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Joyce Carol Oates
ISBN: 9780007241330
Format: Paperback
Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers
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Fifteen years after the mysterious death of Minette Swift - a 19-year-old black girl enrolled as a scholarship student in a liberal arts college - her former roommate, Genna begins an unofficial enquiry into the traumatic event. This book offers a depiction of race in America by the author of "We Were the Mulvaneys", "Blonde" and "The Falls".
This book presents a controversial, painfully intimate depiction of race in America by the esteemed author of "We Were the Mulvaneys", "Blonde" and "The Falls". Fifteen years after the mysterious death of Minette Swift - a 19-year-old black girl enrolled as a scholarship student in an exclusive liberal arts college - her former roommate, Genna begins an unofficial enquiry into the traumatic event. In reconstructing the girls' tumultuous freshman year at the college, Genna is lead also to reconstruct her life as the daughter of a famous 'radical-hippie-lawyer' of the 1960s among whose clients were anti-Vietnam War protestors wanted by the F.B.I. What follows is a gripping, painful, and intimate depiction of 'black' and 'white' in America in the years of crisis following the end of the Vietnam War and the ignominious exposure and fall of President Richard Nixon.
| ISBN | 000724133X | | Non-book description | Hardback | | ISBN13 | 9780007241330
(What's this?) | | Pages | 448 | | Publisher | HarperCollins Publishers | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Fourth Estate Ltd | | Height (mm) | 234 | | Format | Paperback | | Width (mm) | 153 | | Publication date | 02 Oct 2006 | |
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'Every single Oates novel I've read has added to my conviction that she is a genius.' Julie Myerson, Independent on Sunday 'One of the female frontrunners for the title of Great American Novelist.' Maggie Gee, Sunday Times 'A writer of extraordinary strengths ! she has dealt consistently with what is probably the great American theme -- the quest for the creation of self ! Her great subject, naturally, is love.' Ian Sansom, Guardian 'Unlike anything else she has ever written ! A very strong and readable novel; the rivalry between the two sisters is especially well observed' Edmund White, Books of the Year, Times Literary Supplement 'Her prose is peerless and her ability to make you think as she re-invents genres is unique. Few writers move so effortlessly from the gothic tale to the psychological thriller to the epic family saga to the lyrical novella. Even fewer authors can so compellingly and entertainingly tell a story.' Jackie McGlone, Scotland on Sunday 'Novelists such as John Updike, Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer slug it out for the title of the Great American Novelist. But maybe they're wrong. Maybe, just maybe, the Great American Novelist is a woman.' The Herald  Be the first to write a customer review
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