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Summary: A Family Hangs Together!
Review: Marianne, the lovable peace-maker in the Mulvaney's, takes her family throught a violent and terrifying incident to doom and destruction. Victimized, the family becomes powerless in its approach to the heinous crime committed. Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates how each member of the family express his or her feelings toward the crime, the criminal and the victim. Even though the Mulvaney's passionate punishment of the perpretrator overshadows any sympathy to the victim, the family beats all the odds and remains together in the end. I felt linked to the Mulvaney's all through this tale.
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Summary: The saddest book I've ever read.
Review: A good novel and a good character study of the decline of a family. While I appreciated this novel, however, it convinced me I don't want to read any more Joyce Carol Oates. I was so depressed while reading it that I could barely get out of bed in the morning. So sad.
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Summary: Not Oates's best, but still a good read
Review: WE WERE THE MULVANEYS is not Joyce Carol Oates' best book (my favorite remains BECAUSE IT IS BITTER AND BECAUSE IT IS MY HEART), but readers will enjoy the in-depth look at a family living in familiar Oates territory, upstate New York. The six Mulvaneys seem to have the perfect, sprawling life until young Marianne is raped by a popular high school boy. The strength and dignity of the Mulvaneys begins to unravel as each confronts the black spot cast upon the family in his own way. As with all Oates's novels, this one's strength lies in the psychological subtleties of the characters. Also typically, Oates approaches melodrama and injects violence, for which she has been criticized in the past, but she is such a skillful writer that these are but elements off which she plays her true concerns of what makes us human. She deftly avoids the traps that lesser writers fall into with such subject matter. Reminiscient of Anne Tyler novels and Antonia Nelson's LIVING TO TELL, this book is not a bad start for readers new to Joyce Carol Oates. Don't stop here, though. This prolific author has proven herself through her many books to be one of America's best novelists.
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Summary: A tragic, yet beautiful book
Review: We Were the Mulvaneys was the first novel I read by Joyce Carol Oates, and I have continued reading her work ever since, desperately trying to catch up with all that I'd missed (she is a tremendously prolific and varied author). Though I've read many of her works since Mulvaneys, in many ways it is the one I am fondest of. It's not perfect, but there is a passion and energy to the story, the language, and the characters which is as strong as anything else Oates has written. It is a gripping story, though often not a pleasant one. As in all of Oates's novels, there is plenty of violence and many scenes of nearly unbearable intensity. However, this is also one of her most cathartic novels -- the ending is the most unambiguously happy one that I've ever read by her. Some readers and critics have found the ending unconvincing, but for me it was an emotional necessity. The novel earns the note of hope that it ends on. What is remarkable about this book is Oates's ability to create vivid, individual characters and to weave the loose (and often frayed) ends of their lives over 30 years into a tapestry which is coherent and satisfying. Even after all their troubles and tragedies, I was glad to have spent time with the Mulvaneys, for in some way their imaginary lives enriched my own real one, and introduced me to the works of a writer I've never considered perfect, but have always found fascinating.
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Summary: Good, But Not Great
Review: I read 'We Were The Mulvaneys' when it was first published and was startled and pleased to find Oprah had selected it for her bookclub. Startled because she had never mentioned Oates before and yet had presented herself as a longtime admirer, and pleased because I enjoy Oates' writing. That being said, while there is much to enjoy about this novel, it doesn't really sit with Oates' best ('Them' or 'Black Water'). Oates is once again playing with mythic figures, only this time it's the relatively common-place mythos of the American family. Sure, things fall apart; they often do in Oates' families, but what compels a reader is the depth of her characters and the precision with which she observes them. Oates shares the knack with Conrad of making a reader see everything. What 'We Were The Mulvaneys' lacks is a solid resolution. The family falls apart, and even along the way the love they shared only appears unconditional; there are numerous clues that show just how conditional things are for this family. The Mulvaneys are primed to fall apart; that they don't know it is their tragedy -- Oates presents this beautifully. But toward the end, as the family move toward one another after having been thrown apart, it isn't convincing; there isn't a sense of these people having discovered something to bring them together. They simply come together and the psychology slips a bit. Still and all, it's solid and entertaining, filled with Oates' haunting and lyrical writing, and is, for the most part, an affecting read.
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Summary: Great, but intense read!
Review: This is a great book. I read it a couple years ago. The characters are real and the story is tragic. Joyce Carol Oates is a fantastic author and I have read many of her other books. In this story, she tells a down to earth story about real people. It is a fiction story, but it reads like there is nothing made up about it. She is a great author and if you enjoy this book, pick up any one of her others. I recommend every single one.
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Summary: Wonderful, moving -- must read!
Review: I read this book a couple of years ago, I guess in hardback. It is really good. I am not one for many words....take my advise the book is really great -- read it. You will not be disappointed.
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Summary: Oprah Make's Us!
Review: Oprah picks books that make us look at who we are and what we are doing in the world. This story will make you rethink who you are, and where you came from. Also an excellent read "THE SECOND COMING OF AGE" ISBN 0-595-09150-4
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Summary: less tiresome than many Oates books
Review: Joyce Carol Oates is an amazingly prolific writer. Unfortunatly, for me, at least, the more I read of her, the less I like her. I find that her style of writing gets tiresome after a while. That said, I also found this book to be less grating than some of her other offerings. It's an interesting tale of what happens when a golden family's most golden child falls from grace, and Oates' writing style is more tolerable than usual. If you're only going to read one book by Joyce Carol Oates, it should be either this one or Dark Water.
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Summary: An epic
Review: Oates has written an epic story of the Mulvaneys, sometimes told in flashback. This book will stay with you for a long time. While you're reading it, it doesn't quite register that you might be witnessing the decline and decimation of an average, American family. Only when you've finished does the power of Oates' writing slam you in the face like a car against a brick wall.
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