What I Lived for

Rating:
Summary: Help
Review: I have never read an author as versitile as Ms. Oates. She must have been reincarnated millions of times to understand human nature as she does. "What I Lived For" and "Mayra" are my favorite books by her, though they could not be more different. Oates transported me into the body of Corky Corcoran; so whatever my lifespan, tack on the 50 years I spent as Corky and understand that I know what it is to be a man.

Rating:
Summary: Just another brick in the wall - a foreigner's perspective
Review: I read "What I Lived For" in Polish several years ago when it was freshly translated and published in a deluxe hardcover series in Poland. My impressions faded a bit in their freshness since that time, but I still remember what tickled me while reading this novel. Never having been to America beforehand, I tried to form the image of this country based on literature, motion pictures and third-hand information coming from people of my cultural heritage who have been there already. This novel by Joyce Carol Oates helped me form the initial expectations, adding just another brick in the wall of expectations, to borrow a phrase from Roger Waters. Much like the Floydian Wall, that house of cards fell down and disintegrated almost from the very first day of my visit to America, but after several years spent here, I think that if nothing else, Oates's novel is about the only remaining bastion of my old impressions. I still perceive the fictional world of Oates as representative for America, or to be precise, a slice from the overall cake of a picture. Her fiction, though never being pompous or in-your-face-yankee-style patriotic quasi-fiction of the engaged kind, it serves quite well as a door to America, to the anxieties specific to the upstart middle class, an endemic layer of the American society half of the country aspiring to, the newcomer generation in particular, the other half having just outgrown it and moved forward. There is a multitude of possible answers to a trite question what makes America so special, what makes it a magnet attracting people from all over the world. "What I Lived For" is one of these answers, and a compelling one at that. The book starts off with a brutal scene several decades ago, and we are introduced to the life of one "Corky" Corcoran, a son of the relatively poor Irish neighborhoods, whose life will soon turn about to be one long quest in the search for an escape valve from the maze of the labyrinth of his complexes, the inferiority complex with financial grounds being one of the most prominent ones. Corky moves upward, and as soon as he reaches one rung higher in the social ladder, he turns and faces his thus-far perfectly acceptable peers in condescending manner. As soon as he becomes a locally recognized man of moderate power, he decided to reach down to the bottom, and familiarize with the masses. There are few scenes in literature that depict the snobbish artificiality and resulting embarrassment better than many scenes in the second half of "What I Lived For". Oates looks very critically at the typical new-American upstarts for whom grace and tact are lost art. America attracts people of specific personality; by the laws of nature it is a self-selection process. The worst kind, and the most brilliant kind are attracted to come to that "golden land of opportunity". And then the second and third generations are not free from their inferiority complex, as this novel illustrates. While it's only one aspect of the American phenomenon, it is not a negligible one, and that is one of the reasons why this particular book is translated and popular in Europe. While the details fade away in time, the overall impression is long-lasting, and should you happen to be more familiar with the specifics this novel is rich with, the more sense it makes. Joyce Carol Oates has written a thought-provoking book that bitterly asks questions few people seem willing to answer.

Rating:
Summary: This book has stayed with me.
Review: I'm a big fan of Joyce Carol Oates, but this book was much better than I thought it would be, and has remained in my thoughts though I read it more than a year ago. Corky Corcoran is a fascinating, tragic character and his story is alternately repulsive and compelling. I loved this book.

Rating:
Summary: Just another brick in the wall - a foreigner's perspective
Review: Oates fans will see familiar territory here: Alcoholism, emotional detachment, failed relationships, the dull thud of time as it drags us through a suburban existence. This is Oates' obsession, recycled for the ten-thousandth time.
What's new to this novel is Oates' ability to cause the reader to abandon moral outrage and identify completely with the main character, Corky Corcoran. He's shady and often crosses over into lewdness that embarrasses the reader. But - why is this? - you start to like him. You give in, not because he deserves your love, but because you want to give it to him. Only Oates could pull it off.
I'm an avid reader of the novelist's work, and this book is by far the best. Months after reading that final line of that exhausting novel, I still miss Corky Corcoran in my life.

Rating:
Summary: Buy this book
Review: Oates fans will see familiar territory here: Alcoholism, emotional detachment, failed relationships, the dull thud of time as it drags us through a suburban existence. What's new to this novel is Oates' ability to cause the reader to abandon moral outrage and identify completely with the main character, Corky Corcoran. He's a really shady guy and often crosses over into lewdness that embarrasses the reader. But - why is this? - you start to like him. You give in, not because he deserves your love, but because you want to give it to him. Only Oates could pull it off.
I'm an avid reader of the novelist's work, and this book is by far the best. Months after reading that final line of that exhausting novel, I still miss Corky Corcoran in my life.

Rating:
Summary: Ulysses
Review: this book is one of the greatest of all the postmodern american novels. it is a modern day take on james joyce's ulysses and it is astoundingly well written. the highest of accolades for this book and its author!

Rating:
Summary: OH! CORKY
Review: This is an excellent novel. Joyce Carol Oates takes everyday people and shows them in their glory and their faults, which makes you feel like you know them. WHAT I LIVED FOR covers a period in the life of Corky Corcoran, local bigwig, city councilman, and man-about-town. The book has a wonderfully vivid prologue which sets the mood for Corky's adult life. Fitted into the story, but not as a main pont, is the questionable death of a former, quasi-girlfriend and the ensuing police investigation. Corky deals with his married lover, his mentally-imbalanced stepdaughter, and his dearest childhood friend, all in an affable manner. The ending is emotional, but the epilogue is excellent, setting everything straight. Ms. Oates is talented, very versatile and a joy to read.