The Gravedigger's Daughter

In "The Gravedigger's Daughter," Joyce Carol Oates explores the impact of childhood abuse on the development of a woman's identity. Her intricately designed and compelling novel details the brutal early life of Rebbeca Schwart and follows her into adulthood, one in which the grown woman casts off previous sufferings but never escapes their cruel shadow. The youngest child of an impoverished German Jewish immigrant family, Rebecca endures a barren early life that includes being subjected to an ill-tempered, violent father, the slow and tortured descent of her mother into mental illness and the callous disregard of her two insensitive older brothers.Unable to endure the moral and spiritual poverty of their graveyard surroundings, Rebecca's brothers flee the wrath of their father and the hopelessness of their condition. Eventually, Rebecca witnesses the murder/suicide of her mother and father, an event whose impact reverberates throughout her life. Abandoned, traumatized and directionless, Rebecca must reinvent herself, first as a ward of the court, then as a wife and mother. It is Oates' brilliant depiction of a woman struggling to create a new self while simultaneously attempting to submerge her previous identity that gives "The Gravedigger's Daughter" its emotional impact. Rebecca's cryptic personae permit her to survive but never grant her existential peace.What solace she savors derives from her brilliant but tormented son, he the product of one of the most nefarious characters of contemporary literature. Beguiled and then beaten by Niles Tignor, Rebecca re-experiences the controlling, violent outbursts that characterized her father. Her act of personal liberation, her reinvention of identity and her commitment to her child's wellbeing exemplify a quiet, implacable will to live. Always wary of being discovered, perpetually cautious and suspicious, Rebecca refuses to give herself away to any man or idea. She lives to survive.Written with excruciating detail, "The Gravedigger's Daughter" is much more than an exploration of one woman's consciousness. Joyce Carol Oates has crafted a work that explicitly describes violence, directly confronts social injustice and sensitively describes how a thwarted human spirit heals itself. This is a novel that will unsettle and upset, but it is also a cautionary tale of how identity, however shattered, will undergo reformation and reinvention.

this arrived very quickly, a good quality paper back. it is well written and easy to follow, easy to want to keep reading. after finishing the book i realized i did not like the story as it left me questioning in the wrong ways.

I have been reading Oates books since High School. Her short stories are my favorite among short stories. This book in particular I heard about from a professor I had a few years ago. I tried reading it from the library, but other priorities got in the way. So now that I have more time to read, I ordered this book right away. Still love how she uses words and writes accents within the story that paints a picture of being there.Those are the really great books, the ones that paint the pictures of being within the story. Watching the family, one by one as described..... Narrated/ told by the daughter. Who is this grave diggers daughter? Who or where she comes from? Where is she going, a story told before so many times. So why is this one so unique? Seemingly to be another story of all stories told of life, someones own life. With points and areas mirroring our own.This is different, why? A tale written in a way that grasps the readers attention with each turn of the page. Grabbing hold of the readers surroundings in every paragraph. Most say reading the book is better than the movie, if there were a movie to this, it would not do it justice. Because one can be swept into the scenery and its people. In a way of being a friend of the family gravedigger. Maybe the reader becomes a towns person watching and wondering what is next?! The poignant way the words are put together, not so bluntly, and not so bashful. This is the reason for the book being so interesting.

Having always been fascinated by why people do what they do, what semi- and unconscious forces drive our choices, this book's beautiful language and the stark light it shines into the human soul made it a powerful experience for me to read. It's not for those who prefer to look at the world through rose colored glasses: I almost didn't make it past the half-way point as the book draws you along a narrowing path into a world with much darkness but I am so glad I hung on in there: the journey was so worth the bleak landscape it leads through. This was my first book by Joyce Carol Oats and I was blown away by the depth of her insight into that intimate inner dialogue of her characters that invited me to identify with them and made her characters and their struggles utterly recognizable to me even though on the surface their lives have little or nothing in common with mine. Her perception of the ways humans are compelled to act, as if driven by forces beyond their control, yet struggle to survive, to come to grips, to control, to rise above their early life printing, left me spellbound and genuinely missing the characters after the last page was turned. The subtle traces of the storyline weave together beautifully and credibly and left me at times unable to stop the pages from turning, and at times not wanting to turn another for fear of finishing the book. Am I glad she has written many more!

Si je laisse un commentaire c'est parce qu'il n'y en a pas encore et que j'aimerais encourager les lecteurs hésitants à se plonger dans ce roman graduellement passionnant mais difficile à résumer et à présenter.N'ayant jamais lu de livre de Joyce Carol Oates, j'étais déboussolée au début et j'ai failli abandonner ce qui se présente quand même comme un pavé de 582 pages en petits caractères. Ce n'est qu'à partir de la seconde moitié que j'ai vraiment accroché à l'histoire.Celle d'une femme du 20ème siècle, marquée en creux par le non-dit de la Shoah dont elle est une rescapée indirecte : ses parents ont fui l'Allemagne en 1936 avec leurs deux garçons et elle est née à l'arrivée du bateau dans le port de New-York. S'ensuit une déchéance physique et morale de la famille, des tragédies que je ne révèlerai pas, tout cela raconté du point de vue de l'héroïne, une jeune femme mariée et mère d'un petit garçon, qui fait une expérience étrange qui ouvre le récit et dont on ne saura rien de plus avant la toute fin. Entre-temps on reprend le fil de sa vie depuis son enfance dans un sinistre cimetière du Nord des USA à la frontière du Canada jusqu'à l'âge de la retraite en Floride, avec des terreurs, des actes de violence et surtout le silence ravageur des non-dits (jamais n'est évoquée leur origine juive), des mensonges (changement d'identité pour fuir un danger de mort) et des faux-semblants de jovialité sociale, ce que la narratrice nomme "masquerade"...Tout ceci écrit dans un style renversant : de belles descriptions s'alternent avec des phrases elliptiques où les pensées de la "fille du fossoyeur" viennent contredire ses actes et attitudes.Bref si vous aimez les trames (et les drames) psychologiques : foncez et régalez-vous !...Avec juste un regret, c'est que ça s'achève alors qu'on voudrait encore en savoir plus et qu'on se retrouve, une fois le livre refermé, avec un paquet de questions et de réflexions.

An interesting, if overlong text (at 582 pages) with some potent writing, and with Oates' trademark density (in a good way) and depth. I enjoyed the book, and there are some powerful and shocking episodes, covering the life of the protagonist (from the title) through childhood and into late middle age, running from her demons (including echoes of Nazi Germany), and reinventing herself along the way, with some success.Characters are recognisable, though I found myself a little irritated with Rebecca/Hazel. I couldn't work out if her spurious decisions were from poor writing, or an accurate portrayal of human complexity and a tendency toward inconsistency (I suspect the latter).Oates is currently one of the foremost US novelists, and her recent article in the New Yorker describing her husband's death is one of the best I've read on this topic. Her writing is straightforward and uncomplicated (no long words here - Will Self take note), precise and (usually) concise.I'd recommend this novel - its large, elliptic arc has shades of Updike and Roth. though you may find yourself skipping some passages, searching for outcomes of the more dramatic events :)

I struggled through this novel with the hope that it would be worth it. I didn't like the style, the plot, the characters. I've only read one other Joyce Carol Oates novel, We Are The Mulvaneys, and I didn't like it either. But it was more boring than infuriating. There are other reviews here for The Gravedigger's Daughter that give you a plot overview so I won't bother with that. Just suffice it to say that I cringed every time I picked the book up. It wasn't the insanity, violence or ludicrous, out of place foul language (that I doubt very much was used this way in the 1930's by many people), it seemed to me that Ms. Oates was actually writing from an anti-Semitic point of view, not just exploring an anti-Semitic theme. Rebecca, the main character, is described as hairy, smelly, knarly haired, repeatedly by the narrator's voice. How many times must we read, "Dirty Jew"? Heavy handed, poorly crafted. I don't understand the glowing reviews.

Loved this book. Excellent storyline and spectacular writing again from this author. There is also a few twists that you don't see coming which just jolt the reader, but are not cliché . She really is in a class all her own. Anyone that I have encouraged to read this book all tell me how much they enjoyed the story. Love her books.

I read lots of books and although I have a Kindle I must admit to prefering the real thing. A generation thing I guess. To be honest this book was not quite my thing, and I lost interest fairly soon, but I can see that othersmight find it a great read.