Rating: 
Summary: 3 1/2 Stars: Flawed Souls Yearn to be Healed
Review: To say that JC Oates's THE TATTOOED GIRL is populated with flawed souls and monumentally flawed people is to understate the case. The two main characters, old-money wealthy and educated Joshua Seigl and Alma Busch (the tattooed girl of the title) are at the end their respective ropes: Seigl, a JD Salinger-type recluse living off the reputation of his first novel which deals with the survivors of the Holocaust, who can't quite bring himself to complete any of his many works in progress and Alma, a wanton, perpetually down-on-her-luck young woman who carries the marks of her past and of her lifestyle on her face and body.
THE TATTOOED GIRL is not by any means one of Oates's strongest recent works but it certainly has it's moments and patented Oatesian scenes such as this one dealing with food and eating: "Her rapidly chewing mouth...Saliva glistened in the corners..." It has always been interesting to me that Oates, thin and trim in real life, has always written of food and eating in such a manner: uncontrolled, sensually even orgasmically. And she does it here once again.
Seigl and Alma reach out for each other but not at the same time. In fact one of the weakest character motivations of this novel has to do with Anna's hate of Seigl because he is Jewish (which technically, he isn't having been born to a gentile mother) and her perceived notion that he thinks himself privileged: "Mostly that's why she hated him... he didn't know what he owned."
Throughout most of the novel Seigl is completely unaware of Alma's real feelings about him and Alma likewise of Seigl's towards her. The connection is not made until the last few pages when it is too late for both of them to revel in the kind feelings, love and ultimately the redemption of their love for each other.
THE TATTOOED GIRL is Oates at her very darkest. And even though the writing is often glorious and redolent with the aroma of truth, this is not Oates at her best: some of the characters are sketchy and could have been left out and some are retreads of characters from earlier novels, especially Alma. (Alma could be exchanged with Ingrid in MAN CRAZY or Anellia in I'LL TAKE YOU THERE. They are one and the same.)
But a good Oates novel is better than most authors best and anyone interested in contemporary fiction would be hard pressed to find better, more aggressive writing of this quality anywhere else.
Rating: 
Summary: About a Girl - but not an Oprah pick
Review: Why isn't this an Oprah pick? It doesn't fit the Oprah formula of victimized heroines rising above their horrific circumstances to transform their lives. The Tattooed Girl, Alma Busch, is more anti-heroine than heroine. She cannot think for herself, but instead incubates the thinking of her pimp/boyfriend Dmitri into an anti-Semitic rage against the only ostensible Jew she knows who turns out not to be a real Jew. Alma is not really tattooed in an artful, positive, erotic, aesthethic way, but instead, is BRANDED by amateurish, home-made tattooes probably made by abusive men as she passed out into drug induced oblivion and could not defend herself. Her tattooes are not even identifiable as tattooes and many believe they are birthmarks. Her defenselessness becomes her downfall. Joshua Siegl is the son of a Jewish father and Presbyterian Mother and is baptized in the Presbyterian church. However, probably because of his wealth, the anti-Semetic attitude of Dmitri, a waiter who is well tipped by Joshua at a local cafe, is excreted from Dmitri's character into the blank slate of Alma's mind, which doesn't know how to think for it itself. What is even more scary is her irrational feelings of love to Dmitri who abuses her - but, I suppose this is part and parcel of the abused victim psyche. Dmitri takes the Tattooed Girl, Alma, off the street, from her runaway status, feeds her food, then feeds her drugs, then pimps her out yet she loves him so irrationally and despises Joshua Siegl equally irrationally who has only ever treated her kindly only because Dmitri despises Joshua. Then, it seems, Alma starts to feel beyond blind hate and comes to love Joshua as she then begins to despise and shun Dmitri who is merely using her as a cash cow. (Oprah theme: anti-heroine is smartening up). Just at the point of transformation in Alma's life, where this could be a formula Oprah book with the anti-heroine going on to a better life, Oates ends the story in a dramatic denouement. This book is not about plot and action and place as much as it is about the dark corners of the psyche. Characters are masterfully developed by Oates. The writing describes the inner minds of the characters interspersed with enough dialogue between the characters to keep the reader interested and advance the plot. The portrayal of Jet, Joshua's sister, a secondary character to the primary characters is masterful. Jet is portrayed as a mentally ill addict and the scene of Jet drunk and trying to play chess with her brilliant brother Joshua is finely crafted by Oates. Anyone who has been sober while watching a loved one get smashed and sick will appreciate the reality of this scene. A short novel compared to lets say "We Were the Mulvaneys", it is quite readable and concise although some of Alma's anti-semitic inner rants and rages were nearly repeated to the point of tedium. Fortunately, that theme turned and twisted at just the right moment to keep my interest. If you are a film aficionado familiar with the film noir genre, this book could be called "book noir" - Dark, pessimistic, uncomfortably real.
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