Rating: 
Summary: Does This Really Happen?
Review: I am somewhat astonished with the speed in which I read this book. Two weeks, despite a full time job. And yet, I am troubled by one recurring issue: Does this really happen? Can a family so close, a mother so devoted, really spin so out of control where everyone abandons everyone else? All the kids abandoned the parents who abandoned each other and, in the end, ... well, I better not ruin it. I will reread this book someday. There is someting there about Christianity and forgiveness and Darwinism and science. Something worth a second read. I even liked the characters. But...really, can this happen?
Rating: 
Summary: The fairy tale crumbles
Review: Joyce Carol Oates once again brings dreams crashing into reality with the Mulvaney family. This perfect family that could have been an "advertisement for the American dream" ruins itself because of its own imperfections. This book is a brilliant irony of life; the very things we try to hide about ourselves are the very things we can't hide from others. Beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: If This Is Reality, Then I Live In An Alternate Universe
Review: First of all I like JCO's writing, but this book stunned me with its characters, all of whom seem to make the most horrible decisions in life. I was frustrated and angry with every single one of them all through the book. I cannot believe that people would respond in this manner to the ordeal of the daughter. I am sad to finish many books because I know that I will miss the characters that I have just spent hours with. When I finished this book I had a different feeling. I said good riddance to all of them.
Rating:
Summary: Joyce Carol Oates succeeds again
Review: As an obsessive Joyce Carol Oates fan I am always conscious of the recent press highlighting (or should I say creating) the struggle between quality and quantity with her writing. I always take these criticisms to heart each time I pick up one of her novels. I think with this book, Joyce Carol Oates has captured a grotesque, yet painfully real piece of Americana again. At the beginning, I found the characters to be too idealistic. I thought a borderline scientific genius and an almost too Christian daughter could never develop from the same household. But as I read on, I thought maybe they were too real rather than idealistic. I realized the novel is through the voice of Judd, the youngest and often times forgotten Mulvaney. Oates captures his personal thoughts and his depictions of his family perfectly. Like always, Oates masters a voice so vividly and accurately, almost making the reader forget who is speaking. Often times in life, we pass others that are almost walking hyperboles because we view them through our own distorted lens. Oates proves to me once again she is a master at depicting the painfully real grotesque that envelopes all of our lives. This is a must read!!
Rating:
Summary: Real life is sometimes hard to read about
Review: But I loved it anyway. I am not a big follower of Joyce Carol Oates, but plan to become one. I worked for a woman years ago and as a young married woman living in a new and strange city, she gave me unsolicited advice--when a woman has children she has to decide whom she will favor--her children or her husband. In "We were the Mulvaneys", Corinne chooses the latter, and the results are devistating to her children and all concerned. I have read other comments about this novel, begrudging Ms. Oates the first 100 pages of the idealistic lives of the Mulvaneys before "it" happened. I disagree. She had to show how perfect their lives were before, so we could see how low they became after. I was very impressed with all the ends tied up at the end. I came to care about members of this family. They could be anyone. Or everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: An uneven effort
Review: There are two things I don't like about this book--the first "idyllic" 100 pages (what could be more boring than a "perfect" family?), and the implausible devotion of Marianne to all of her family members despite their absolute and unforgiveable abandonment of her after "the event." Her mother allows Michael to banish Marianne from the house, and we're supposed to look at her as tender and sensitive? Sure, parents make mistakes. But there are mistakes and there are MISTAKES.
Those two complaints aside, I think there are many excellent passages in this JCO novel. The section about Michael Sr.'s demise, for example, is vividly imagined and convincingly portrayed. Some memorable writing here--if only that beginning were different.
Rating:
Summary: The Mulvaneys are our neighbors, our friends.
Review: With We Were the Mulvaneys, Oates has captured the essence of life... it's struggles as well as its joys. The Mulvaneys are our neighbors, our friends. WE are the Mulvaneys!
Each character jumps to life off the page. I felt the love and the pain of a family as it reaches to cope with a single damaging event.
Rating:
Summary: Profoundly disappointing.
Review: I was held in thrall for most of this story but found the ending deeply unsatisfying and implausible. Innocent, lovely Marianne is twice a victim: once at the hands of her brutal attacker and again more devastatingly by her own parents, who send her into virtual exile following "the incident" of which no one in the family dares speak. After a period of twelve years Marianne is inexplicably welcomed back into the family fold; the reader is expected to accept not only this, but more unimaginably - that she would still want anything to do with these heartless, self-absorbed people. There is never any real attempt to explain the stunningly cruel behavior of Marianne's parents; instead Oates writes: "In families, things just happen." It's almost as though the author lost interest and decided to wrap up a complex and riveting story with a few quick "feel good" chapters at the end and a ridiculous family reunion in which everything turns out hunky-dory. At times Oates displays an almost preternatural insight into the human psyche, particularly with her characterization of Patrick, Marianne's brilliant, rage-filled brother. Unfortunately, this serves to leave the reader all the more frustrated with the unlikely conclusion
Rating:
Summary: JCO spins a fascinating, disturbing tale, again.
Review: I loved this book....Once again, Oates draws the reader helplessly into the lives, secrets, dreams and nightmares of her characters. While reading "We Were The Mulvaneys", (in 2 days!) I felt as if these were people I knew...or could know. Oates' descriptions paint stellar portraits of these Mulvaneys...the reader comes to know each intimately, feel for them, and with them. The reader turns the page, even when there is supper to cook, or laundry to be hung, wondering, "What will happen to these people?"
The din of this family's life rings true, as does their decline in the face of tradgedy. The reader looks on, like by-standers at a fire, grateful for not being burned, but feeling the intense heat from the flames.
In the end, the book closes on a happier note, unlike much of Oates' work in the past. This is one story, one set of characters that I wll remember, long after the book is placed on a shelf.
Rating:
Summary: A strong work about relationships and tragedies
Review: Not having read a book by this author since high-school, I was startled by how much I was enthralled by this strory of the breakup of one family. Oates paints such a vivid picture of the torment and dissociation each family member feels while all around them their lives are being destroyed. Even more overwhelming is what doesn't get said and how this contributes to the family's demise.We are given an intimate look into the psyche of each member of this family and though we may not always like whom we meet, we feel compelled to find some goodness in all. I recommend this book to all, especially those who believe that "it" can't happen to them
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