We Were the Mulvaneys - Joyce Carol Oates

We Were the Mulvaneys

By Joyce Carol Oates

  • Release Date: 1996-09-01
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 220 Ratings

Description

An Oprah Book Club® selection

A New York Times Notable Book


The Mulvaneys are blessed by all that makes life sweet. But something happens on Valentine’s Day, 1976—an incident that is hushed up in the town and never spoken of in the Mulvaney home—that rends the fabric of their family life...with tragic consequences. Years later, the youngest son attempts to piece together the fragments of the Mulvaneys’ former glory, seeking to uncover and understand the secret violation that brought about the family’s tragic downfall.

Profoundly cathartic, this extraordinary novel unfolds as if Oates, in plumbing the darkness of the human spirit, has come upon a source of light at its core. Moving away from the dark tone of her more recent masterpieces, Joyce Carol Oates turns the tale of a family struggling to cope with its fall from grace into a deeply moving and unforgettable account of the vigor of hope and the power of love to prevail over suffering.

“It’s the novel closest to my heart....I’m deeply moved that Oprah Winfrey has selected this novel for Oprah’s Book Club, a family novel presented to Oprah’s vast American family.”—Joyce Carol Oates

Reviews

  • We Were the Mulvaneys

    2
    By Idratherbereading
    The story seem to unravel about midway through the book. I didn't feel like the author even knew where the story was headed at times. Upon finishing the book, I felt a little cheated.
  • We were the mulvaneys

    1
    By GrayDreadLocks
    Couldn't even finish, bored with repetitive descriptions of extraneous detail. This 1000+ page book would have been a better 500 page book.
  • Read it

    5
    By ChayGuy
    This was a book I found myself grazing past in my last semesters Modern American Literature course and I actually found this same exact copy but in paperback for $1 at goodwill. It's a definite page turner and a thinking persons book.
  • Great Read

    4
    By hakimtyree
    This book was very suspenseful. I kept wondering what was to follow. I am a 21 yr old man and it made me tear. A very good read readers!

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