The Gravedigger's Daughter: A Novel (P.S.)
by Joyce Carol Oates
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joyce Carol OatesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-01
ISBN: 0061236837
Number of pages: 624
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780061236839
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Gravedigger's Daughter: A Novel (P.S.)
Book Review: Oates explores impact of childhood abuse on development of woman's identity
Summary: 5 Stars
In "The Gravedigger's Daughter," Joyce Carol Oates explores the impact of childhood abuse on the development of a woman's identity. Her intricately designed and compelling novel details the brutal early life of Rebbeca Schwart and follows her into adulthood, one in which the grown woman casts off previous sufferings but never escapes their cruel shadow. The youngest child of an impoverished German Jewish immigrant family, Rebecca endures a barren early life that includes being subjected to an ill-tempered, violent father, the slow and tortured descent of her mother into mental illness and the callous disregard of her two insensitive older brothers.
Unable to endure the moral and spiritual poverty of their graveyard surroundings, Rebecca's brothers flee the wrath of their father and the hopelessness of their condition. Eventually, Rebecca witnesses the murder/suicide of her mother and father, an event whose impact reverberates throughout her life. Abandoned, traumatized and directionless, Rebecca must reinvent herself, first as a ward of the court, then as a wife and mother. It is Oates' brilliant depiction of a woman struggling to create a new self while simultaneously attempting to submerge her previous identity that gives "The Gravedigger's Daughter" its emotional impact. Rebecca's cryptic personae permit her to survive but never grant her existential peace.
What solace she savors derives from her brilliant but tormented son, he the product of one of the most nefarious characters of contemporary literature. Beguiled and then beaten by Niles Tignor, Rebecca re-experiences the controlling, violent outbursts that characterized her father. Her act of personal liberation, her reinvention of identity and her commitment to her child's wellbeing exemplify a quiet, implacable will to live. Always wary of being discovered, perpetually cautious and suspicious, Rebecca refuses to give herself away to any man or idea. She lives to survive.
Written with excruciating detail, "The Gravedigger's Daughter" is much more than an exploration of one woman's consciousness. Joyce Carol Oates has crafted a work that explicitly describes violence, directly confronts social injustice and sensitively describes how a thwarted human spirit heals itself. This is a novel that will unsettle and upset, but it is also a cautionary tale of how identity, however shattered, will undergo reformation and reinvention.
Summary of The Gravedigger's Daughter: A Novel (P.S.)
Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1936, the Schwarts immigrate to a small town in upstate New York. Here the father?a former high school teacher?is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. When local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty give rise to an unthinkable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca heads out into America. Embarking upon an extraordinary odyssey of erotic risk and ingenious self-invention, she seeks renewal, redemption, and peace?on the road to a bittersweet and distinctly “American” triumph.
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