DIG INTO THIS WINNER OF A BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

books:


	• The Gravedigger's Daughter: A Novel (P.S.) Joyce Carol Oates Harper Perennial, 2008 - 624 pages average customer review:based on 45 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Jewish women in America

I heard a comment that Oates recently found out she had a Jewish grandmother...me too. I couldn't wait to read the book The Gravedigger's Daughter, to find out more about the grandmother's experience as an immigrant. Well, I didn't find out much about that, but I certainly did glimpse the dark underside of the immigrant experience, and the experience of their children...not the hopeful one we are so often presented with. I simply could not put that heavy book down. The detailed look at the psycho world of many of the characters was so believable. Their pain was so clearly conveyed. And yet, underneat the gravedigger's daughter had a real life force for good that it kept me going. Oates is a master at character study.

for more information click here

DIG INTO THIS WINNER OF A BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE GRAVEDIGGER'S DAUGHTER

I am a big fan of JCO and when I saw this big, fat, juicy book sitting on the shelf at the library I grabbed it! Yes, it is 582 pages but every page is a treasure.

Meet Rebecca Schwart, immigrant daughter escaped with her family from Nazi Germany in the 1930's. Her father, once a teacher, takes on the job as a grave digger in the local cemetery in a small New York town. He is a bitter, sad, angry person who takes out his unhappiness on his family. Rebecca, along with her mom and brothers live a dull, bleak, lonely, poor life. Any joy that comes along is squashed and belittled by their dad. Rebecca's brothers escape their father's madness and her mother, in a different way, also escapes.

Rebecca grows up and JCO tells the tale so well. Rebecca meets the man she will marry, Niles Tignor, a mean, horrible, jealous, abusive person. She gives birth to the love of her life, her little son, Niley. We see Rebecca become strong, make a break, and change her life. This was a really good and interesting part of the book! Such courage!

The book goes on telling the tale of Rebecca and Niley's life and how it is transformed due to Rebecca's determination to give Niley a good, happy life away from his father. Rebecca is in constant fear that her husband will find both of them and surely kill them; hence, they are on the run.

The book is good, I would recommend it. However, for me, it did drag a tad towards the end, but it is still one not to be missed. JCO has such talent for bringing life to characters. Characters that seem very real and ones that you cannot stop thinking about. The best thing about JCO is that she doesn't make everything sunshine and lollipops, she writes about LIFE as it actually happens -- full of good and bad, heartaches and triumphs, kindness and horrible acts. This is life, like it or not. And nobody can tell it better and with more class than JCO.

Read this book. It is the perfect novel to snuggle up with on a cold winter's night. Read and enjoy the wonderful story of Rebecca Schwart and Hazel Jones. You won't be sorry that you met HER!!!!!

Thank you!

Pam

for more information click here

Compelling and engrossing novel

I'm giving this book four stars only because there are other books of hers that I like better. I found the beginning slow and a bit opaque, but I'm glad I stayed with it. I couldn't put it down.

Oates's development of both plot and character were very effective. Rebecca's transformation into "Hazel Jones" was remarkable; she focuses her strong will into changing herself, and the change is credible. The reader senses Rebecca lurking under Hazel's skin.

All of her characters are so human, packed with flaws and frailties and qualities that come across as genuine. Even characters who are dead change within the framework of the protagonist's experience.

I loved the irony of Hazel's discovery of the truth behind her new identity, and the narrative flowed well, for the most part, only bogging down occasionally. I loved the descriptions that evoked all of the senses as well.

It's not her best book, but it is a fine book, indeed.

for more information click here

Has to be the best yet!!!!!

I've worked my way through 18 of this author's wonderful works and I think each of them is the best yet!!! This just has to be the very best yet. I hate to think of JCO getting too old to give us her wonderful stuff!!! JCO - - keep it up, honey. We'll keep reading. I don't know where you get your prolific ideas. Wish I had 1/3 of them

Another Great Book

Another great book by Joyce Carol Oates, she has a talent for telling stories that are, like life. Not: sugar-coated, with happy endings, or: black & white perspectives, good or bad characters, right or wrong actions. The plots, characters, details, everything is multi-layered, interconnected, and open to interpretation, like life...

The Gravedigger's Daughter tells a tale of survival, and in particular illustrates how a girl/young woman/woman can become, thru no fault of her own, connected with a father, man, or men, intent on destroying her.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

search for books
daughter, gravedigger, novel

Impressum / about us