Cyrano -
I wonder if the Jewish Identity in the book is less about religion (as you suggest) and more about simply being the "other" as the time and setting of the book would make it. The idea of the family at loss for religion in a Christian cemetery might say all that needs to be said about the family's heritage.
I think we see this otherness in many of her other works - mostly dealing with class and the heritage surrounding class - it seems that the most explosive situations arise when these classes or others connect - what do you think?
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jco@usfca.edu on behalf of Cyranomish@aol.com
Sent: Tue 8/14/2007 8:15 AM
To: jco@usfca.edu
Subject: Re: JCO: The Gravediggers Daughter - SPOILERS INCLUDED
Hi, Eric. I had read the final chapter -- the letters between the two
cousins -- last year in a story collection:
High Lonely, I think. R's cousin, of course, had a completely different
background. She and her family had great struggles in exile from their Austrian
home, but those experiences made the cousin (whose name I now forget) into a
tough, cosmopolitan person, at a great cost, of course. Whereas Rebecca
remained "buried alive" in her "safe" upstate New York home. The cemetery
theme: how people bury their pasts and suffer as a result, is well done. Both
women were both flawed and strengthened by their experiences -- the Dr. is a
harsh, aloof, lonely person (hence the story collection title "High Lonely," I
wonder.) Rebecca found a kind husband and moved into a saner life than she had
with her frustrated father. The theme of leaving one's earliest identity
behind -- of metamorphosing into a new kind of creature -- goes back to the
novel "them" (1969) and beyond that to "Shuttering Fall" (1964)?) I hope
Rebecca made contact with her battered brother, who thinks he recognizes her in a
crowd toward the end of Gravediggers Daughter. Neither woman's life is
"better" than the other's. Both lives required self-mutilations in the name of
survival.
(I don't have the book with me; and some of the story and most of the names
have faded from my memory.)
I find it notable that "recovering" one's Jewish identity in this book
and others has gently skirted the whole issue of religion. JCO's heroine's do
not visit Jewish places of worship in their explorations, nor do they make
contact with practicing Jews. Perhaps those adventures lie ahead in other
stories. Thus far Jewish heritage pertains simply to blood lines. I wonder how
the two families would have developed had R's cousin's family been able to
make it to upstate NY, as planned. It would have broken the nutty, fatal
isolation of R's family to some degree.
Best,
Cyrano
Best,
Cyrano
In a message dated 8/14/2007 6:44:49 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
erickarl78@hotmail.com writes:
Hi Nicole
Thanks for your message. I was hoping we could discuss this novel here. I
think it's one of my new favorite novels by Oates, one of her absolute best. As
Michael Silverblatt commented in his interview with her, Gravediggers
Daughter seems to bring together a lot of the themes and subjects which are closest
to Oates as a writer. One of the things I think he was referring to was the
way in which Oates often writes of the survival of an individual girl who
perhaps feels she wasn't meant to survive (either in the personal sense or
within her own species). The man Rebecca meets on the path home who might have
killed her or her own father's decision to execute his family.
I found the book very moving as well. It's compelling how Rebecca feels
throughout her life that she both belongs to America, yet doesn't belong. She's
accepted as a bright pretty American girl, but only if she disguises her
Jewish heritage. She (finally) finds herself in a successful marriage to a good
man, but feels she can't continue her ties with her surviving family in order
to maintain her new position. This distortion of the self raises obvious
questions about to what degree the individual is really surviving if her
identity is so thoroughly transformed and denied. Perhaps because America is such a
great melting pot this is why Oates is particularly concerned with this theme
in Gravediggers Daughter and so much of her other work.
Which parts perplexed you? The ending was quite a surprise - though in a way
it felt right as well. Rebecca's long lost cousin is someone who took the
complete opposite approach to Rebecca, did not distort her identity and feels
absolutely no need to either apologize for who she is or expect different
treatment because of her family's struggles. This has, of course, created an
entirely different set of problems for her. What we seem to glimpse at the end is
a possibility that these two diametric personalities might come together
(though for Rebecca it may be too late). They may be able to set aside their
strategies for dealing with life within a larger society and come together as a
family. If it doesn't sound to achingly sentimental, I think Oates is saying
by this ending that family is where many people draw their strength to really
survive - from both the supporting influence of their love and the ability
to be with those who share a common heritage.
I'd love to hear what other people think as well. I'm seeing Oates read
from the book tonight in London and will relate anything back to the group
which is of particular interest.
eric
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