Wonderland

Rating:
Summary: Oates' Best - A World of Constant Battles
Review: I originally read Wonderland when I was a teenager and remembered only a little of it, so it was a revelation when I read it again a few weeks ago. This is a study of one human being and the torments he endures at the hands of others as he grows up, and how it damages his personality. However, Jesse seemingly prevails, and by the novel's end shows us that the human spirit is never completely extinguished. Jesse is such a real character I expect to see him as a flesh and blood person one day. No doubt, this is JCO's best work.

Rating:
Summary: Oates' Best - A World of Constant Battles
Review: I originally read Wonderland when I was a teenager and remembered only a little of it, so it was a revelation when I read it again a few weeks ago. This is a study of one human being and the torments he endures at the hands of others as he grows up, and how it damages his personality. However, Jesse seemingly prevails, and by the novel's end shows us that the human spirit is never completely extinguished. Jesse is such a real character I expect to see him as a flesh and blood person one day. No doubt, this is JCO's best work.

Rating:
Summary: Oates's Best
Review: I really enjoyed this book by Oates. This is the first book I've read by her, and, from what I understand, the book is not written in her usual Gothicy style, but what a great book. She is a superb writer who is able to pull the reader into the minds of her characters, minds that are unusual, complex, clearly individual, but still accessible to the reader. What I like most about this book is the undertone of a feeling of the grotesque that she builds throughout the novel. It is difficult to be subtle about the grotesque, but Oates has accomplished subtlety in her portrayal of the grotesque in human nature. The only problem I have with the book is the ending. She clearly had difficulty in writing a satisfying ending to the book. She mentions this difficulty in her afterword, saying that the recent edition contains a different ending than the first edition, a second attempt at ending the narrative. I do not find her second attempt to be successful, but this is one of her early works, and the rest of the novel is so powerful that the end may be forgiven.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing, Fascinating, Amazing
Review: In 1975, I was reading Joyce Carol Oates "Them", when my classmate Lenny noticed it. His reply to me was "Get Wonderland". I took his advice. Wonderland is fabulous. This reader simply couldn't put it down. It is a fascinating story of a doctor from his poor childhood in NY State during the depression through the end of the 1960's. The characters are so real - from the freaks in the doctor's adoptive family, through his heroin-addicted friend who becomes a hippie cult figure. I have since read most of Oates' books, but Wonderland IS my favorite. Joyce Carol Oates has an excellent grasp of the poor in rural NY - she is a genius - totally understanding as to what goes on in the minds of regular people and very talented at putting it down on paper. Do as Lenny said - Get Wonderland!

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing, Fascinating, Amazing
Review: In 1975, I was reading Joyce Carol Oates "Them", when my classmate Lenny noticed it. His reply to me was "Get Wonderland". I took his advice. Wonderland is fabulous. This reader simply couldn't put it down. It is a fascinating story of a doctor from his poor childhood in NY State during the depression through the end of the 1960's. The characters are so real - from the freaks in the doctor's adoptive family, through his heroin-addicted friend who becomes a hippie cult figure. I have since read most of Oates' books, but Wonderland IS my favorite. Joyce Carol Oates has an excellent grasp of the poor in rural NY - she is a genius - totally understanding as to what goes on in the minds of regular people and very talented at putting it down on paper. Do as Lenny said - Get Wonderland!

Rating:
Summary: How to Shorten A Book
Review: Joyce Carol Oates starts with a violent family scene and moves to a rather nightmarish but almost comical family as the story of Jesse carries the reader into the realm of personality. But the story itself soon bogs down as the author uses Jesse's middle years of education and marriage as a framework to hang her convuluted ideas of why we do things, why we are violent, and how society figures in this "personality". After being horrified by his first family who quickly and violently disappear, we are truly entertained by his second very bizarre family who also instantly disappear from "Wonderland". Thus begins a long maze for the reader which will end in a most unsatisfying and poorly realized ending but thankfully it is an ending. "Wonderland" is a book, according to Oates for "all of us who pursue the phantasmagoria of personality". Yet her hero in Dr. Jesse Vogel leaves us unsatisfied in revealing this personality through behavior and emotions. Several hundred pages of wandering never did give us enough insight.

Rating:
Summary: How to Shorten A Book
Review: Joyce Carol Oates starts with a violent family scene and moves to a rather nightmarish but almost comical family as the story of Jesse carries the reader into the realm of personality. But the story itself soon bogs down as the author uses Jesse's middle years of education and marriage as a framework to hang her convuluted ideas of why we do things, why we are violent, and how society figures in this "personality". After being horrified by his first family who quickly and violently disappear, we are truly entertained by his second very bizarre family who also instantly disappear from "Wonderland". Thus begins a long maze for the reader which will end in a most unsatisfying and poorly realized ending but thankfully it is an ending. "Wonderland" is a book, according to Oates for "all of us who pursue the phantasmagoria of personality". Yet her hero in Dr. Jesse Vogel leaves us unsatisfied in revealing this personality through behavior and emotions. Several hundred pages of wandering never did give us enough insight.