Middle Age: A Romance

Rating:
Summary: The Novel I Wish I Could Write
Review: This novel is nothing short of dazzling. There's so much about it that I find spectacular: poetic and metaphoric descriptions of characters, places, inner lives. The overall structure of the book is fantastic in its simplicity; Oates' manipulation of point of view and time are masterful. I find it gripping and sorry that I'm reading it as quickly as I am. It's unbelievable that at this point in this writer's already exceptional career she could reach new heights such as this.

Rating:
Summary: Great book... what about the typos?
Review: This was my first book by JCO, previously I had only read some of her short stories and had found them intriguing. I find myself rather dependant on the choice of my local bookshop owner as I live abroad... what a delight to find this piece while combing through the rather limited selection of English books. It has been a long time since I have felt the urge to rush through to the final page and yet simultaneously want to slow down and delay the moment when the experience is over. The character descriptions were wonderful, and universal... even though there was the suggestion that this was a 'portrait of a group', a possible time and location- specific view, I found that the characters and plot were so skillfully handled that I could identify with something set so far away, and yet also recognise certain whims and motivations familiar to my own world. Yes, I do know an 'Adam', I wonder if everyone does, their enigmatic secret whom they feel is unique to them. When reading the book I felt a very warm and human pleasure was being revealed openly for the first time.
The only less positive comment I have to make is about more mundane things such as dates (on a tombstone) and details (one character referring to Adam being dead in a scene when he was still alive) and a few typing errors (Monroe's name)... this seems to be a defect in a lot of books these days...
So, the book gets a five, though five does not satisfy me- how can you measure a work that becomes a part of you like a restaurant or a hotel that you leave behind?

Rating:
Summary: Great read.
Review: When does Joyce Carol Oates have time to sleep? Is she privy to more hours in the day, more days of the week, than the rest of us? It was be an accomplishment for a person to create one book in their lifetime of the caliber of this one, but she comes out with at least a book a year, sometimes more than one. And in this case, a page turner, compelling and informative and wise. With a little mystery thrown in. She never fails to be interesting.