ColumbusReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the very first (of many) books I've read by JCO and it has remained my very favorite by her. For years I called her my favorite novelist because of this book. It still is quite special and I'm looking forward to re-reading it soon.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first Oates book I read and the one that made me fall in love with her. Like most, if not all Oates' books, it follows the tragic story of a young girl and her struggles to move beyond a tragedy she experiences as a youth. Very Gothic too like all Oates' works.

[Chamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the title so much more than the book itself...

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in upstate New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when having integrated schools was still a relatively new concept in the U.S., this novel explores race relations, primarily as experienced by black Jinx Fairchild and white Iris Courtney, and especially in the case of "shrewd" Iris also focuses on the potentiality of self-reinvention. When he's only a high school sophomore and she's in the eighth grade, the two become forever linked by a murder (alluded to in the novel's very first sentence), but their lives remain essentially separate. This is no latter-day Romeo and Juliet, mainly because the love and interest shown is pretty much one-sided and, in any case, the social mores of the era create more of a gulf between the Oates' pair than ever separated the Montagues and Capulets. Oates deftly depicts matters of class and race, portraying both "white guilt" and white resentment. Along the way, throughout, she deploys a lot of black and white imagery, usually in subtle ways (the main exception being the oddly heavy-handed repetition of Houdini the tomcat being "midnight-black"--a creature, moreover, with "a nearly metaphysical hunger of the kind that can never be satisfied"). The standout parts for me were Oates' handling of the events of Nov. 22, 1963 (Kennedy's assassination being only one of the day's tragedies, in this book), and the Epilogue scene that takes place in Iris' uncle's photo studio. I also really liked the book's final line, which echoes something Jinx expressed earlier and is thematic of the whole.

First line:
"'Little Red' Garlock, sixteen years old, skull smashed soft as a rotted pumpkin and body dumped into the Cassadaga River near the foot of Pitt Street, must not have sunk as he'd been intended to sink, or floated as far."

[Daphna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Iris Courtney is drawn to Jinx Fairchild well before the incident that will forever mark their lives. But this is small town America in the mid-fifties and, despite their attraction, the racial barrier separating Jinx and Iris seems to be an impenetrable one. The incident that defines their lives from the moment it occurs unites them, on the one hand, but also etches even more distinctly the barrier that separates them.
Iris is, and will remain throughout, deeply in love with Jinx. Jinx too is drawn to Iris, but although he acknowledges this affinity between them, he seems to hold back, realizing that the reality of their lives will not allow them to explore this burgeoning relationship any further.

JCO is a brilliant story-teller. She builds Iris and Jinx’s world convincingly, their youth as well as their young adulthood, and never lets her characters fall into a cliché. Iris and Jinx, as well as the characters forming part of their worlds, are well developed and are in continuous flux. They all have agency and they choose their paths, be it the detrimental spiraling down of both Jinx and Iris’s mothers, or the respective life paths chosen by Iris and Jinx.
JCO doesn’t judge her characters and their choices, nor does she create their story arcs as fateful determinism. There is always a choice to be made. Jinx makes his and is deflected, by his own choice, from the bright future that could have been his. Similarly Iris makes a rationally advantageous choice, but in so doing gives up on love.

This is my second JCO novel and it is no less magnificent than the first I read (We Were the Mulvaneys). I will definitely be reading more of her novels.

[Jillianne Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

How do you rate a book that is so well-written but so problematic? Here is a book that wants so desperately to challenge racism but ultimately perpetuates it in a very dangerous way; there is no black character in this novel who is not violent in some way - even Jinx who is the star basketball player *sigh* who might also be the exception because he’s smart *double sigh* commits a violent act out of protection and love. In the end the black boy dies a meaningless death in Vietnam and the white girl achieves upward mobility and lives happily (?) ever after. This seems to be less a challenge of race and more so a piece of evidence that suggests one’s life is determined by one’s race. While this is true to a point, I don’t think these characters needed to be thrown down the rabbit hole and be examples of so many dangerous stereotypes.
It is interesting that JCO is so highly recommended and seems emblematic of American fiction; as if the American tradition lies in white people writing the black experience and failing to dispel dangerous stereotypes.
However, what kept me reading this story was JCO’s gift for storytelling - even though the story itself should not have been told. The background and cultural context for this novel becomes a character itself. This book would be highly beneficial in a fiction writing class due to its incredible narrative and storytelling abilities. However, the content itself should be challenged.

[Bookreaderljh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joyce Carol Oates tells wonderful stories with writing that paints a picture of time and believable main characters. I felt the side characters were not as well developed but that is because this is the story of Iris, a young white girl, and Jinx, a black slightly older boy, who fascinates Iris. The story is set in the 1950's and even in upstate New York there are definitely racial divides that taint the small town community. When Iris and Jinx are teens, Jinx ends up killing a white boy in defense of Iris. This one act influences the remainder of their early adulthood even though they are the only ones who know what really happened. The majority of the book is told through Iris eyes and early on also the life of her often at odds mother, Persia. But it was Jinx life that interested me more and how his mother Minnie was such a stabilizing influence for Jinx to be able to succeed through basketball and opportunities for a bright future. The awful circumstance that binds Iris and Jinx lead Jinx to an internal moral slide and he ends up punishing himself. Iris, on the other hand, tends to blame others and her downfall comes from outside sources. This is a long book with many side stories and other characters but the morality (or lack thereof) of Jinx and Iris resulted in a star crossed romance that could never be. There is a lot of difficult racial injustice and violence throughout but it unfortunately accurately reflected the times even in small town America.