Rating: 
Summary: Shiksa shonda
Review: A nice liberal half-Jewish intellectual living in the posh area of Rochester, New York (I didn't think Rochester had a posh area) afflicted with a mysterious illness (sounds like multiple sclerosis but we're told at one point it isn't) takes on an abused delinquent twenty year old dumb blonde from Centralia, Pennsylvania (where the underground fires burn) as his personal assistant.
Since this is Joyce Carol Oates you know before you buy it that you're going to get magnificient, thought-provoking, well-plotted prose. You also know that you're going to meet some bad people,that you will be shown how much evil lurks in the minds of men, that nice guys will finish last, and it's going to be a tad depressing. The trade-off is worth it.
I'd recommend it for a long flight in tourist class, or maybe a visit to Rochester, rather than bed or beach.
Rating: 
Summary: Subtle and enjoyable
Review: As a rule I tend to avoid books that list their title and then have a colon and the words "A novel" afterwards. If the target readers aren't going to be able to figure out it is a novel without help from the title, I figure that it can't be all that good. I made the rare exception with this book, because I enjoyed "We Were the Mulvaneys" by Oates and this looked like it might be decent. The central characters in the book are Joshua Siegel and Alma Busch, the tattooed girl from the title. Joshua is a well educated, famous writer and is an heir to millions. He is reclusive and somewhat absent-minded, but is well liked in the community. Alma Busch is from a lower class background and has been severely abused by the men in her life. The crude tattoos that cover her body are the result of an abusive incident somewhere in her past that is never quite detailed. The plot is fairly straightforward. Joshua Siegel hires the tattooed girl as his personal assistant, and becomes increasingly dependent upon her due to a debilitating neurological disorder. Alma secretly despises her employer, steals small items from his house and puts things in his food. Eventually, they grow closer to one another. The tattooed girl and Joshua live in the same house but inhabit two different worlds. Both are ignorant of each other's lives. Joshua thinks that the tattoos are birthmarks, and hasn't the slightest comprehension of the tattooed girl's history or her private life. On the other hand, the tattooed girl is only semi-literate and has been taught a vicious and ignorant anti-semitism by her boyfriend. Although Joshua is very attracted to the tattooed girl, differences in class and background make it impossible for him to contemplate a relationship with her. On the hand, Alma sees the abusive manner in which others treat her as their way of recognizing her. For her, Joshua's absentminded kindness is a form of weakness, and a sign of how he views her as less than a person. Both characters are prone to act without really understanding why they act. For a brief period, Joshua's neurological disorder goes into remission and he enters a manic, euphoric state. The remission ends, and after a bad visit with his doctor, he tells the tattooed girl that he is disgusted with her chewing gum, not recognizing that he is venting because of his frustation over his physical state. One evening, Alma crushes a glass and puts it in the casserole she is serving. Then she spills it on Joshua and afterwards eats part of it herself. "The Tattooed Girl" contains a subtle discourse on the holocaust. Joshua is famous for a book he wrote on the concentration camps, and the tattoos on his employee are linked to the numbers stitched into the skin of the victims of Auschwitz and Dachau. Joshua may be the child of a concentration camp survivor, but the book suggests that the tattooed girl is more the proper heir to that legacy. I really enjoyed this book. The ending is a little weak and both characters are a bit stereotyped, but this is the first work by Oates that I have been able to finish since "We Were the Mulvaneys".
Rating:
Summary: Subtle and enjoyable
Review: As a rule I tend to avoid books that list their title and then have a colon and the words "A novel" afterwards. If the target readers aren't going to be able to figure out it is a novel without help from the title, I figure that it can't be all that good. I made the rare exception with this book, because I enjoyed "We Were the Mulvaneys" by Oates and this looked like it might be decent. The central characters in the book are Joshua Siegel and Alma Busch, the tattooed girl from the title. Joshua is a well educated, famous writer and is an heir to millions. He is reclusive and somewhat absent-minded, but is well liked in the community. Alma Busch is from a lower class background and has been severely abused by the men in her life. The crude tattoos that cover her body are the result of an abusive incident somewhere in her past that is never quite detailed. The plot is fairly straightforward. Joshua Siegel hires the tattooed girl as his personal assistant, and becomes increasingly dependent upon her due to a debilitating neurological disorder. Alma secretly despises her employer, steals small items from his house and puts things in his food. Eventually, they grow closer to one another. The tattooed girl and Joshua live in the same house but inhabit two different worlds. Both are ignorant of each other's lives. Joshua thinks that the tattoos are birthmarks, and hasn't the slightest comprehension of the tattooed girl's history or her private life. On the other hand, the tattooed girl is only semi-literate and has been taught a vicious and ignorant anti-semitism by her boyfriend. Although Joshua is very attracted to the tattooed girl, differences in class and background make it impossible for him to contemplate a relationship with her. On the hand, Alma sees the abusive manner in which others treat her as their way of recognizing her. For her, Joshua's absentminded kindness is a form of weakness, and a sign of how he views her as less than a person. Both characters are prone to act without really understanding why they act. For a brief period, Joshua's neurological disorder goes into remission and he enters a manic, euphoric state. The remission ends, and after a bad visit with his doctor, he tells the tattooed girl that he is disgusted with her chewing gum, not recognizing that he is venting because of his frustation over his physical state. One evening, Alma crushes a glass and puts it in the casserole she is serving. Then she spills it on Joshua and afterwards eats part of it herself. "The Tattooed Girl" contains a subtle discourse on the holocaust. Joshua is famous for a book he wrote on the concentration camps, and the tattoos on his employee are linked to the numbers stitched into the skin of the victims of Auschwitz and Dachau. Joshua may be the child of a concentration camp survivor, but the book suggests that the tattooed girl is more the proper heir to that legacy. I really enjoyed this book. The ending is a little weak and both characters are a bit stereotyped, but this is the first work by Oates that I have been able to finish since "We Were the Mulvaneys".
Rating: 
Summary: tattooed girl
Review: Awful awful book...yes it is beautifully written as all of her books are, but do we really need to meet all these horrible characters, with dreadful lives and mean streaks? It might be reality but at least we could have been given one character to empathize with...for me there was not a single one... Read her other books, not this one.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Probe Into the Emotions of Hatred
Review: First off, a brief summary of the story: A wealthy heir/author who is rather eccentric decides that he needs an assistant. The author hires a young woman who has been abused and has almost no self-esteem. Her newest boyfriend is a white supremacist who often waits on the eccentric author at a local cafe. He hates the author who found fame by writing about the Holocaust. He then spreads his hatred to his new lover, who is the author's assistant. I'll avoid mentioning the rest of the plot and will not reveal the quirky ending. The true appeal of this story is the way Oates' enters the mind of her two main characters. The author and his assistant end up sharing a significant portion of their lives together and never connect. Along the way, their relationship is marred by the stain of religious hatred. The hatred is more subtle than the usual anti-Semetic, white supremacist vitriol. Most interestingly, it is captured by Ms. Oates in her examination of their thoughts and emotions. Some people have criticized Oates for this in the past which seems ludricous because she's written this way for years. You'll get your plot eventually and the story will move on, but only until you experience every change in emotion and confusing thought that comes to the mind of each major character. At times it's unsettling but that's the nature of this story. In the end, you are likely to be somewhat disturbed by the story and the ending, but if it has made you think about certain truths of life, than it was worth your time to read it.
Rating:
Summary: "May you never let anyone give you a reason to hate"
Review: I began reading this book after purchasing it earlier in the week at a local Jewish book fair to finish it last night after retreating to my closet following the Sabbath meal to be engrossed in the book for hours. I couldn't put it down. I finally went to sleep at about two in the morning.
Through the relationship between the young, though unhealthy, author Jacob Seigl and his assistant Alma, Joyce Carol Oates explores the seeds, effects, and overcoming of hatred. Seigl, the son of a Jewish father and the grandson of Holocaust victims, is most well known for his fictional account based upon his father's family's experiences, The Shadows. Due to declining health and the inability to manage his work on his own, he sets out to hire an assistant. After rejecting countless highly educated and competent applicants with impeccable backgrounds in English, literature, languages, and writing, he decides upon a woman he meets in a bookstore, the non-educated quiet Alma, "the tattooed girl", a young woman who has suffered great evils perpetuated upon her. Little does Seigl know that this young woman is vehemently anti-Semitic, in thanks to her upbringing and her lover Dmitri. Alma hates him passionately and without compromise, notwithstanding that no man or employer has ever treated her with such kindness, respect, and dignity as Seigl has.
I'm sorry to say, I was deeply disappointed by the story's tragic ending, a totally unexpected --and unnecessary-- event which occurs within the last three pages. But while novels are fictional accounts of events which never transpired, they can (the good ones at least) possess human truths that are real and eternal. The Tattooed Girl is such a book. It made me think of a note one of my professors gave me, which read in part, "May you never let anyone give you a reason to hate," with a quote from Victor Frankl, "The salvation of man is love and through love." (Of course, hatred can serve an important function when it comes to hating evil in order to abolish it, provided there is no other way.)
Although I was upset with the ending, I do recommend this disturbing and important book.
Rating: 
Summary: *Miss. O* O.K. I guess... *Miss. O*
Review: If you want to read a book that uses delicate plotting to subtly expose many dimensions of the thinking of its two leading characters, you will find The Tattooed Girl to be a tour de force. Unfortunately, the two characters are people you may not identify with because they seem drawn more to create a hypothetical case (of the sort so fondly debated in laws schools) rather than people you have met or know. As a result, the book's powerful message in favor of connection and sharing falls short its potential punch. The reader is likely to come away glassy-eyed from the book's events, but not redirected in her or his behavior. Joshua Seigl is a man trying to hide from his own success, and finding it harder and harder to do so. In the course of the book, you'll find out the many reasons why he is hiding. The time comes to take on an assistant to help him with his papers, correspondence and occasional odd jobs around the house. Seigl rejects all kinds of qualified male applicants due to his own hypersensitive nature. Then, one day he meets an odd young woman struggling to do a simple job in a local bookstore. Despite her lack of qualifications other than being non-threatening, he hires her. Her submissiveness allows them to get along on the surface, but she develops a strong dislike for him that emerges into virulent anti-Semitism. Ms. Oates then takes us on a journey with them as they drop their public faces and begin to connect with one another, and the result is that their views of one another begin to reflect the inner realities of one another. Ms. Oates's theories are that we usually judge one another rather harshly based on appearances, behavior and our historical sense of what's what. Instead, she encourages us to drop our guard and let others know who we really are . . . and take the time to find out who they are. Think of this as being like "Get acquainted with others as you would like others to get acquainted with you" as a variation on the Golden Rule. Although there's an obvious religious message here, Ms. Oates mostly leaves religion out of her story . . . probably to make the potential lesson more accessible to people of all faiths and non-faith. This book would make a fine choice for a sophomore English class in high school as a launching pad for many fine discussions about the dangers of categorizing others. As I finished the book, I began to wonder to whom I had not properly explained myself . . . and to whom I had not properly listened. That was a valuable benefit from reading the fine writing in the book.
Rating:
Summary: *Miss. O* O.K. I guess... *Miss. O*
Review: In this novel by Joyce Carol Oates, an aging ex-prodigy and author is in need of assistance, and starts to (secretly) try to find an assistant. After going through several interviews, Joshua Seigl isn't happy with any of the possible candidates. Seigl gave up searching until he met Alma Busch in a bookstore. She seemed like a good person for the job; although it turns out she is illiterate. This book tells the tale of this mixed-matched pair from a third-person writing of each of their views on their lives - interaction with each other and others. I suppose if I were older, this book might be more appealing, for the writing is good. It is a bit advanced I guess - that or the stress of finishing the book before a deadline - for my age because it felt difficult to read at times. I recommend this novel to older, more advanced-level-reading students, but not to younger, less advanced level students. -- >> Kathy White
Rating:
Summary: It appeared a little contrived and superficial.
Review: My experience of reading this novel epitomizes the meaning of the expression, "The higher one's expectations, the greater the disappointment". No doubt Joyce is a great writer, but "The Tattooed Girl" certainly falls short of her best efforts. The writer seeks to explore the themes of anti-Semitism, the fleeting and impermanent nature of one's identity, and the irrational origins of hatred. The lead-up to the conflict took Joyce almost two-thirds of the book, yet the resolution was a lame attempt at hitting home her intended message.
"The Tattooed Girl" is likely to be on the reading list for Joyce's diehard fans, but for others, it may end up as a book which failed to move. Go for Joyce's other novels instead. I believe they will salvage your impression of her.
Rating:
Summary: Good, not great
Review: Others have outlined the plot and characters - so. One customer/reviewer stated that a good Oates novel is better than the detritus otherwise available. Yes. However, the story might be compared to a film by an important, but aging director: Masterly crafted and with signature moments of brilliance, yet with something missing. This is not, in my view, a novel about either hatred or anti-Semitism; these appear more as vehicles within a greater story. Yes, the novel involves a Jewish man (one who denies that he is Jewish), his sister, and a gentile woman who is apparantly anti-Semitic. Yet it isn't enough for a character seething with apparant prejudice to chant over and over (and over) again: "I hate hate hate the Jew." Here is where emotional depth is not established. Moreover, I would go as far as to say that Oates' conception of anti-Semitism - a reality of horrendous scope and importance - is somewhat lazy. In addition, while I am no East-Coaster, the protagonist, Joshua Seigl, seems convincing as a far older, established man rather than the fading, late-thirties prodigy he is conceived to be. Meanwhile, the other important character, the barely literate Alma Busch, does not become fully delineated until the novel's final pages, and I do not believe this was by design. The Tatooed Girl is more centrally a story about fear - fear of failure, or of ridicule - at both ends of the spectrum of success; and of shame - shame for who one is, for what one has done or failed to do. While there is an electrifying moment of confession, one which is linked to the Holocaust, revealing duplicity and cowardice, the driving force behind The Tatooed Girl is personal alienation, destitution (temporal or spiritual), and the unlikely bond formed between two very different outcasts.
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