Rating: 
Summary: mixed feelings
Review: What a book. At first I could only focus on the lengthy run-on sentences (not the details...I like detail and it served a purpose here), the lack of proper grammer and punctuation as well as the constant use of the words quiver and quaver (author must like those words!)....but then once I set those things aside and just read, I couldn't put the book down. I wanted the question, "Why?" answered. It is never addressed. As one who is the same "age" as Marianne and having gone to high school in the seventies, a part of me understands. It is not how families deal with members today who have been victimized, or who have made mistakes, but the seventies was a different time. At times this book was too painfully real for me and I had a hard time reading it. I held back the tears until Muffin got sick and then I let go and I still can't stop crying. Even the end of the book, where we are supposed to sense a "healing" for the family, felt sad and tragic and yet again too real...and I just cried and cried. I literally felt pain for this family...part of me wishing I had never picked up this book and part of me understanding it in a way that I could not put it down. The truth is, life moves forward, and everyone deals with the events of their life in their own way, sometimes to the detriment of others. So I am glad I read this book and even though I am finished, it will stay inside me for a long time. I don't know if I liked the author's writing style, but I did get used to it. But she does have keen insight into people as they are. I would recommend it, but not if you're looking for a "light" read. May stike a chord here and there; a very "heavy" book.
Rating: 
Summary: Why did I finish this book?
Review: I'd heard great things about this book from many different types of people, so maybe my expectations were set a bit high to begin with. But goodness! Talk about a depressing story! And it's not even one that really keeps you locked in. I plowed through it just hoping that I'd find out why people had recommended this to me, and never quite figured it out. I didn't believe in the characters' reactions to the events that occurred, or feel emphathetic to their situations...at all. I had more of a "oh, give me a break" type reaction from chapter to chapter. Read this book if for some reason you need a downer, because this will definitely do it for you.
Rating:
Summary: Slow moving - not believable book
Review: This book is filled with unessasary bulk... It just goes on and on with too much description of things that are not even important to the story line. Then when things finally start to get interesting the pointless descriptions come back. I wanted to skim through most of this book. If the author took all of that extra "stuff" out it might not be half bad except for the fact that it is not very believable. At the beginning the author builds up the characters to be one way and by the middle they are suddenly completely different. If you can put all of this aside, the book does have its moments and you can occasionally get into it (although it can be very depressing and frustrating). Overall I would say this book is worth reading if you like books that take a while to get into and if you are willing to look past the unbelievable characters.
Rating: 
Summary: No Sugar Coating From Oates
Review: You're going to read a novel that gives you the stuff that life is made of. If you cannot stand the heat, you know what to do. In this piece, the Mulvaneys are a very happy close-knit, no secrets held, type of family. There are Corinne and Michael Mulvaney the parents, and Marianne, Patrick and Judd the brothers. The trouble starts with Marianne who is date raped on a Valentine date,and who falls into despair just having to tell her perfect family about her the horendous happening. She expects sympathy, but that's when the house falls down; for she gets not an ounce of comfort or anything of that sort. Then her cowardly father send a message by his dear wife to inform the young lady that she has to leave his home. Her brothers are torn and confused by these happenings, as all personalities make deperate changes and everyone totally isolates themselves from each other. In the meanwhile Marianne drift from place to place, and life in the Mulvaney's house has come to a standstill. One cannot but help wondering why it is that the parents acting in such a unfeeling and callous way instead of being supportive of their daughter's dark fate. Readers, that's how life is, and it shows that their foundation was terribly weak as a family. A somewhat happy ending but this book takes a great deal of patience as it is quite long too, but it is very very real. That's the reason that I'm keeping mine safely in my library until I feel the need to reread it one day. Give it a go and you'll see what I mean. Joyce Carol Oates is a brilliant writer.
Rating:
Summary: Greater expectations
Review: I had great expectations for this book. And perhaps my strong reaction to it it the result of Oates excellent writing skills. The book is well written, the story interesting, as well as the prose. However, I became very frustrated with some of the characters. Especially the mother, who in my opinion, is only a strong, loving woman, when all things are wonderful with her man. When the going got tough, she simply got rid of the evidence-in this case a human being, her own daughter (who needed her mother to help her through a crisis in her life but was sent away). I don't often read books more than once, but I will read this one again - now aware of what I am getting into, perhaps I will get more than frustration out of it.
Rating: 
Summary: We Were the Mulvaneys
Review: I like to read. Really!! But this? I'm halfway through and more than once I thought: why bother? Once you start skipping passages because they're tedious, boring, and you're wondering "is this relevent?" perhaps it is time to walk away. At each chapter I wonder: who's head am I in now (who's point of view)? Ms. Oates has written 30 books? Perhaps she shouldn't crank them out this fast, or perhaps her editor needs more courage, or perhaps Ms. Oates needs a better editor! Despite the "compelling ties of love" this story is supposed to have, I haven't seen anything unusual -- no characters that grip my interest, nor a compelling strive to find out more. I gave it one star--after all, it's a lot of pages...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I haven't finished it yet - but it is terrific. Reminds me of JCO's early books -- "Them" etc. Good read.
Rating:
Summary: Watch the Mulvaneys Spiral Downward!
Review: Down they go, further and further. Things get worse and worse for this family. The surpise was that I was absolutely fascinated even though I knew things were just going to go from bad to worse. I liked the Mulvaneys. I was attracted to their spirit of fun (before they hit hard times). It was more of a feeling about the family than details that make up one's knowledge of another. Watching them crash and then go further and further into hell was compelling. If you can relate to a family's happiness, then possibly you should be able to relate to their sadness and loss. And, you know, what happens in this novel could easily happen...That's why I could not look away from the spectacle - it really could be real.
Rating:
Summary: too depressing
Review: I read this book and thought it was incredibly depressing. I found that by the time I was 3/4 of the way through it, I was dreading picking it up! I really did not like it.
Rating:
Summary: haunting, and well written
Review: Though the subject of the story was a little disturbing, and the way the Mulvaney family dealt with "it" was not quite the way I would have chosen - it unfortunately is more realistic than the I would care to admit. The characters in this story (especially Marianne and Mike, Sr) come alive in this book, worm their way into your hearts, and refuse to leave. I have even found Marianne to be surfacing in my dreams!
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