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The Book Barn 

 
 Reviewed by: Suzz 28th Sep 2006 
 


We Were the Mulvaneys

Joyce Carol Oates
Purchase this title at B&N

I hate this book.

It encompasses everything in literature I dislike.

The first and last Oates for me. That includes being marooned on a desert island and one of her books washes ashore. I would rather read the whale book again.

I'm listening to it on audio. It has one of the worst narrators I've ever listened to plus a style of writing that simply grates.

All female characters are rendered in a simpering, whimpering voice that reminds me of Mrs. Thurston on Gilligan's Island. The male characters are narrated in the same nasally voice. Apparently, you note changes in character by shouting at different levels. A curse upon this narrator for the way he makes these symapthetic women sound.

The book is awful; the narrator is awful. I have one more tape to go unless I take a baseball bat to my car stereo. That's sounding like the better alternative.



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
Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates reviewed by Harry
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
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