Re: JCO: falls/mom

Hi,

Not to intrude, but I've had two occasions to listen to Joyce discuss her most recent work in person.  From her comments, sincerely and thoughtfully delivered, as always, I can't buy into parody.  She views the work as deeply and intensely personal. (The book is, as we know, dedicated to her own late mother.)  Says she seriously entertained the idea of publishing it under yet another pseudonym.  She thought it might have appeal only to her female fans, though that feeling was almost immediately disproven.  As a male, I found her notion strangely disquieting, especially since I find myself deeply connected to the experience and feelings that Nikki Eaton undergoes.  I remember being in the living room with my mother when she had an infarction and I believed, at the time, that she had abruptly passed on (not true, then.) Joyce's descriptions of Nikki discovering Gwen's body in the garage brought everything flooding back as though it were yesterday. 

 

I'm about halfway through a first reading and I find the book gripping on a personal level.

 

It seems not to have the epic, mythological quality we associate with some of Joyce's most important works - e.g. Blonde, the recent The Falls.  If there is an attempt on JCO's part to create that level, I think it not too successful, but as a personal "fictionalized" recording of experience and feeling, it succeeds brilliantly (for me).  Curiously, the last book I read of Joyce's was Freaky Green Eyes (which I'm considering using in my classroom) and there are some wonderful parallels to be drawn between Franky and Nikki in the wake (no pun) of their mothers' deaths.

 

More to come when I finish the book in a day or so.

Re: JCO: falls/mom

Hi Pat,

 

Yes, I'm a bit bewildered by Missing Mom.  I thought it read like a parody of JCO's work----perhaps it was supposed to be tongue in cheek?  There is no one as good at presenting the female psyche under pressure as Oates is----but none of the main character's actions or emotions rang true for me.

 

Christa

JCO: falls/mom

 

 

I loved the Falls book, it deserves accolades. It was exciting, complex..  On the other hand, having just finished Missing Mom I thought it was hysterical to read at times, the stereotypes from the 50’s culture were drawn out and drawn out some more, but the book as a whole was just  this side of boring. There were the good girl/ bad girl sisters, bread ad nauseum, the chorus of relatives, the revelations from the past, identity issues with Mom, the rituals, give me a break!  Maybe it was meant to be tongue in cheek.  Who had a real personality?  Who wasn’t predictable?  The cat?  How about anyone else ringing in on this novel?  Pat Rouse

JCO:Prix Femina Étranger

The Falls is the winner today of France's Prix Femina Étranger -- best foreign novel.

Randy