In spite of my contrarian nature, sometimes I like to fit in. When a moved to Virginia eight years ago, I started to drink sweetened iced tea. We southerners call it ‘sweet tea.’ So now, here I am on GR and I seem to be surrounded by people reading and loving romance novels. I have never been a romance or soap opera person and I have been reading a long time. I would even call my attitude about the romance genre as derisive. But I am reading Middle Age A Romance by Joyce Carol Oates and it says ‘romance’ right there in the title. But I don’t know if it is really a romance. So I can’t decide if I should like it or not! Help me out, please. What is it about ‘romance’ novels that people like and is JCO a ‘romance’ writer?There are some things about JCO that I am not sure about. As I read more of her books, I will be examining how she deals with sexism with examples of date rape, male domination and women as objects in Middle Age. Can a feminist admire JCO? Maybe I should just ask my 18 year old daughter to read this book and to let me know. JCO also confronts ageism as she explores the young middle aged and the old middle aged, the young beautiful women and than the old dowdy. The author seems to be describing a world she sees rather than a world she prefers. But I would have to see a balance of characters that are non-sexist and non-ageist to get some vision of available life choices. And I don’t recall seeing many JCO characters that show women as equals of men. Well, maybe Naomi Volpe, the bisexual, paralegal near the end of the book … But even this is more role reversal rather than equality. Rarely now did he and Volpe have sex, and that only when Volpe, aroused from a day of frustrations at the office, initiated it. JCO characters explore some unusual options and different pathways through life. One man sees polygamy as the natural state with adultery as the available option in the current society. For one woman, maybe it is that she is a lesbian and that explains everything. Some characters in Middle Age do actually change for the better in the end. Hooray!In the male world that JCO creates, she has many portraits of women. They are women who most frequently (but not always) see themselves as subservient to the men: If the women’s sharp eyes have observed that the Donegal Croom who stands before them is a battered-looking wreck in his fifties who bears only a fleeting resemblance to his handsome publicity photos, they are too tactful to acknowledge it; these are women accustomed to not seeing imperfections in men, though anxiously aware of the smallest imperfections in themselves. There is an outrageousness about many of the characters JCO creates. And there is an over the top absurdity of aspects of the story. But how can I judge this one book by JCO without reading many more? Some of the topics in just this one book include small town America, modern American society, the privileged upper middle class, marriage and divorce, dysfunctional families, self-knowledge, capital punishment, parenting, morality, abortion and more. And she has dozens of books and short stories and plays and poems and essays. I will be looking for and working on that summary statement about JCO. But I am beginning to suspect that there is no easy summary for JCO who does it all and just keeps cranking out words.From a reading guide for this book from the publisher: In an interview with Greg Johnson, her biographer, Joyce Carol Oates said, "All my longer novels are political, but not obtrusively so, I hope."http://www.harpercollins.com/author/m...You might want to check out the biography of JCO, Invisible Writer. I have my copy coming from Alibris for $4.16. My summer fun may be to understand this prolific woman writer. Clearly I will find a lot of help from her books and her biography in seeking that understanding.
Wow – this is the first book I have read by Joyce Carol Oates and I take my hat off to her as a writer. After reading the first few pages, I thought the subject matter of this book was going to be depressing – a man loses his life after saving a small child in the water – and it relatively is. After the first quarter of the book or so however, the story unfolds with the deceased man as the pinnacle character and role-model of the book who has the power to influence and change other people’s ordinary lives after his death with drastic changes and results.The writing style is witty and intelligent throughout and Oates manages to develop and interweave her characters to the highest level. Her main message seems to be that life needs to continually challenged and after the protagonist’s death, Oates remaining characters are forced to re-think their often idealistic situations in life in order to reach full satisfaction and fulfilment of their lives.Prior to reading Oates, I had thought of her as more of a feminist writer but this book has altered this impression. Instead she comments fully and is supportive of both genders although she does give the odd witty remark about the female condition and her standard serious tone is interspersed with a nice bit of wit. Her account of pregnancy - “Of course it’s different for a man! A man shoots his seed into a small hole out of which, nine months later, a woman pushes a watermelon with arms and legs. That’s the difference” – made me howl and chuckle out loud. A slice of criticism of the book lies with its length and depth and whilst it’s an easy and delightful read, it does take a long time to digest. I finished the book with a lot of invested reading over about 4 days over an otherwise un-busy period. It’s not a book I would want to read with other books on the go as it’s quite intensive (yet satisfying) work. I do have a couple of other Oates books on my ever-extensive reading pile and look forward most definitely to becoming more familiar with this author – I’m a new fan!I’d also recommend this book to any lover of good fiction with an American tone. This book is great if you enjoy complex characterisation and strong writing with a pinch of subtle wit. Just loved it!
What do You think about Middle Age: A Romance (2002)?
At the very start of this novel, one of the main characters dies when saving the life of a drowning young girl. The remainder of the story revolves around the people around him, whose life's were, and are, very much affected by him. As the story unfolds, we learn that no one really knew him and a lot is perhaps never unveiled, but a number of sub-plots involving the other characters instead develops. Good storytelling and prose, interesting and believable characters, I have no problem seeing why JCO is a very popular author and I will be reading more of her books.
—Thomas Strömquist
Oates has been on my "must read someday" list for almost forever and I finally got around to reading this, on my shelf since it came out in paperback. I do understand why she is compared to Updike in that she offers a window onto American life in a way that is uniquely hers.While I laughed at the characters weaknesses in the first half of the book, by the second half, I was tired of them and felt the outcomes where quite predictable. Using Platonic allegory as a character tool wears thin for thi
—Christina
I ended up liking this book in the end, but it sure didn't seem that way in the beginning. I found the first 100 pages (maybe 150 or 200?) very tedious and Oates' writing style tiring (so many long, long sentences, endless tangential description, and pages-long paragraphs). I hated all of the characters. I felt as if I'd read this story somewhere before: a man dies, and a small, wealthy, white Northeastern town reels from the loss of a person the residents had all believed in as someone better than themselves. The next 400 pages follow various acquaintances of the dead man and their grieving processes...His death heralds changes for all of them... Do their actions make them better people in the end? More likable characters? Meh, not really. But they are saved from themselves and their grief (each in their own way) and I suppose that's what pulled me through the rest of the book. I ended up rooting for some of the very characters I hated. It's very American, this novel, and I guess I sometimes tire of stories like this because we live them. Maybe that's why I can't bring myself to give this four stars. On the other hand, Oates is talented enough to capture us all as we are, and in the end I suppose this is why the novel is worth reading.
—Elizabeth
