This is a great novel that I'd only recommend selectively. It's long (752 pages) and written in a precious mid-1800s tea-party diction. It took me about a hundred pages just to realize that this wasn't merely a tour-de-force of stylistic mimicry, but also a parody of the style so subtle that it does a balancing act from beginning to end, never falling into dismissive or belittling lampoon. Its narrator ("the authorized chronicler of the Zinn family") loses track of her narrative, hops around in time, censors herself with a formidable prudery from mentioning the many, many things that she finds unmentionable, and generally makes life hard for a reader who tries to make sense of the story. That story, meanwhile, is a time-warped magical-realist shaggy dog of a thing, purportedly the history of the Zinn family, its relatives the Kiddemasters, and a variety of peddlers, mystics, quacks, and powermongers in late 19th century Pennsylvania. Like many of Oates's books and stories it centers on a missing/abducted girl--in this case one of five sisters--and explores a world of oppressive gender codes and shady political forces, but it also (and in this it shares some similarities with Angela Carter's great Nights at the Circus) presents a fascinating, slightly steam-punkish picture of the end of the 19th century, especially regarding the confluence of invention, capitalism, and militarism. Its characters are spectacularly well-drawn, especially the inventor John Quincy Zinn, but also his several daughters, his wife, Prudence, and her aunt, parents, cousins, etc. As in Oates's gothic Bellefleur, her characterization balances a very persuasive psychological realism with a happy taste for the grotesque and fantastic. The imaginative achievement of the book strikes me as among Oates's most impressive. And it contains moments of pure guffaw--yawp-out-loud wisecracks, some of them anachronistic, many of them coded to the kinds of vicious in-joke ironies I associate with deeply passive-aggressive families. Yet, as I say, it's also long, convoluted, and demonically precious in its tone--the balance between tone and tonal parody is almost too perfectly sustained. It's easy to imagine readers throwing the book away in disgust. I loved it (I think it's a work of genius) and can't think of another writer who could have pulled it off. But read it at your own risk.
This title is the second book written in Oates' Gothic Saga. Before starting the review I want to point out, as I do at the beginning of all of the Gothic Saga novels, that these books follow the same gothic style setting and sometimes the same historical figures popping up but do not need to be read sequentially nor do they, as far as I know, reference each other in any way.I enjoyed this tale of a family of five daughters, each of which chooses a very different fate as they leave home. What Oates manages to do quite masterfully is create five distinct personalities (more if you count the two parents, the great aunt, and other side characters) and five very different tales. Through their stories, an image of an era emerges from different angles and perspectives. It is well-written and well-researched. Some sections were certainly more interesting than others, and I found myself at times impatient for a section or perspective to end, but this was infrequent. I also found frustrating that Deirdre's perspective took so long to emerge and that her balloon was never explained (unless I'm missing some reference?), though I understand why she wasn't revealed for so long. I think Octavia's storyline was maybe my favorite, and Samantha's my least in terms of subtlety of the telling.Since the Gothic Saga books aren't necessarily linked, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to compare them, but I will say that while Bellefleur took my breath away, A Bloodsmoor Romance did not. Some of the elements didn't really come together for me, and I thought some areas were a lot stronger than others. If a turn of the century set novel about a wealthy families with supernatural and feminist elements sounds like an interesting read to you and you have some time, I say give it a shot. I'm glad I read it, and I'm off to hunt for tome three in the ongoing Gothic Saga series.
What do You think about A Bloodsmoor Romance (1983)?
For those who think it's an actual ROMANCE, it's not. What a satire, someone on amazon likened it to an Edward Gorey cartoon, I think that nails it beautifully!Finished it last night, what a long journey. I can understand how there were readers that could not get through it, knowing many people like short and sweet. I do think they missed out though. It's dark and humorous and it cannot be denied Oates is one hell of a prolific writer. This novel was like walking through a labyrinth full of godless creatures. I imagine Oates became, for the duration of creating this story, a member of the Zinn family. A delightfully dark, strange read full of the fruit I love to devour in novels.
—Lolly K Dandeneau
I can not believe I am giving a Joyce Carol Oates novel 2 stars but...This book was out of print until after the publication of Oates, The Accursed, and I think I know why. It seems like A Bloodsmoor Romance was a test for what she perfected in The Accursed. To say this novel was an arduous read is an understatement...perhaps torturous would be more apt, or maybe it was just the time and place that I was in that made it an unsatisfying read, (read would not be apt task seems to suit better). Maybe some years from now as I dust off the books on my book shelf, I may think of giving this another read, but for now I am truly glad A Bloodsmoor Romance is no longer a part of my life.
—Robert
JCO enriches and expands the rigid box of Victorian literature with an insidious, insistently realistic perspective. The bones of the story are true to form, with accidents of birth and the struggle between sin and virtue at every turn, sprinkled liberally with strange events of spiritual portent. As in novels of manners from Dickens & Eliot to Madox Ford (Empire thro Edwardian) we see the middle class bougeoisie desperately trying to keep their skirts out of the mud from whence they rose by at least appearing to adhere religiously to social code.Never does Oates drop the realistic ball. The reader is in on her wry modern perspective at all times yet easily suspends disbelief in a multitude of ridiculous encounters between her characters and historical personages/events. As always with Oates' work, events of the novel are well-grounded by full-fledged motivated characters, credible as associates and also-rans among Edison, duPont, Emerson, et al sages, inventors, industrialists, popular mystics of their day.What I like best about this novel: it is told in a style which is not literary-- it's the voice of the everyday reading material of the ladies and gentlemen of working, middle & upper-middle-class America, pre-Civil War through pre-WWI era-- a style which is patently ridiculous to the modern ear, exposing the foibles of the times. I've collected plenty of this stuff-- ladies' magazines, gossip rags, newspapers-- the book sounds like it was torn from the pages of a serialized potboiler. This, I believe, is the secret to Oates' success in maintaining that tightrope-walk between modern sensibility and suspension of disbelief. The style grows on you-- like stepping into a bath which is a bit too warm. As you steep in the patter of the cultural times, you develop a finer appreciation of gothic weirdness. It was the sound of clashing undercurrents: technology and communications galloped toward the future while the brakes were full on, socially.
—Virginia
