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The Book Barn 

 
 Reviewed by: Harry 2nd Sep 2006 
 


Rape: A Love Story

Joyce Carol Oates
Purchase this title at B&N

My first try with Joyce Carol Oates; an author who gets plenty of press in the Barn. If this is typical of her output then she is an unusual writer and worth looking out for again. The book contains many quirky touches, among them the brutal title and the spidery scripts which serve as occasional illustrations. It's a book which doesn't want to be pigeon-holed.

A gang rape takes place in a blue collar area of America. The aftermath - with its lesson that justice for rape victims is messy business - is told in an a series of short punchy chapters. The whole book is only a hundred or so pages. It might sound nuts but its sparse depiction of an unsung corner of America reminded me of Kent Haruf's gentler but equally compelling Plainsong.

A slim book but a great work of fiction.



See also
Beasts by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by Bonnie
Come Meet Muffin by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
I Stand Before You Naked by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
Miracle Play by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
The Edge of Impossibility: Tragic Forms in Literature by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
The Time Traveler by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by Suzz
Where Is Little Reynard? by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
Women Whose Lives Are Food, Men Whose Lives Are Money by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by The Rev
Plainsong by Kent Haruf reviewed by Ee Lin