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4.0 out of 5 stars
A stunningly unforgettable read, 9 Sep 2009
An early book by this very prolific writer, You Must Remember This is a compelling read. The atmosphere of the setting (early to mid 1950s New York working-class family life) is brilliantly evoked. Eisenhower is the President, Senator Joe McCarthy is looking for reds under the bed, and the Rosenbergs are about to go to the electric chair.
Lyle Stevick runs a second-hand furniture store and the lives of the Stevick family are depicted with faultless authenticity. There are several strands running through the novel. The experiences of Enid Maria, the Stevick's youngest daughter (who is 12 as the novel begins) unfold alongside those of her brother Warren, who is injured in the Korean war, her father Lyle and mother Hannah, and the younger half-brother of Lyle, Felix, who is in the midst of a successful boxing career as the novel opens. It would be hard to say which strand is the more addictive, but Enid Maria's affair with her Uncle Felix is the most disturbing and is a brilliant tour de force, taking in the boxing world, racketeering and a dark undercurrent of sexual transgression.
The writing is completely character-driven - we get Lyle's voice in his sections, and Felix's, Enid Maria's and Warren's voices in theirs. Some of the sections are too long and maybe too self-indulgent on Oates's part, but the compelling story-lines drive the novel forward relentlessly. The book is often violent and sexually explicit, but at its heart is the story of one American family that leaps from the page and into your head. More stringent editing would have improved it, but undoubtedly this novel is, on several levels, a stunningly unforgettable read.
Unfortunately, I'm too ham fisted to manage the half stars, my real score is four and a half.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Once I put it down, I couldn't pick it up again, 26 April 2000
I know I should have enjoyed this book more, and am tryng to figure out why I didn't. Probably it needed editing, it's about 550 pages, could have gone down to 350 easily, cutting out repititious parts. She captures the claustrophobic world of boxing, motels, the second hand furniture shop, Warren's dingy student life. All interesting, all worthwhile. She writes powerfully and convincingly about the incestuous relationship at the heart of the novel. Perhaps it's because Felix is never challenged that it bored me. Nobody grows or changes or learns much. That's probably it. This is the first JCO I've read and could well be the last.
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by Joyce Oates
by Joyce Carol Oates
by J.C Oates
by Joyce Carol Oates
