621. Them

Them
Joyce Carol Oates
1969
Around 590 pages

Joyce Carol Oates feels like a modern author to me, as her most famous novel came out in 2000...which I guess was a long time ago. Sigh. Anyway, it's impressive that she had such a long and consistent career.

The story starts with Loretta Botsford in the 1930s, whose first romance ends in tragedy thanks to her brother Brock. She runs away and marries Howard Wendell, a cop who later fights in World War II. They have three children, Jules, Betty, and Maureen. Jules is the worst of the bunch, and Maureen is willing to do anything to escape to a better life.

I think this is what Faulkner tried to do: tell a story about an American family undone by generational trauma and immoral acts. But I found this more readable than Faulkner, and her use of colloquial language was more seamless. None of the characters are particularly likable, but they provide a compelling snapshot of the American working class during an insane time in history.

Oates said that this novel basically wrote itself. I understand what she means, it's magical when writing suddenly becomes easy because your characters are so proactive. I wish the novels that wrote themselves around me were half as good as this.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1970.

UP NEXT: Ada by Vladimir Nabokov