Rating: 
Summary: One of the worst books ever.
Review: This book was totally depressing and uninteresting. Books don't have to be happy to be interesting, but this book was so heavy, slow and just did not hold my interest at all. I kept thinking it would pick up, but it doesn't. Not worth the time, so don't bother witht it.
Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: I couldn't put this book down. I read it on vacation and it got left behind... I'm haunted to this day that I never got to the last chapter. One day soon I'll have to get another copy!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I did not think this lived up to the hype. I found it lacked a strong story and strong characters. I would not recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Spare Me More Oates
Review: It is hard to say what I found more more irritating -- this tedious and overwrought saga of the most boring family since "Father Knows Best," or Joyce Carol Oates inability to describe paint dry in less than fourteen pages. WHERE was the story? How are we to believe that any family, especially one brimming with such simple-minded goodness and love as this one, would so unanimously and wordlessly banish their "beloved" daughter because she was date-raped? (or was she? this too is vague) How long is the reader expected to believe (or care) that this family's vague sort of denial be considered plausible as a storyline? Is this neverending story meant to "explain" the father's alcoholism?? Since when does alcoholism need to have a reason? Does the family, perhaps, just implode from pure shallowness? If Joyce Carol Oates were to observe actual human nature someday, she might not, so desperately, need to lavish her endless windblown vocabulary on such superficial fiction as this.
Rating:
Summary: A difficult but amazing novel!
Review: I just finished "We Were the Mulvaneys" tonight and I have to say it was a truly amazing piece of work. Joyce Carol Oates weaves so many different aspects into the story of the perfect family that falls to ruin after their daughter is raped at a party. This is a very, very detailed book. You learn about each and every family member in a very distinctive way. I think this is necessary to make you understand how such a family could be changed forever. It gives you the image of High Gate farm and the Mulvaney's to make you understand how and why they acted the way they did. Mr. Mulvaney behaved atrociously in his complete dissociation from his daughter. Marianne had been the perfect daughter - a cheerleader, a Christian and a good girl who makes the mistake of drinking too much one night. There is a part in the book where it describes how Corinne and Mike (the parents) met. This to me was a clue to how he felt about his daughter after the rape. It was where he had said women were supposed to be morally superior to men. I think Mike not only couldn't deal with his daughter's pain and his inability to protect her but at the same time, he looked down on her too. The rest of the characters are detailed well except for Mike Jr who I thought was kind of put in the background and not developed as well. I thought this book to be believable. Even the bad reactions didn't surprise as Marianne Mulvaney seemed to be prized on her good qualities but not seen fully by her family as anything other than a perfect daughter and sister. It also shows how one incident can change our lives forever. It has a happy ending in a way. However, this book really broke my heart when I read it. I felt so much sadness for Marianne that it depressed me as well as lifted me up at the end. Even though it ends good, it doesn't detract from the years lost in separation. However, it shows that life does go on. A brilliant novel and a difficult read. It brings out all the emotions. Beautiful!
Rating:
Summary: More of the same
Review: The beginning of this book is promising, and as always, Joyce's prose style is captivating; however, the novel soon descends into what has become almost a cliche in the last ten years or so - disintegration due to sexual violation. Personally, I'm tired of reading about it. I'm quite sure there are deep, interesting, even tortured individuals and families in this world who manage to be so for reasons other than incest or rape. Even when faced with those particular difficulties, I am sure that most manage to live rich and rewarding lives without resorting to further emotional or physical violence. I'd rather read about people with the mettle to do so.
Rating: 
Summary: A sad, sad story
Review: I found this to be an extremely sad story. Of course, none of us know how we would react but hopefully, not the way the Mulvaneys did! Although I like a happy ending, I thought that this one was too much...How can the whole family suddenly become perfect?
Rating:
Summary: A book that needed to be written
Review: This is a very good book about how deeply a family can be hurt by the actions of one bad person. We all know that rape hurts a victim and can scar them for a very long time (if not all their life) but not many think beyond that. What that sort of horrible thing can do to an entire family (brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents) is beyond most peoples comprehension. And then there was WE WERE THE MULVANEYS. The Good: You become attatched to the characters, especially Mary Ann. When the book was over, I wanted to know about what happened to her later on in her life. The characters really come to life. I also like the fact that the bad guy pays, even though I would have liked to seen more done (brutal, I know, but he deserves it!) The Bad: I wanted to hear more about Mary Anns marriage in the end. The Ugly: There are some very off the wall comments made every so often that are in italics that really interupt the flow of the book. That part just didn't work for me.
Rating: 
Summary: When I read the word "perky," a star fell...
Review: Joyce Carol Oates is my role model, my mentor, the woman who jump-started my own career as a novelist, with "Them." "Mulvaneys" has its moments. The chapters just leading up to and around the rape are intriguing. She's always good at the "dark" side. The father's banishment of the daughter, while unpalatable and rather unbelievable, had enough drama to make me want to keep going. But the cornball stuff made me gag. Joyce: haven't you heard that saccharine is bad for your health? There are too many sentimental cliches - it's like she was trying to prove that even she, the great JCO, can be a upbeat writer. Please, leave that "perky" stuff to writers of sitcoms, Joyce. You wasted a lot of time waving the flag, apple pie, "moms," deposed cheerleaders and fluffy kittens around. Can we get back to black now? (Seriously, the problem here was that the family was so irritatingly "perfect" to begin with. When the real tragedy entered, it just didn't register as it would have with potent, truly dysfunctional heroes. The Mulvaneys were too boring to bring down. Michael Senior's great need to be accepted at the country club just didn't cut it as a Major Tragic Flaw.)
Rating:
Summary: A Huge Disappointment!
Review: This book was so boring and superficial that I quit reading it about halfway through. That was a first for me as I am an avid reader and usually enjoy Oprah's Book Club selections. This one, though, was really off the mark and very disappointing. The characters were never fully developed, the story line was way too draggy, tedious, and predictable and Ms. Oates' use of punctuation, especially her constant overuse of hyphenated adjectives, drove me NUTS! This is the first work of Joyce Carol Oates that I have read, and I must say I was quite surprised at her lack of ability to write a crisp, compelling story and her writing style in general seemed amateurish. My advice to anyone contemplating reading this book is don't waste your time, there are much better books out there to curl up with.
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