Day 190.2: I Read The Mulvaneys
Nov. 23rd, 2024 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunshowerdandelionI get what they mean when they say the novel's symphonic now. We Were The Mulvaneys is definitely a novel carried forward by all sorts of different viewpoints. It's very messy, and I mean that in a positive way. Any family saga should be symphonic I think: the ones where it isn't, like Kent Haruf's stuff, I suspect. Joyce Carol Oates is not afraid to lead you down a million smaller tributaries fortunately, even if they end up 'nowhere'.
I think one of my two favorite moments occurred early on. When Joyce's writing is really good, tense, going somewhere, like when she's talking about the family code and how Marianne breaks it, I went Oh yes yes this how you write family tragedy. Then later, when the revenge bit happens, and Joyce omits the subject of her sentences and it works, because that is how you think when you make those snap decisions... those moments are definitely perfect for me.
However I did think the book was a little too long. I get that this is a requirement for rhythm, that the book is one song, but still, some parts are rather repetitive. And this is definitely a fault of the author, but white, settled families are a little alien to me, especially with their interest in antiques and the acreage of their properties, and the emphasis on needing big gardens and farms. Maybe it's just a matter of ownership. At least it's not like, Oh this one family manages a farm just fine. Joyce Carol Oates is I think better than Elizabeth Brundage in portraying what a farm feels like, especially as it rots.
Her writing is seeping into my writing, definitely. I admired this novel very much but I liked Black Water much, much, much better since a sharp, bitter crisis is what Joyce portrays best I think.
I think one of my two favorite moments occurred early on. When Joyce's writing is really good, tense, going somewhere, like when she's talking about the family code and how Marianne breaks it, I went Oh yes yes this how you write family tragedy. Then later, when the revenge bit happens, and Joyce omits the subject of her sentences and it works, because that is how you think when you make those snap decisions... those moments are definitely perfect for me.
However I did think the book was a little too long. I get that this is a requirement for rhythm, that the book is one song, but still, some parts are rather repetitive. And this is definitely a fault of the author, but white, settled families are a little alien to me, especially with their interest in antiques and the acreage of their properties, and the emphasis on needing big gardens and farms. Maybe it's just a matter of ownership. At least it's not like, Oh this one family manages a farm just fine. Joyce Carol Oates is I think better than Elizabeth Brundage in portraying what a farm feels like, especially as it rots.
Her writing is seeping into my writing, definitely. I admired this novel very much but I liked Black Water much, much, much better since a sharp, bitter crisis is what Joyce portrays best I think.
