Little Bird of Heaven: A Novel

Product Details

• Working order: NEW
• ISBN13: 9780061829833
• Notes: Mark New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Description

Joyce Carol Oates returns with a dark, romantic, and captivating tale, set in the Great Lakes region of upstate New York—the territory of her remarkably successful New York Times bestseller The Gravedigger's Daughter.

Set in the mythical small city of Sparta, New York, this searing, vividly rendered exploration of the mysterious conjunction of erotic romance and tragic violence in late-twentieth-century America returns to the emotional and geographical terrain of acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates's previous bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravedigger's Daughter.

When a young wife and mother named Zoe Kruller is found brutally murdered, the Sparta police target two primary suspects, her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers' son, Aaron, and Eddy Diehl's daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other's father is guilty.

Told in halves in the very different voices of Krista and Aaron, Little Bird of Heaven is a classic Oates novel in which the lyricism of intense sexual love is intertwined with the anguish of loss, and tenderness is barely distinguishable from cruelty. By the novel's end, the fated lovers, meeting again as adults, are at last ready to exorcise the ghosts of the past and come to terms with their legacy of guilt, misplaced love, and redemptive yearning.

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Customer Reviews

Disappointing Oates
I read this after seeing Oates on stage in conversation at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. She said her attempt was to portray the phenomenon of what happens when a family member is accused of a crime but subsequently never acquitted--how a cloud of disrepute continues to hang over that person within the community.

Of course Oates is a skilled storyteller. But what unpleasant characters; not a single one I'd want to meet. The book could have benefited from better editing as well.

2010-02-21 (Northern California) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Slow Reading
Although I consider myself to be a major fan of JCO, this book was very hard to get into. Krista's story was so full of redundant details that kept leading up to a parallel set of expectations (Dad, Aaron) that never actually materialized. None of the characters ever pulled me in and, while I had some sympathy for the situation, I never felt that I could relate to any of the characters. All in all, this wasn't her best writing.

2010-02-12 | Author of Graves' Disease, A Practical Guide (Colorado) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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repetitious
I read a lot and this is the first time I have felt the need to write a review opinion. I choose this book because of the great ratings from previous readers. The story sounded interesting. But this was not the case. I am very surprised it got such good reviews from others. There was so much unnecessary repetition. As a reader you have to reread the same statements and feelings over and over. The conclusion was not all that great either. I would not recommend this book

2010-01-11 | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 1

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Stunning
I first discovered Joyce Carol Oates about ten years ago, when I read one of her short stories ("Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" It's a MUST read, by the way). I fell in love with her stories and novels because of the subject matter; Oates's novels usually deal with obsession usually of the sexual kind (them is a perfect example of this). Oates's novels are always dark and gritty, never easy reading but somehow satisfying nonetheless. Little Bird of Heaven is Oates at her best.

The setting is a working-class town in upstate New York (typical Oates) in the 1980s. The story isn't told linearly, but unfolds gradually over time. Some of the information we're given is repeated, but each time the story is told from a different point of view. Krista Diehl is the daughter of Eddy Diehl, suspected of but never charged with the murder of a local singer named Zoe Kruller, with whom he was romantically involved. On the other side of the coin is Aaron Kruller, the woman's son. Both he and Krista become obsessed with the murder of his mother--and, by extension, with each other, in a weird way. The first half of the book is told from Krista's perspective, the second from Aaron's.

Part of the beauty of Oates's novels is a common theme that runs throughout: obsession. Krista and Aaron are of course obsessed with Zoe Kruller's murder; Eddy Diehl is obsessed with clearing his name and having his life returned to normal. Another thing I loved about this book is the not-knowing; the reader never really knows until the end for sure who killed Zoe Kruller, and that's part of what kept me turning the pages. And yet Eddy Diehl certainly does keep acting guilty, doesn't he? I certainly think he does feel guilt, in a way, but maybe he didn't really do it?

Another thing I love about Oates's novels is her prose. I'm pretty sure that, if you plugged one of her sentences into Microsoft Word, it would flag that sentence as a run on; but Joce Carol Oates's writing is pure poetry. She breaks the rules of writing in a way that only she can. Sure, she does use a fair bit of profanity, which can be a bit disturbing. It's also exhausting at times to read, but well worth the effort of doing so. The only thing I didn't really get was Aaron Kruller's voice, especially as a child; I doubt that a boy of eleven, especially one with a bad reputation, would call his parents "Mommy" and "Daddy." Also, Oates goes a little bit overboard on the Elvis comparisons (it seems that a lot of people in Sparta, New York look like him!) But other than that, I highly recommend this book.

2010-01-07 (New York, NY) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Extraordinary
Little Bird of Heaven is a disturbing story of the effect of a murder on two families as seen through the eyes of the daughter of the alleged killer and the son of the victim. The relationship between the daughter and her self centered, probably alcoholic father is particularly poignant, because Joyce Carol Oates seems to burrow inside her soul. Her longing for emotionally absent parents is vivid and real. .. so real that the critical incident of the murder and its aftermath creates another world. Members of my Book Club found ourselves discussing the book as if the characters and their social setting in a small town in upstate New York really existed! I don't think there can be a greater tribute to the author's skill and insight. This book creates another world for its readers-- a gritty world where there is no completely happy ending.

2009-12-06 | Retired in Florida | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Faithless: Tales of Transgression

Description

In this collection of twenty-one unforgettable stories, Joyce Carol Oates explores the mysterious private lives of men and women with vivid, unsparing precision and sympathy. By turns interlocutor and interpreter, magician and realist, she dissects the psyches of ordinary people and their potential for good and evil with chilling understatement and lasting power.

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Penzler Pick, March 2001: I guess it's no secret that I regard Joyce Carol Oates as one of the great living American writers, both of mystery-crime-suspense fiction and of virtually every other form invented. I previously reviewed Blonde, which went on to be nominated for a National Book Award, and it's my joy to be able to recommend Faithless: Tales of Transgression, the stories within which are about as good as the short story gets. (Full disclosure here, with the admission that I might be a trifle prejudiced in favor of this volume. It is dedicated to Alice Turner, the former fiction editor of Playboy, and to me--largely, I reckon, because several of these stories were written especially for several anthologies of which I was the editor.)

There are 24 stories in this generous volume and while some inevitably linger longer in the memory than others, there is not a dull spot in its nearly 400 pages. The title story is a haunting tale of the disappearance of a woman as recalled by her two daughters, grown now. The ending is utterly expected but, nevertheless, comes as a shock. "The Vampire" is not at all a horror story, at least not in the sense that it involves in any way elements of the supernatural, but has a growing sense of pure terror as the reader comes to see the way in which one person can absorb all the life out of another.

In "The High School Sweetheart: A Mystery," a famous mystery writer reads a speech as he accepts the presidency of the most prestigious of all mystery organizations. The speech is delivered as a piece of fiction that appears to be a confession of a horrific crime committed during his teen years while besotted with a girl two years older than he. When the speech ends, the audience cannot imagine applauding because the story seems so true. Is it?

Once again, the incomparable Joyce Carol Oates has produced a compelling and important volume for the shelves of anyone who cares about distinguished suspense fiction. --Otto Penzler

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Customer Reviews

Dark Short Stories
This collection of short stories was surprisingly dark - well-written, but quite dark. Short stories are really not my favorite thing to read, and this was unfortunately no exception. Some of the stories were more engrossing than others - but those were frustrating, too because they left me wanting more... I guess it is the format that really disappointed me the most. I should probably stop trying out short story collections - the only one that hasn't been a disappointment was _Nocturnes_.

2009-06-01 (Chicago, IL) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Faithless
I read it but it is not Joyce C. Oates best work. It is a good one to compare an contrast with in a formum sitting.

2008-09-14 (AZ USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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spellbound
This book offers some of Oates' finest short stories. If you are an Oates fan you must purchase this book and if you want to become one you also have to buy that book.
I must confess I like her short stories best, they explore the depths of the human mind and soul leaving you wonder how you would have acted in a certain situation. The books are often too complex and she tends to lose focus but not so with her short stories. You can devour them at once or take your time and eat one at a time;-)

2007-04-12 | Al | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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There is no stopping this amazing author!
Joyce Carol Oates is one of my all-time favorite authors. Her work is amazing and with prose so beautiful that it is at times lyrical. I have loved all of her short story collections and marvel at the fact that am all the more impressed every time I pick up a new Oates book. Faithless: Tales of Transgression isn't an exception. This amazing short story collection covers a vast variety of subjects that speak to you and move you to the core. Some are dark and others are downright shocking, but they are always memorable. My favorites are "Ugly," "Physical," "Secret, Silent," "The Vampire," "A Manhattan Romance," "We Were Worried About You," and "Faithless." Here you will find stories centered on self-esteem, relationships gone awry and even murder mysteries (I should add that the story "The Vampire" isn't centered on the paranormal, but it is a quite impressive and somewhat disarming tale that ought to be read). There is something for every reader in this collection. I for one have fallen in love Oates's keen storytelling all over again. I cannot recommend Faithless enough.

2004-11-27 (MA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Bleak and bleaker
The stories are bleak and depressing and should be sold with a warning label. I came away from reading the book feeling sorry for Ms. Oates for her miserable perceptions on life.

2004-02-08 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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I Am No One You Know: Stories

Product Details

• Shape: NEW
• <a title='Condition Guide' href='/content/Condition_and_S hipping_Guide.htm' target='_blank'>Click here to rate our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices</a>
• Notes: Mark New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• ISBN13: 9780060592899

Description

I Am No One You Know contains nineteen startling stories that bear witness to the remarkably varied lives of Americans of our time. In "Fire," a troubled young wife discovers a rare, radiant happiness in an adulterous relationship. In "Curly Red," a girl makes a decision to reveal a family secret, and changes her life irrevocably. In "The Girl with the Blackened Eye," selected for The Best American Mystery Stories 2001, a girl pushed to an even greater extreme of courage and desperation manages to survive her abduction by a serial killer. And in "Three Girls," two adventuresome NYU undergraduates seal their secret love by following, and protecting, Marilyn Monroe in disguise at Strand Used Books on a snowy evening in 1956.

These vividly rendered portraits of women, men, and children testify to Oates's compassion for the mysterious and luminous resources of the human spirit.

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Customer Reviews

a word of caution
not since dos passos wrote `usa' has one writer generated an endless production of stories as joyce carol oates. her vast output and enegetic fast paced writing style compels a frenetic reading just to keep up with the words spilling across the page. although `i am no one you know', probably could be read in one sitting, i would not advise reading all of the stories at once at risk of doing damage to the spirit. with the exception of one or two stories, the stories contained in this volume are about violence, not just violence to the human spirit, but physical violence of horrific magnitude. included are serial killers, husbands who kill their wives, gangs of whites who kill a black student; and where there is no violence there is the suspicion that someone is a bad story waiting to happen.

in most cases, where suspicion in society is given the benefit of the doubt, oates has provided an onslaught of examples of viciousness for her reader not to give that benefit of the doubt to the felons who served their time and appear in college classrooms and appeal to college professors for educational opportunities. oates' victims are generally white women. and you feel oates is dishing out punishment to them, as she hammers away like a black american speaker of high morals on the importance of a good education -- the majority of her stories' victims are without college educations, while the women with higher educations are spared in oates' dangerous society.

would it be too much to read the grisly theme running through these stories as a take on a black cautionary tale? there is the story `instructor' in which erma schegloff, ph.d candidate, teaching english composition to non-academic students in a night class, introduces a piece of writing by `the brilliant black woman writer', zora neale hurston, met with emotional protests from her students.

but it's not the ghost of zora neale hurston who walks the pages of oates' fiction, it's nella larsen, another black american writer, author of the two novels, `quicksand', said to be a horror story, and `passing', of a light skin black american woman who chose to live visibly as a white woman, which fits well the invisible sensibility of joyce carol oates, writer of the moral cautionary tale in the usa.

2009-12-31 (CT USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Not Her Best Effort
Although her wonderful, intriguing novel "Mulvaneys" was one that was hard to put down, this collection of short stories leaves me wanting; I read it in the wee hours when I can't sleep, and I'm usually asleep within 20 minutes. Knowing she usually writes on the dark side of life's issues, these stories seem to me to be redundant and have excessively similiar themes...rape, illicit sex, fear, murder, alcoholism, etc. With a short story, we expect the unexpected, of course, but many of these shorties just left me asking "what was that all about?" There are a couple of exceptions: "Fire" had some depth and was emotive, but, sadly this book is not one I will put in my bookcase - it will go in the "give away" box.

2008-02-13 | Constant Reader (California) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Oh My! Oh My! Where is the Six Star Button ?
Joyce Carol Oates was born in 1938 in upstate New York State and is a distinguished Professor of Humanities at Princeton. She gained fame with her first novel With Shuddering Fall in 1964. Now four decades later, she is the author of scores of novels and other works. The present work is a selection of short stories that have mostly appeared in print before as individual pieces.

If you have read some of her novels and not been terribly impressed, then read this collection of nineteen short stories, and keep on reading until the end. Oates gives us a treat at the end with her story on Marilyn Monroe at a bookstore. You will understand why she is a professor at Princeton. I got interested in Oates after reading a short story by her and I still think that it is her best area, better than the long novels. She has a number of short story collections.

Oates is known for her emotional and dramatic stories, often with women caught in stressful situations, and often set in her native upstate New York. The present collection contains many of these elements plus a lot more. Most stories involve women, women and families. or women and other family members.

The stories are short and intense and some involve crimes, criminals, or people just released from prison. A few involve people with mental handicaps.

This is a dramatic and entertaining stuff that most Oates fans will love.

As a bit of a bonus, one story takes place in a book store and Oates gives us an interesting reading list which I will repeat here:

Freud, "Civilization and Discontents,"
Crane Brinton, "The Age of Reason,"
Margaret Meade, "Coming of Age in Samoa,"
D.H.Lawrence, "The Rainbow,"
Kierkegaard, "Fear and Trembling,"
and
Mann, "Death in Venice."

2007-08-31 | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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Stories that grab you and hang on
Ms Oates is one of the finest living writers, particularly in the short story form. As only the most skilled storytellers can, she can hook you with the first line and deeply involve you in the lives of her characters in the first paragraph.

I must object to a comment that the reviewer from Booklist made about the story "Me & Wolfie, 1979." The reviewer completely missed the point of a moving story about a bright, sensitive boy and his bi-polar mother. Despite the problems she created for him, she also introduced him to a world of magic and beauty. Moving and not soon forgotten.

2006-03-02 (USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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America's Master Short Writer
Again Joyce Carol Oates is gritty, frightening, writting with humanity and beauty (it is there, just open up your mind's eye and look). And with apparent ease she is a great stylist. This a great collection of stories, written by Chekov's spiritual daughter.

2005-09-23 (Mystic, CT United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Zombie: A Novel (P.S.)

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780061778919
• Notes: Disgrace New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Demand: NEW

Description

Meet Quentin P.

He is a problem for his professor father and his loving mother, though of course they do not believe the charge (sexual molestation of a minor) that got him in that bit of trouble.

He is a challenge for his court-appointed psychiatrist, who nonetheless is encouraged by the increasingly affirmative quality of his dreams and his openness in discussing them.

He is a thoroughly sweet young man for his wealthy grandmother, who gives him more and more, and can deny him less and less.

He is the most believable and thoroughly terrifying sexual psychopath and killer ever to be brought to life in fiction, as Joyce Carol Oates achieves her boldest and most brilliant triumph yet—a dazzling work of art that extends the borders of the novel into the darkest heart of truth.

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Customer Reviews

Nightmaric. Simply Nightmaric!
I came across this one a few (well more than a few) years ago while I was working in a public library. I read the back cover and thought "Oh, no Joyce! Not another story about rape/murder!" But Zombie caries an intriging twist...

It deals with psychology. The mental malfunction of a madman. And how (sadly) so many criminals can fall through the cracks and meander through society...only to hurt others again.

We get a horrifying look into the mentality of Quentin P. A sociopath who preys upon young boys. We get to hear him ramble and rant, gloat whenever he thinks he has others fooled.

It's truly disturbing...even anger evoking in parts.

Definitely better than Rape: A love story.

2010-02-07 | bookworm extroardinaire | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Damn you, Joyce!
I knew I was a fan of Joyce Carol Oates after being forced to read her by an English prof in college. She has a perspective and a skill with prose that really impressed my impressionable bachelor's degree mind. I'll grant, however, I am not a big reader and don't keep up with Oates' complete catalog. It was about a month ago when I ran across this title and thought, "Wow, Joyce Carol Oates is doing her take on the latest zombie phenomenon? I need to check this out." Dumb a**. Of course, she's not writing about zombie zombies. But that's kinda what I thought when I started reading it. I didn't know anything about it, much less that this book was originally published more than a decade ago.

I think coming into it virtually blind made the book a more intense experience for me vs. someone who has read the reviews, synopsis and so on. (Kinda like how I enjoyed "The Blair Witch Project" more than most because I went into it blind and believing.)

For that reason, I'm not sure how much I actually want to say about the story. When I got the book, I began reading it right away just because I was in a reading mood. Then I couldn't put it down. I wanted to, though. I felt like throwing up at least four or five times while reading it.

I wasn't finished with the story when I had to put the book down to go make a living. After I'd put it down I was reluctant to pick it up again. I'd pass by it on the bookshelf and give it the stink eye.

Then, finally, the other night all the circumstances collided making it the right time to finish this book.
It's a slim read, practically a novelette. But it's a testament to Oates' abilities. She knows just how to turn a phrase, flip syntax, reroute a time line - like a puppet master pulling at the threads of your emotion. It's so funny how unassuming she seems in person, her lady-next-doorness. She's pretty damn brilliant.

Despite that, I cannot recommend this book to anyone I know because it is just too damn creepy. It would be like recommending rape or something. That's it. My mind has been raped! Okay, well, it's not that bad. Well, sorta. I don't know. I mean, it's basically the journal of a sociopath who describes in calm self-righteous detail his gruesome and terrifying deeds.

It got me to thinking about how a lot of people are like this, maybe everyone. Not the horrifying sadosexual acts, but just that sociopathic drive to get what you want - trudging a path to a self-serving goal without a thought to those hurt along the way.

Yet Quentin is hurt by those he hurt. He finds ways to be offended and victimized by his own victims as he stalks and tortures them - completely insane.

In the end you realize, really, Quentin is the zombie - dead inside, a soulless automaton on a path of destruction. I so desperately wanted to reach through the pages and stop him. But I couldn't. I could only read on, paralyzed. The horror.

That night, after I'd put the book down, I got ready for bed, got under the covers and turned out the light. About 10 minutes later I got up, grabbed Zombie and put it outside on the patio, went back in and locked the door.

Because I'm such a contemplative reader, I usually keep all the books I read. I like to refer back to them, remember lines and phrases. However, "Zombie" is going with me on my next visit to the used book store - it will ride in the trunk of the car, of course. I don't need Quentin anywhere near me again. Though I am afraid he will forever reside in my paranoia.

2009-10-20 (USA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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Zombie
I stumbled across this book while browsing. It looked interesting, though I had not read Joyce Carol Oates' books in the past. This is the diary of a sex-obsessed serial killer, who wants his own personal zombie to take care of his special needs. We follow along as he tries and fails to create his zombie. Then he spies the perfect candidate and sets about developing the plan to create his magnum opus. No more from me. Don't want to spoil this grizzly chiller. You may never look at your shy, but slightly odd, landlord again in the same way.

2009-10-05 (Portland, OR) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Little Bird Of Heaven: A Novel

Description

Joyce Carol Oates returns with a dark, romantic, and captivating tale, set in the Great Lakes region of upstate New York—the territory of her remarkably successful New York Times bestseller The Gravedigger's Daughter.

Set in the mythical small city of Sparta, New York, this searing, vividly rendered exploration of the mysterious conjunction of erotic romance and tragic violence in late-twentieth-century America returns to the emotional and geographical terrain of acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates's previous bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravedigger's Daughter.

When a young wife and mother named Zoe Kruller is found brutally murdered, the Sparta police target two primary suspects, her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers' son, Aaron, and Eddy Diehl's daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other's father is guilty.

Told in halves in the very different voices of Krista and Aaron, Little Bird of Heaven is a classic Oates novel in which the lyricism of intense sexual love is intertwined with the anguish of loss, and tenderness is barely distinguishable from cruelty. By the novel's end, the fated lovers, meeting again as adults, are at last ready to exorcise the ghosts of the past and come to terms with their legacy of guilt, misplaced love, and redemptive yearning.

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Customer Reviews

Disappointing Oates
I read this after seeing Oates on stage in conversation at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. She said her attempt was to portray the phenomenon of what happens when a family member is accused of a crime but subsequently never acquitted--how a cloud of disrepute continues to hang over that person within the community.

Of course Oates is a skilled storyteller. But what unpleasant characters; not a single one I'd want to meet. The book could have benefited from better editing as well.

2010-02-21 (Northern California) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Slow Reading
Although I consider myself to be a major fan of JCO, this book was very hard to get into. Krista's story was so full of redundant details that kept leading up to a parallel set of expectations (Dad, Aaron) that never actually materialized. None of the characters ever pulled me in and, while I had some sympathy for the situation, I never felt that I could relate to any of the characters. All in all, this wasn't her best writing.

2010-02-12 | Author of Graves' Disease, A Practical Guide (Colorado) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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repetitious
I read a lot and this is the first time I have felt the need to write a review opinion. I choose this book because of the great ratings from previous readers. The story sounded interesting. But this was not the case. I am very surprised it got such good reviews from others. There was so much unnecessary repetition. As a reader you have to reread the same statements and feelings over and over. The conclusion was not all that great either. I would not recommend this book

2010-01-11 | Helpful Votes: 6 | Rating: 1

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Stunning
I first discovered Joyce Carol Oates about ten years ago, when I read one of her short stories ("Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" It's a MUST read, by the way). I fell in love with her stories and novels because of the subject matter; Oates's novels usually deal with obsession usually of the sexual kind (them is a perfect example of this). Oates's novels are always dark and gritty, never easy reading but somehow satisfying nonetheless. Little Bird of Heaven is Oates at her best.

The setting is a working-class town in upstate New York (typical Oates) in the 1980s. The story isn't told linearly, but unfolds gradually over time. Some of the information we're given is repeated, but each time the story is told from a different point of view. Krista Diehl is the daughter of Eddy Diehl, suspected of but never charged with the murder of a local singer named Zoe Kruller, with whom he was romantically involved. On the other side of the coin is Aaron Kruller, the woman's son. Both he and Krista become obsessed with the murder of his mother--and, by extension, with each other, in a weird way. The first half of the book is told from Krista's perspective, the second from Aaron's.

Part of the beauty of Oates's novels is a common theme that runs throughout: obsession. Krista and Aaron are of course obsessed with Zoe Kruller's murder; Eddy Diehl is obsessed with clearing his name and having his life returned to normal. Another thing I loved about this book is the not-knowing; the reader never really knows until the end for sure who killed Zoe Kruller, and that's part of what kept me turning the pages. And yet Eddy Diehl certainly does keep acting guilty, doesn't he? I certainly think he does feel guilt, in a way, but maybe he didn't really do it?

Another thing I love about Oates's novels is her prose. I'm pretty sure that, if you plugged one of her sentences into Microsoft Word, it would flag that sentence as a run on; but Joce Carol Oates's writing is pure poetry. She breaks the rules of writing in a way that only she can. Sure, she does use a fair bit of profanity, which can be a bit disturbing. It's also exhausting at times to read, but well worth the effort of doing so. The only thing I didn't really get was Aaron Kruller's voice, especially as a child; I doubt that a boy of eleven, especially one with a bad reputation, would call his parents "Mommy" and "Daddy." Also, Oates goes a little bit overboard on the Elvis comparisons (it seems that a lot of people in Sparta, New York look like him!) But other than that, I highly recommend this book.

2010-01-07 (New York, NY) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Extraordinary
Little Bird of Heaven is a disturbing story of the effect of a murder on two families as seen through the eyes of the daughter of the alleged killer and the son of the victim. The relationship between the daughter and her self centered, probably alcoholic father is particularly poignant, because Joyce Carol Oates seems to burrow inside her soul. Her longing for emotionally absent parents is vivid and real. .. so real that the critical incident of the murder and its aftermath creates another world. Members of my Book Club found ourselves discussing the book as if the characters and their social setting in a small town in upstate New York really existed! I don't think there can be a greater tribute to the author's skill and insight. This book creates another world for its readers-- a gritty world where there is no completely happy ending.

2009-12-06 | Retired in Florida | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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A Fair Maiden

Product Details

• Notes: Identify New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• ISBN13: 9780151015160
• Accustom: NEW

Description

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Customer Reviews

Old men, young men...they're all beasts.
I would have given JCO my usual five stars, but I was a bit unsatisfied with the ending of this "oeuvre." (Note: I am taking poetic license with the word. For Joe, who criticized my choice of the word for another of JCO's books, I direct them to the "Literary Dictionary.") An "oeuvre" is A work; more often, in the plural (but not always). Also, Joe says that JCO is just a couple of steps up "from Stephen King" in the literary firmament. Anyway, kill-Joe, I have shaved off a star for JCO, not to not to placate a jerk, and not to (subconsciously) chide my "ex," Irv, - who was a REAL piece of work. I just wanted a meaty outcome for the fair maiden; some justice, even simply an indication that she had an iota of common sense left in that small, Polish brain of hers. I wanted to know that she got her money, land, gold and jewels for having been defiled by a horny old goat, and pillaged by a slimy young toad. Old men, young men, JCO seems to be saying in this oeuvre, men can be beasts. In this cautionary tale, it's a dangerous world for under-aged nannies who find themselves among the filthy and the rich. As for Stephen King: apparently, Joe has not read "Dolores Claiborne."

2010-03-20 | hawthorne wood (santa fe, new mexico) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Thoroughly Enjoyable
This is a short novella of 165pp, which can easily be read in an evening or two. It is a mystery full of twists in which the author does not reveal its intended secret plot line until near the end. Although not a normal reader of fiction, I enjoyed this book so much that I ordered two additional copies to give to friends. As a practitioner in the mental health field, I thought the psychological ramifications regarding class differences to be quite accurate. I found it engrossing and made me want to read another book by the same author.

2010-03-16 | dshrink (Charleston, SC United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Mismatch
In "A Fair Maiden," Joyce Carol Oates returns to the theme for which she is perhaps best known: a very young woman is being preyed upon by an older man interested only in using her for his own, less than honorable, purposes. Female characters created by Oates live in a world in which they can never afford to let their guards slip because, just when they begin to feel comfortable about their surroundings, a man will step from the shadows to yank them back into the brutal nature of the real world they inhabit.

Sixteen-year-old Katya Spivak is not exactly an innocent. Even before her father disappeared from her life, the Spivak family struggled to make it from one payday to the next. These days, her mother is much more interested in partying in Atlantic City than in holding a job. Katya may have come up the hard way but she resents those who look down on people like her and her family. Despite her feelings, she is spending the summer in an exclusive Jersey shore community as nanny to the children of a wealthy couple who seem determined to put as little cash in her pocket as possible.

Marcus Kidder, 68, is pretty much the last of the Kidder family to spend time in the community but he, and his surname, are well known there. Kidder was born into wealth but built a minor reputation for himself over the years as an artist and writer/illustrator of several children's books. He begins a gentle courtship of Katya after spotting her on the street one morning with the two young children in her charge. Despite her suspicions about the old man, Katya is flattered enough by the attention of someone of his class and wealth that she visits his mansion for tea one afternoon.

The horror of "A Fair Maiden" comes from the cunning approach Marcus Kidder uses to gain Katya's trust. Ever patient, never pushing too hard or too obviously, Kidder finally succeeds in getting Katya to pose for a portrait like the ones already hanging in the mansion. That, though, is just the beginning of what Kidder has in mind for his young friend and, almost despite herself, Katya at last finds herself posing nude. She tells herself, after all, that the cash Mr. Kidder pays her after each visit means that she is a professional model and this is what professional models do. But she is no match for a man like Marcus Kidder.

As the book reaches its conclusion, it becomes clear that Katya's understanding of how someone like her is seen by a man as wealthy and spoiled as Marcus Kidder is not far from the mark. Kidder is used to buying what he wants with no regard for the cost or the consequences. The question is what, exactly, does he want from Katya Spivak - and what it will cost both of them. "A Fair Maiden" comes in at only 165 pages but, because of its subject matter and the intensity of Oates' prose, it is not an easy book to read. It is, however, vintage Joyce Carol Oates and few readers will see the ending coming before Ms. Oates is ready to reveal it to them.

2010-02-18 (Spring, Texas) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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"The aged king was bred to dignity, vanity and pride."


Oates inspires my ambivalence in this strange tale of a young nanny at an exclusive enclave at the New Jersey shore and an elderly artist and author of children's books. Approached on the street with her two small charges, sixteen-year-old Katya Spivak is both flattered and confused by the attention of elderly gentleman Marcus Kidder, silver-haired and silver-tongued. The Spivak family background hardly leaves Katya in a position to make wise judgments as Mr. Kidder entices and cajoles the girl to visit him at his home. Impressed with Kidder's wealth and luxury the unsophisticated teen is torn between common sense and curiosity. Kidder smoothly transitions from friendly older gentleman to subtly insistent pursuer. The girl is far outmatched in the game of seduction, handicapped by a desperation "to be liked, even... by people she resented". Taking her cue from an errant mother, the teen has also learned the folly of contradicting a man when he wants something. The result is a game of push and pull, Kidder insistent, Katya reluctantly pliable as an inner voice entertains bouts of ugly realism.

"The curious thrill of trespass kept her captive." Oates keeps me captive as well in this collision of two worlds, one of privilege, the other of want, Kidder's estate filled with gorgeous objects, glass flowers that mimic real ones but will never die, a grand piano, walls and walls of books, the ambience of wealth, children's books written by a gentle elderly man. It is easy to lose one's way in this fantastical world, a child numbed by excess and attention, flattered and half in love, though such a thing is absurd. Certainly, Oates' vision of Katya's inevitable seduction is masterful, an economy of emotion with bursts of rage, a conundrum of pursuer, prey and desperation. Ultimately, Katya is the pawn of an old man's vanity and fear, once more used by those she trusts and left to sort through the tangled remnants of her bruised feelings. The abuse of innocence is never pretty, material goods a pale reward for the battering of the soul. Luan Gaines/2010.

2010-01-14 | luansos (Dana Point, CA USA) | Helpful Votes: 9 | Rating: 4

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