The Gravedigger's DaughterIt isn’t often I give up on a book, but this one did not capture my interest at all. Highly recommended from my reading group, I took it up with pleasure as I had not read any of Joyce Carol Oates before.
The main character is Rebecca, the daughter of German-Jewish immigrants, living and growing up during the 1930s and 40s. This is a world of abject poverty, made worse by prejudice, and a tyrannical father who fears the world. He is a bitter man and instills some of that fear in Rebecca. "Hide your weakness from them and one day we will repay them! Our enemies who mock us."
The main character is Rebecca, the daughter of German-Jewish immigrants, living and growing up during the 1930s and 40s. This is a world of abject poverty, made worse by prejudice, and a tyrannical father who fears the world. He is a bitter man and instills some of that fear in Rebecca. "Hide your weakness from them and one day we will repay them! Our enemies who mock us."
She marries, has a child, there's a tragedy - I found it tedious in the extreme. It was suggested that because the writer is American maybe those of us who disliked it, didn’t like the American style and idiom. I considered this, but I read far too many American authors for that to be the case.
No, for me this book was awful, and while the characters started as mildly interesting, what little appeal they had was lost as I read on with interminable boredom. I’m sure that those who love Oates will have much to say on the merits of the book, but dull, dreary and exasperating, just about sums it up for me.
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