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عشق تابستانی
اوتس در این کتاب، دو مضمون خشونت و جنسیت را دستمایه داستانی بلند و پرکشش قرار داده است. داستان نه دارای تفکر جنسیتی و نه ترسیم گر خشونتی فراگیر است و نویسنده در نگاهی اسطوره ای – و شاید شرقی – به مقوله مرگ به سراغ شخصیت هایی رفته که هر یک تفکر یا کهن الگویی جهان شمول را نمایندگی میکنند.
کاتیا اسپیواک دختری نوجوان با مارکوس کیدر نویسنده و تصویرگر کتاب که از او بسیار مسن تر است آشنا میشود. وضعیت کیدر با زندگی کسالت بار و کارگری او تفاوت بسیار دارد، یا می توان گفت هیجان انگیزتر است. اما خانه مجلل و سرشار از موسیقی زنده و هدایای گران قیمت آقای کیدر، گویی باطنی شوم را از کاتیا پنهان میکنند. پس از چند دیدار، همهچیز رفته رفته تغییر میکند و مدل شدن کاتیا برای نقاشی تازه کیدر مثل گذشته شادیبخش نیست. او میخواهد پی ببرد که مرد از او چه میخواهد و آیا در اندیشه تصاحب اوست یا…
جويس کرول اوتس نويسنده، نمايشنامهنويس و منتقد امریکایی، متولد 1938 در روستايي در نزديکي نيويورک است. اولین رمانش را در سال ۱۹۶۴ نوشت و همان سال جایزه داستاننویسی دوشیزگان را از آن خود کرد. اوتس پس از کسب فوقلیسانس ادبیات مدرس دانشگاه شد و در سال 1976 برای تدریس رشته ادبیات خلاقه در دانشگاه پرینستون راهی نیوجرسی شد.
وي در حوزههای رمان، داستان کوتاه، شعر، مقاله، نمايشنامه و حتي اپرا فعالیت کرده و جوایز ادبی متعددی را کسب کرده است. “جانورها”، “دختر گوركن”، “آنها”، “موطلايي”، “يک دوشيزه زيبا”، “پرنده کوچک در بهشت”، “شبهای وحشی”، “برای چی دوستت داشتم “، “عروس بيوه” و “سیاهاب” عناوین برخی کتابهای اوست.
کاتیا اسپیواک دختری نوجوان با مارکوس کیدر نویسنده و تصویرگر کتاب که از او بسیار مسن تر است آشنا میشود. وضعیت کیدر با زندگی کسالت بار و کارگری او تفاوت بسیار دارد، یا می توان گفت هیجان انگیزتر است. اما خانه مجلل و سرشار از موسیقی زنده و هدایای گران قیمت آقای کیدر، گویی باطنی شوم را از کاتیا پنهان میکنند. پس از چند دیدار، همهچیز رفته رفته تغییر میکند و مدل شدن کاتیا برای نقاشی تازه کیدر مثل گذشته شادیبخش نیست. او میخواهد پی ببرد که مرد از او چه میخواهد و آیا در اندیشه تصاحب اوست یا…
جويس کرول اوتس نويسنده، نمايشنامهنويس و منتقد امریکایی، متولد 1938 در روستايي در نزديکي نيويورک است. اولین رمانش را در سال ۱۹۶۴ نوشت و همان سال جایزه داستاننویسی دوشیزگان را از آن خود کرد. اوتس پس از کسب فوقلیسانس ادبیات مدرس دانشگاه شد و در سال 1976 برای تدریس رشته ادبیات خلاقه در دانشگاه پرینستون راهی نیوجرسی شد.
وي در حوزههای رمان، داستان کوتاه، شعر، مقاله، نمايشنامه و حتي اپرا فعالیت کرده و جوایز ادبی متعددی را کسب کرده است. “جانورها”، “دختر گوركن”، “آنها”، “موطلايي”، “يک دوشيزه زيبا”، “پرنده کوچک در بهشت”، “شبهای وحشی”، “برای چی دوستت داشتم “، “عروس بيوه” و “سیاهاب” عناوین برخی کتابهای اوست.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 6, 2010
217 people are currently reading
1990 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates
859 books9,690 followersJoyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 605 reviews
May 9, 2025
If Joyce Carol Oates would have been a painter, she would have been Caravaggio. Beautiful crafted images with a cruel edge. Disturbing to see. However, Joyce C. Oates is an author, but she crafted this novel with almost Caravaggian heartbreaking images while telling a tale ending in unavoidable cruelty.
Joyce Carol Oates is a master, but I find her often very upsetting to read. However, her unique and beautiful images and her ability to craft surprising tales will continue to make me curious. I just wish she would not always chill me to the bone.
Joyce Carol Oates is a master, but I find her often very upsetting to read. However, her unique and beautiful images and her ability to craft surprising tales will continue to make me curious. I just wish she would not always chill me to the bone.
August 27, 2019
Oh my. This is complicated.
A story of arrangements, of all sorts between people of varying levels of importance. How power and influence is used and abused in relationships. How people are able to commit gracious acts and terrible impositions. Choices: if you fail to decide, then you still live with what someone else has chosen. Rapacious selfishness and the wave of destruction it causes right alongside beatific kindness.
Transactional relationships and how complicated they are, as Katya finds out one fateful summer.
Song to be listened to while reading this: Woman in Chains by Tears for Fears
A story of arrangements, of all sorts between people of varying levels of importance. How power and influence is used and abused in relationships. How people are able to commit gracious acts and terrible impositions. Choices: if you fail to decide, then you still live with what someone else has chosen. Rapacious selfishness and the wave of destruction it causes right alongside beatific kindness.
Transactional relationships and how complicated they are, as Katya finds out one fateful summer.
Song to be listened to while reading this: Woman in Chains by Tears for Fears
May 13, 2020
"Un inizio innocente. Quando Katya Spivak aveva sedici anni e Marcus Kidder sessantotto."
Poche parole danno avvio al romanzo e già da subito si coglie che quell'inizio e questa storia sarà tutto fuorché innocente.
Siamo nel New Jersey, è estate, e Katya si guadagna da vivere facendo la babysitter. Si ferma davanti a una vetrina di intimo e la voce di un uomo alle sue spalle la fa sussultare: "E tu cosa sceglieresti, dovendo esprimere un desiderio?"
Sin dalle prime battute, Joyce Carol Oates, inizia a risucchiare il lettore nel vortice di questa storia, dalle tinte forti, peccaminosa, disturbante, che si legge tutta d'un fiato.
Per tutto il romanzo, la voce narrante è priva di alcun giudizio e fa quello che le compete: narrare gli eventi, appunto.
Marcus Kidder, superate le incertezze iniziali legate al primo incontro, comincia subito dopo a tessere la tela nella quale è certo che la ragazzina prima o poi sarebbe caduta: "Com'eri furiosa, mia adorata! Eppure sapevi che non volevo ferirti. E sapevi, così come lo sapevo io, che saresti tornata."
Nonostante la sua giovane età, Katya è manipolatrice e prova gusto a sentirsi desiderata da Marcus Kidder, abbagliata anche dallo sfarzo in cui egli vive: il suo desiderio di riscatto dalla vita piena di disagi in cui vive, la spingono a non tirarsi indietro.
La riconoscenza verso Marcus, il desiderio di rivalsa sulla propria famiglia di origine e il risentimento verso la madre, saranno i tre lembi dell'elastico a cui è legata la sua esistenza. E sebbene per certi versi questa ragazzina mi abbia irritata in più punti, per altri, quando ha tirato giù la maschera, mostrando le proprie fragilità, mi ha intenerita e mi è venuto solo voglia di abbracciarla: in fondo non è colpa sua se è così; è solo una cucciola affamata di amore che le è stato negato durante l'infanzia.
La tensione emotiva cresce, Katya scopre alcune verità sulla sua famiglia di origine che le erano state sempre nascoste; lo stesso Marcus Kidder alla fine si rivela a lei: “Ma certo che ti amo, Katya. E continuo ad amarti, nonostante adesso ti conosca meglio. Come ti ho detto più volte, tu e io siamo anime gemelle, e questo non cambierà mai. A essere sincero, non prevedevo di rivelarmi così presto con te. Prima che il nostro vincolo di intimità si rafforzasse. Ma ho deciso che non voglio più aspettare. Come vedi, non sono esattamente la persona che pensavi.”
Che romanzo!!! In più punti mi ha ricordato Lolita di Nabokov.
Disturbante, perturbante e bellissimo!
Che scrittrice 😍😍😍
In ultimo, sottolineo che la traduzione di Sergio Claudio Perroni è splendida!
Poche parole danno avvio al romanzo e già da subito si coglie che quell'inizio e questa storia sarà tutto fuorché innocente.
Siamo nel New Jersey, è estate, e Katya si guadagna da vivere facendo la babysitter. Si ferma davanti a una vetrina di intimo e la voce di un uomo alle sue spalle la fa sussultare: "E tu cosa sceglieresti, dovendo esprimere un desiderio?"
Sin dalle prime battute, Joyce Carol Oates, inizia a risucchiare il lettore nel vortice di questa storia, dalle tinte forti, peccaminosa, disturbante, che si legge tutta d'un fiato.
Per tutto il romanzo, la voce narrante è priva di alcun giudizio e fa quello che le compete: narrare gli eventi, appunto.
Marcus Kidder, superate le incertezze iniziali legate al primo incontro, comincia subito dopo a tessere la tela nella quale è certo che la ragazzina prima o poi sarebbe caduta: "Com'eri furiosa, mia adorata! Eppure sapevi che non volevo ferirti. E sapevi, così come lo sapevo io, che saresti tornata."
Nonostante la sua giovane età, Katya è manipolatrice e prova gusto a sentirsi desiderata da Marcus Kidder, abbagliata anche dallo sfarzo in cui egli vive: il suo desiderio di riscatto dalla vita piena di disagi in cui vive, la spingono a non tirarsi indietro.
La riconoscenza verso Marcus, il desiderio di rivalsa sulla propria famiglia di origine e il risentimento verso la madre, saranno i tre lembi dell'elastico a cui è legata la sua esistenza. E sebbene per certi versi questa ragazzina mi abbia irritata in più punti, per altri, quando ha tirato giù la maschera, mostrando le proprie fragilità, mi ha intenerita e mi è venuto solo voglia di abbracciarla: in fondo non è colpa sua se è così; è solo una cucciola affamata di amore che le è stato negato durante l'infanzia.
La tensione emotiva cresce, Katya scopre alcune verità sulla sua famiglia di origine che le erano state sempre nascoste; lo stesso Marcus Kidder alla fine si rivela a lei: “Ma certo che ti amo, Katya. E continuo ad amarti, nonostante adesso ti conosca meglio. Come ti ho detto più volte, tu e io siamo anime gemelle, e questo non cambierà mai. A essere sincero, non prevedevo di rivelarmi così presto con te. Prima che il nostro vincolo di intimità si rafforzasse. Ma ho deciso che non voglio più aspettare. Come vedi, non sono esattamente la persona che pensavi.”
Che romanzo!!! In più punti mi ha ricordato Lolita di Nabokov.
Disturbante, perturbante e bellissimo!
Che scrittrice 😍😍😍
In ultimo, sottolineo che la traduzione di Sergio Claudio Perroni è splendida!
November 14, 2014
I'm pretty sure that whatever JCO wanted to say with this novel was not what I heard. If it was, that's even worse. Elaborating on this would be disclosing too much... Both Katya and Marcus Kidder were pretty unsympathetic characters in my opinion. Their relationship was disturbing, based soley on manipulation. But the novel was interesting. I thought the book was really well written. JCO is a very good writer; this is far from my first meeting with Oates. I find that with Oates it's sometimes meat, sometimes bone, but always well written, thougtful, clear prose. There are books by JCO that I've read several times, and then one in particular that I disliked so much that I left it on an airplane. I would say that I liked this book, but I'm glad it was a short, b/c otherwise I'd have felt differently.
July 19, 2021
Part Lolita, part Blue-Beard, Joyce Carol Oates'A Fair Maiden is a beautifully written, bleak little tale where the line between reality and dream, or rather nightmare, dissolves to the point that you are left wondering if the entire thing was not just some figment of the main character's imagination.
Sixteen-year old Katya is a working-class girl who has found a summer job nannying for a wealthy family in an exclusive Jersey shore community. Though Katya is now surrounded by glamour and glitz, she keeps thinking of her own blue-collar family, comparing them to the cold, slimy jellyfish that periodically wash ashore on the beach, with their half-alive, transparent tendrils quivering with venom.
When Marcus Kidder, a bastion of local society, a man of old money, money that was invisible, the money of true wealth, begins to pay her attention, and then begins to actually pay her to pose for him, she is equally repulsed and flattered by the white-haired, sixty-eight year old artist.
His slick, black, limousine starts following her around town, like a great white shark in pursuit of his small prey. She feels strangely drained after posing for her portrait for hours, as if he is sucking the life out of her. Then there are all those portraits of young girls and women decorating his house like a morbid gallery of trophies. Yet, she can't help being lured back again and again. After all, all she has ever wanted in her entire life of abuse and neglect was to find one person who feels she is special. Now here is this wealthy, aristocratic, worldly man telling her she is his soul mate, his muse, and a person of importance.
I really enjoyed the creepy visuals: On a windy day, old Marcus Kidder's big, wild, tuft of patrician, white hair looked as if it were being roughly caressed by agitated hands. Katya's gaudy mother wears pale, frosted, pink-bronze lipstick that, thickly layered on her mouth, looked like an extra skin. A piece of red lace lingerie is crumpled up and kicked into a corner of a whitely gleaming, resplendent bathroom...where like a wounded creature, it seemed to huddle.
I thought the parallel to Humbert Humbert was too facile, down to Marcus' mysterious past when a little girl he knew died of a tragic illness, fueling his obsession with beautiful "nymphets."
I was also left confused with two important developments in the plot, which other readers seem to have taken literally, but which I strongly believe to be sort of like dream sequences, if not complete hallucination, brought on by deep trauma. I am talking about the scene where she believes Kidder has drugged and raped her. The way it is written, I was left wondering if she is not instead re-living the very real rape she suffered at an even younger age by her thug "cousin" and which she seemed to have completely repressed and dismissed in her conscious state.
The other scene is the concluding scene where she very uncharacteristically abandons the two children she has nannied over the summer and she is whisked away to Kidder's mansion. There, she is greeted by the housekeeper, who behaves in completely opposite fashion to reality, as sometimes people do in our dreams, and finally, Katya is brought in to assist Kidder in his suicide.
Though I enjoyed the dark, Charles Perrault fairytale vibe of this story, and the rich, visual writing, as well as all the wry observations on gender and socio-economic disparities, overall I could not say that I loved or even liked A Fair Maiden very much. It’s like looking at Munch’s Scream. It’s so interesting and unique and bleak and full of emotions, but you wouldn’t want that painting to hang on your bedroom wall.
Sixteen-year old Katya is a working-class girl who has found a summer job nannying for a wealthy family in an exclusive Jersey shore community. Though Katya is now surrounded by glamour and glitz, she keeps thinking of her own blue-collar family, comparing them to the cold, slimy jellyfish that periodically wash ashore on the beach, with their half-alive, transparent tendrils quivering with venom.
When Marcus Kidder, a bastion of local society, a man of old money, money that was invisible, the money of true wealth, begins to pay her attention, and then begins to actually pay her to pose for him, she is equally repulsed and flattered by the white-haired, sixty-eight year old artist.
His slick, black, limousine starts following her around town, like a great white shark in pursuit of his small prey. She feels strangely drained after posing for her portrait for hours, as if he is sucking the life out of her. Then there are all those portraits of young girls and women decorating his house like a morbid gallery of trophies. Yet, she can't help being lured back again and again. After all, all she has ever wanted in her entire life of abuse and neglect was to find one person who feels she is special. Now here is this wealthy, aristocratic, worldly man telling her she is his soul mate, his muse, and a person of importance.
I really enjoyed the creepy visuals: On a windy day, old Marcus Kidder's big, wild, tuft of patrician, white hair looked as if it were being roughly caressed by agitated hands. Katya's gaudy mother wears pale, frosted, pink-bronze lipstick that, thickly layered on her mouth, looked like an extra skin. A piece of red lace lingerie is crumpled up and kicked into a corner of a whitely gleaming, resplendent bathroom...where like a wounded creature, it seemed to huddle.
I thought the parallel to Humbert Humbert was too facile, down to Marcus' mysterious past when a little girl he knew died of a tragic illness, fueling his obsession with beautiful "nymphets."
I was also left confused with two important developments in the plot, which other readers seem to have taken literally, but which I strongly believe to be sort of like dream sequences, if not complete hallucination, brought on by deep trauma. I am talking about the scene where she believes Kidder has drugged and raped her. The way it is written, I was left wondering if she is not instead re-living the very real rape she suffered at an even younger age by her thug "cousin" and which she seemed to have completely repressed and dismissed in her conscious state.
The other scene is the concluding scene where she very uncharacteristically abandons the two children she has nannied over the summer and she is whisked away to Kidder's mansion. There, she is greeted by the housekeeper, who behaves in completely opposite fashion to reality, as sometimes people do in our dreams, and finally, Katya is brought in to assist Kidder in his suicide.
Though I enjoyed the dark, Charles Perrault fairytale vibe of this story, and the rich, visual writing, as well as all the wry observations on gender and socio-economic disparities, overall I could not say that I loved or even liked A Fair Maiden very much. It’s like looking at Munch’s Scream. It’s so interesting and unique and bleak and full of emotions, but you wouldn’t want that painting to hang on your bedroom wall.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2011
At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I think Joyce Carol Oates had Little Red Riding Hood in mind when she wrote this. Fairy tale references are scattered throughout the book like breadcrumbs. We meet sixteen-year-old blond, tan-legged Katya (aka Cinderella or Snow White), who is working as a nanny for the rich Engelhardts on a New Jersey beach. She doesn't have an evil stepmother, but she does have a mother who prefers gambling and drinking to paying attention to her children. Enter Marcus Kidder (aka Prince Charming/Big Bad Wolf). Yes, I intended to put that slash there. But Kidder isn't the young raven-haired prince of Disney movies. He isn't young at all, or raven-haired- he is a sixty-eight year old man who's very attracted to Katya. And so our story begins with the push and pull page-turning suspense that Oates executes so well. Mr. Kidder wants Katya to model for him (he's an artist), and of course, as in any Oates story, or any story worth reading, for that matter, things get...complicated. On top of that we have her cousin Roy in the picture. He just got out of jail.
One thing I've always liked about Oates is her ability to blend in the character moods with nature imagery- clouds splitting the sky precedes a character's frown. Her sentences are spare, yet punch you with their poetry. And of course, there's her incredible talent for suspense.
Although Katya and Mr. Kidder are superbly developed, I felt like the rest of the characters were caricatures. The Engelhardts are greedy, suspicious, and spoiled- because that's just how rich people who have summer homes on the beach are, right? And I have yet to read an Oates story where a teenage/twenty-something male isn't pure evil- nothing more but a violent rapist/ex-prisoner with addiction problems. Such is the case with Roy. In fact, it's always been somewhat of a surprise to me that Oates' male characters have always been so two-dimensional, considering she's such a great writer.
As for the ending- I guess it worked, but I closed the book feeling kind of...dead. And sad. Not the sweet kind of sadness that succeeds a Hardy or Bronte novel, but a kind of icky sad. Also, there are certain mysteries in the novel that go unanswered- I couldn't figure out if that was intentional, or if Oates just didn't feel like dealing with those plot lines (in which case, why put them there?). Oh well. Still a recommend.
PS- For anyone familiar with Oates's short stories, this story seemed to be, in a lot of ways, a reworking of one of my favorite Oates stories called "The Model."
One thing I've always liked about Oates is her ability to blend in the character moods with nature imagery- clouds splitting the sky precedes a character's frown. Her sentences are spare, yet punch you with their poetry. And of course, there's her incredible talent for suspense.
Although Katya and Mr. Kidder are superbly developed, I felt like the rest of the characters were caricatures. The Engelhardts are greedy, suspicious, and spoiled- because that's just how rich people who have summer homes on the beach are, right? And I have yet to read an Oates story where a teenage/twenty-something male isn't pure evil- nothing more but a violent rapist/ex-prisoner with addiction problems. Such is the case with Roy. In fact, it's always been somewhat of a surprise to me that Oates' male characters have always been so two-dimensional, considering she's such a great writer.
As for the ending- I guess it worked, but I closed the book feeling kind of...dead. And sad. Not the sweet kind of sadness that succeeds a Hardy or Bronte novel, but a kind of icky sad. Also, there are certain mysteries in the novel that go unanswered- I couldn't figure out if that was intentional, or if Oates just didn't feel like dealing with those plot lines (in which case, why put them there?). Oh well. Still a recommend.
PS- For anyone familiar with Oates's short stories, this story seemed to be, in a lot of ways, a reworking of one of my favorite Oates stories called "The Model."
April 14, 2010
This might be a good book, but I really didn't like it. Joyce Carol Oates can certainly write which is a lot more than can be said about a number of both the good and bad books I've read in the past year. But reading about female victimization, framed in the manner that it is in this book, brings me no joy. Yes, Katya does use her sexuality as a tool of exploitation too. But that's because it's all she knows how to do. And, she's fifteen. It's the responsibility of the adults around Katya to protect her, not to exploit her in the many ways that they do. The story is just miserable, but not even in a kind of heart-wrenching way. It's just plain, pure ugly...not something I wanted to open a book and read about right now.
June 25, 2020
This book tackles a difficult subject matter, that of a young girl who is groomed by a 68-year-old wealthy man who has picked on her as his 'soul mate' and wants her to fulfil a particular role. She is from a poor background with a neglectful, exploitative mother and an absent father - and sisters who all got out by marriage as soon as they could leave home.
Katya has a summer job as a live-in nanny to two young children, and desperately craves affection and validation/being seen as a person in her own right. So she is set up to be the victim of Marcus Kidder, prominent citizen of the seaside town where she is working, and all round dilettante. In the course of the story we learn that he once recorded as a tenor, but did not pursue that, at some point made a lot of blown glass flowers which now decorate his house, has in the past written four picture books for children but then decided he had said everything he wanted to say, and more recently dabbles in music composure and arrangement, and in sketching and painting young women. His display of portraits of these women make not only Katya, but the reader also, wonder if he is in some sense collecting these women with her as the latest in a long line.
Kidder approaches and 'courts' her and gradually she falls under his spell, feeling that he 'loves' her although she is also repulsed at times by his physical decrepitude. But he starts making himself indispensable, first coming through with a 'loan' when Katya's gambling-addicted mother needs money fast, and later in paying Katya for sessions posing for him. But to keep him content she must go further each time - posing in daring undies and later in the nude, with disturbing scenes that at one point imply he has drugged and sexually assaulted, perhaps actually raped her. Meanwhile, so mixed up is Katya that she is drawn back to her abusive older cousin who has just been released from jail for armed robbery and who she also has recollections of raping her while getting her high on drugs.
Apart from Kidder's being rather pathetic when she becomes angry with him at times, and his obvious veneer of culture, there doesn't really seem to be much difference between the two men in their attitude to Katya. To neither of them is she an actual human being with hopes and needs of her own. And eventually the three characters end up on a collision course.
The book was quite short and a quick page-turning read. I did find it repetitive at times, especially Katya's monologues in which she often refers to herself by her full name in the third person. None of the characters is that sympathetic, even Katya herself. It has to be said though that she is the least culpable, being a minor at the receiving end of mistreatment from her employers, mother, cousin and Kidder.
The ending is pretty odd, especially with the seeming acquiescence of Kidder's chauffeur and housekeeper
Altogether, and with that weird ending, the book for me balanced out at an 'OK' read, no more, so I am awarding it 2 stars.
Katya has a summer job as a live-in nanny to two young children, and desperately craves affection and validation/being seen as a person in her own right. So she is set up to be the victim of Marcus Kidder, prominent citizen of the seaside town where she is working, and all round dilettante. In the course of the story we learn that he once recorded as a tenor, but did not pursue that, at some point made a lot of blown glass flowers which now decorate his house, has in the past written four picture books for children but then decided he had said everything he wanted to say, and more recently dabbles in music composure and arrangement, and in sketching and painting young women. His display of portraits of these women make not only Katya, but the reader also, wonder if he is in some sense collecting these women with her as the latest in a long line.
Kidder approaches and 'courts' her and gradually she falls under his spell, feeling that he 'loves' her although she is also repulsed at times by his physical decrepitude. But he starts making himself indispensable, first coming through with a 'loan' when Katya's gambling-addicted mother needs money fast, and later in paying Katya for sessions posing for him. But to keep him content she must go further each time - posing in daring undies and later in the nude, with disturbing scenes that at one point imply he has drugged and sexually assaulted, perhaps actually raped her. Meanwhile, so mixed up is Katya that she is drawn back to her abusive older cousin who has just been released from jail for armed robbery and who she also has recollections of raping her while getting her high on drugs.
Apart from Kidder's being rather pathetic when she becomes angry with him at times, and his obvious veneer of culture, there doesn't really seem to be much difference between the two men in their attitude to Katya. To neither of them is she an actual human being with hopes and needs of her own. And eventually the three characters end up on a collision course.
The book was quite short and a quick page-turning read. I did find it repetitive at times, especially Katya's monologues in which she often refers to herself by her full name in the third person. None of the characters is that sympathetic, even Katya herself. It has to be said though that she is the least culpable, being a minor at the receiving end of mistreatment from her employers, mother, cousin and Kidder.
The ending is pretty odd, especially with the seeming acquiescence of Kidder's chauffeur and housekeeper
Altogether, and with that weird ending, the book for me balanced out at an 'OK' read, no more, so I am awarding it 2 stars.
June 14, 2018
Ar fi putut fi o carte tulburator de frumoasa ... dar felul in care a fost scrisa ... un fel lipsit de emotii, de trairi, un fel care nu a putut convinge ... nu a dus-o pe acel drum, cel putin, nu pentru mine ...
July 10, 2024
Dacă e să ne luăm după proza ei șlefuită, precisă, tăios-ironică, aseptică, neiertătoare, am putea zice că Oates l-a asistat cu brio pe chirurgul literar Milan Kundera în operațiile romanești ale acestuia, efectuate pe cord deschis (=găsesc acum afinități între unul și celălalt). Unde Alice Munro era anestezista de serviciu. Ăștia trei, artiști ai detașării, par a fi locuit cândva împreună. Femeile lui Munro seamănă uneori izbitor cu femeile lui Oates. Ele nu sunt atât victimele mediului, cât ale propriilor opțiuni. Ale propriei mediocrități și resemnări (cu ceea ce “li se dă”).
Trebuie să fii adeptul înfocat și din cale-afară de docil etic al Coaliției pentru familie, ca să-ți acord scuza că nu-ți place romanul ăsta! Trebuie să fii în genul obtuz al lui Gabi Firea, ca să-ți pot înțelege “oripilarea”. Numai pudoarea ta congestionantă te poate împinge să găsești vreun cusur cărții lui Oates.
Or, pudoarea sau puritanismul, “valorile tale creștine”, nu sunt criterii de apreciere a valorii unei lucrări de ficțiune. Sau a unui obiect de artă.
Desigur că militantele feministe de pe GR s-au indignat prompt la contactul neprotejat cu această bijuterie, cum s-au indignat si la Violul…
Desigur că mințile habotnice (religios sau ideologic, #metoo etc), de care e plină lumea cititorilor români (sau străini) - care se cred ei cititori, dar nu sunt - s-au scandalizat și au scăzut (decăzut?) prompt ratingul, din cauza subiectului “delicat” (rușinos, imoral).
Un bătrân + o (aproape) fecioară - în orice caz, minoră = L O V E? Vai, tu, Zițo, s-avem parol! Dă mai aproape stecluța aia, că mă ia cu vertij!
A cincea stea o adaug ca omagiu pentru psiho-înguștii fundamentaliști din Chisălița pentru familie si pentru distinsa “duamnă” Gabi Firea (care - dacă citește - probabil că vomită principial la asemenea lecturi decadente). Și - în general - mai dedic a cincea stea daco-geților purtători de ie strămoșească, în câmpul cu rapiță. Nu-i pot uita.
O carte i m p e c a b i l ă!
Trebuie să fii adeptul înfocat și din cale-afară de docil etic al Coaliției pentru familie, ca să-ți acord scuza că nu-ți place romanul ăsta! Trebuie să fii în genul obtuz al lui Gabi Firea, ca să-ți pot înțelege “oripilarea”. Numai pudoarea ta congestionantă te poate împinge să găsești vreun cusur cărții lui Oates.
Or, pudoarea sau puritanismul, “valorile tale creștine”, nu sunt criterii de apreciere a valorii unei lucrări de ficțiune. Sau a unui obiect de artă.
Desigur că militantele feministe de pe GR s-au indignat prompt la contactul neprotejat cu această bijuterie, cum s-au indignat si la Violul…
Desigur că mințile habotnice (religios sau ideologic, #metoo etc), de care e plină lumea cititorilor români (sau străini) - care se cred ei cititori, dar nu sunt - s-au scandalizat și au scăzut (decăzut?) prompt ratingul, din cauza subiectului “delicat” (rușinos, imoral).
Un bătrân + o (aproape) fecioară - în orice caz, minoră = L O V E? Vai, tu, Zițo, s-avem parol! Dă mai aproape stecluța aia, că mă ia cu vertij!
A cincea stea o adaug ca omagiu pentru psiho-înguștii fundamentaliști din Chisălița pentru familie si pentru distinsa “duamnă” Gabi Firea (care - dacă citește - probabil că vomită principial la asemenea lecturi decadente). Și - în general - mai dedic a cincea stea daco-geților purtători de ie strămoșească, în câmpul cu rapiță. Nu-i pot uita.
O carte i m p e c a b i l ă!
Read
August 8, 2010Bleak! But what'd I expect? After all, Joyce Carol Oates is not Maeve Binchy. She sure knows her way around invoking an atmosphere, though. The themes here are pretty worn around the edges, for Oates and for literature in general. Nevertheless, you find yourself rooting for Katya, and genuinely grieving for her, and hoping that everything will be all right-- although, this being JCO, you know that's not bloody likely. The end becomes pretty predictable pretty quickly. It's just as well that this is a novella, since it frankly felt quite long enough as is.
Also! Here commences the "toxic authors" shelf, wherein I gently remind myself to partake lightly (if at all) of said author's other endeavors, lest the bleach-drinking--oft-threatened (promised?), never-delivered--actually occur. Call me shallow, call me a wuss, but darn it, my inner landscape is cluttered with enough sad detritus as it is. And while I admire you, JCO, for creating in the pages of this book a powerful scene/image that will take its place there, I say "Uncle!" to the relentlessly depressive.
Maybe that's why I'm more drawn to T.V. these days. I take more comfort in knowing that Bret Michaels can't pronounce "mediocrity" to save his life than I do in the deftly rendered brutalizations of wounded fictions.
Also! Here commences the "toxic authors" shelf, wherein I gently remind myself to partake lightly (if at all) of said author's other endeavors, lest the bleach-drinking--oft-threatened (promised?), never-delivered--actually occur. Call me shallow, call me a wuss, but darn it, my inner landscape is cluttered with enough sad detritus as it is. And while I admire you, JCO, for creating in the pages of this book a powerful scene/image that will take its place there, I say "Uncle!" to the relentlessly depressive.
Maybe that's why I'm more drawn to T.V. these days. I take more comfort in knowing that Bret Michaels can't pronounce "mediocrity" to save his life than I do in the deftly rendered brutalizations of wounded fictions.
March 16, 2011
An interesting examination of the psychology of a girl on the cusp of adulthood, yet so far from a true understanding of adult choices and thoughts and their ramifications. Abused in various ways since childhood, the heroine also lost her father early on. She is unknowingly on a quest, interacting with men, attempting to evaluate and measure their reactions and actions toward her, allowing them to define her and her identification with the world. She seeks answers to these questions: what is abuse, what is love, and how much control over her own life does she really have? Her slight interactions with women serve to reinforce her already confused ideas about herself and relationships. The ending gives no answers which forces the reader to continue thinking beyond it.
June 27, 2025
Society uses us. Oates demonstrates this truth in this unsettling modern fairy tale. She gives us a young protagonist who is being used in some way by every other character in the story. We watch the girl – the fair maiden – navigate being the means for others, and the plaything of others, and the hope of others. This is the struggle of many young woman, I suppose, and so just the demographic to employ for such a theme. But we all play these roles for society. And we navigate them like the protagonist does, mostly – by acquiescing, by providing what is asked, by refraining from contradiction, but also, in extreme circumstances, by seeking protection, or exercising revolt. It is our need for acceptance and for love and for being valued that makes us vulnerable to these pressures – and our need for money. There is hope for us, though. A reward is due at the end of our confusing trial. Also, it is easy to forget that WE are society. So not only do we simultaneously resist and embrace this thing that uses us, we engender it.
Cryptic and unusual. Oates’ use of class conflict to make these points is poignant.
Cryptic and unusual. Oates’ use of class conflict to make these points is poignant.
March 15, 2010
Joyce Carol Oates. . .Can I ask you what you were thinking?
This is probably one of the WORST (again, I repeat, WORST) books I've ever read. Oh, and believe me, I've read my fair share of terrible books. The main character, Katya Spivak, is portrayed as a 16 year old girl who has gone through an unbelievably tough adolescence. Now, if Katya were as broken and tainted as the author would like us, the readers, to believe. . .I daresay that she would never given Mr. Kidder, another character around whom the book centralizes, the time of day. Instead, Ms. Oates uses Katya to take us down a path of confusion and (yes, I'll admit) some intrigue. A few more characters are introduced throughout the entire course of the book; one of my least favorites would be Roy, the criminal cousin. Katya's mother, who is another least favorite, even warns her that Roy is asking about her and for Katya to stay away from him.
Now, in this book there are a few scenes of abuse. Let's not beat around the bush. . .Rape. Instead of showing rape for what it really is: a terrible, scaring, life-altering experience that steals away parts of the victim, Ms. Oates uses it as a "creative writing device". Katya is raped twice: once by the infamous Mr. Kidder and then once by her cousin, Roy. Ms. Oates uses Katya's background as a foreshadowing of the end. For in the end, Katya is just as, if not far more, ruined than at the beginning of the book.
Yes, this book is "creepy", in the sense of Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, but in no way is this book worth a second read.
This is probably one of the WORST (again, I repeat, WORST) books I've ever read. Oh, and believe me, I've read my fair share of terrible books. The main character, Katya Spivak, is portrayed as a 16 year old girl who has gone through an unbelievably tough adolescence. Now, if Katya were as broken and tainted as the author would like us, the readers, to believe. . .I daresay that she would never given Mr. Kidder, another character around whom the book centralizes, the time of day. Instead, Ms. Oates uses Katya to take us down a path of confusion and (yes, I'll admit) some intrigue. A few more characters are introduced throughout the entire course of the book; one of my least favorites would be Roy, the criminal cousin. Katya's mother, who is another least favorite, even warns her that Roy is asking about her and for Katya to stay away from him.
Now, in this book there are a few scenes of abuse. Let's not beat around the bush. . .Rape. Instead of showing rape for what it really is: a terrible, scaring, life-altering experience that steals away parts of the victim, Ms. Oates uses it as a "creative writing device". Katya is raped twice: once by the infamous Mr. Kidder and then once by her cousin, Roy. Ms. Oates uses Katya's background as a foreshadowing of the end. For in the end, Katya is just as, if not far more, ruined than at the beginning of the book.
Yes, this book is "creepy", in the sense of Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, but in no way is this book worth a second read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2012
I read some of the other reviews before writing mine. I haven't read many of JCO's previous novels or short stories so I didn't know what to expect from this book. I read it as an adult fairy tale. I felt for Katya, a girl who had so little experience of beauty for its own sake that she had no context in which to place Mr. Kidder or his world, hence her amabivalence and the rolling of the dice theme. Certainly she had no experience of being loved or appreciated simply for the fact that she was worth love and appreciation; her mother, her extended family had never given her that and her father, who did, disappeared from her life. In Mr. Kidder's home she sees all the lovely fossil flowers and portraits, hears his beautiful music and wonders Why? What is the purpose? For surely nothing is done without some practical gain. What's in it for me? is the world from which she comes.
Mr. Kidder, on the other hand, on the cusp of death, wants to leave his beautiful world in the most beautiful and romantic way possible. He does manipulate Katya and occassionally does come across as a little creepy, but mysterious, too, but I read it more as a man who is truly in love with this young girl, but unable to reach across or down into the class, the life, from which she has emerged briefly, to coincide with his life.
I cried at the ending of this book, and imagined Katya inheriting Mr. Kidder's fortune, leaving Vineland,NJ behind, taking speech lessons to get rid of that Jersey shore accent JCO commented upon, and becoming the Princess she wanted to be in her heart of hearts.
As I said, a fairy tale.
Mr. Kidder, on the other hand, on the cusp of death, wants to leave his beautiful world in the most beautiful and romantic way possible. He does manipulate Katya and occassionally does come across as a little creepy, but mysterious, too, but I read it more as a man who is truly in love with this young girl, but unable to reach across or down into the class, the life, from which she has emerged briefly, to coincide with his life.
I cried at the ending of this book, and imagined Katya inheriting Mr. Kidder's fortune, leaving Vineland,NJ behind, taking speech lessons to get rid of that Jersey shore accent JCO commented upon, and becoming the Princess she wanted to be in her heart of hearts.
As I said, a fairy tale.
August 14, 2017
A disturbing read that leaves you wondering if he is just a nice, lonely man or a full on paedo.
I was pretty disturbed from about half way through and I noticed a lot of people gave a 1 star purely on how twisted and dark it was, you can't rate a book low stars if the content didn't make you feel nice things, that's not what stars are for, the fact that it completely disturbed so many just shows how well written it was. The concept was unnerving and to me that means it was good in a very weird way.
This is the second Joyce book I've read and I consider myself a fan now. Going to read her others and I hope to be equally weirded out.
I was pretty disturbed from about half way through and I noticed a lot of people gave a 1 star purely on how twisted and dark it was, you can't rate a book low stars if the content didn't make you feel nice things, that's not what stars are for, the fact that it completely disturbed so many just shows how well written it was. The concept was unnerving and to me that means it was good in a very weird way.
This is the second Joyce book I've read and I consider myself a fan now. Going to read her others and I hope to be equally weirded out.
November 12, 2018
This started well but kind of fell apart at the end. I really enjoy the author's writing and this is the second book I have read by her. This one just didn't measure up to the last one I read. This story is similar to Lolita in subject matter if that's not your cup of tea.
September 11, 2019
Îi dau 3,5 pentru că mi-a plăcut tare mult stilul autoarei, subiectul a fost însă mai controversat și mai delicat
July 8, 2022
What is it about the Jersey Shore that attracts such creepy people? I refer to the, now thankfully canceled, MTV show and this Lolita like tale in which a rich, affluent older man attempts to seduce and groom a young working-class girl working a summer job as a nanny. There are no sympathetic characters here. Usually that's not a problem for this reader. Literature should expose readers to all sides of the human condition, including the undersides. The first half of the book seemed to this reader to be the stronger part. While the actions of both protagonists are unsettling and cringe inducing, there is a skill with which Ms. Oates slowly reveals their underlying motives. Unlike Lolita, there are different power dynamics being explored here. I will not reveal any more of the plot, but it is one of those novels in which I enjoyed the set-up and initial stages of character development more than the entire novel. Cheers!
January 8, 2018
Nella mia vita letteraria, lunga, stupenda e costellata di libri di ogni genere, mi sono sempre chiesta quale fosse il mio 'limite' e cosa mi avrebbe fatto dire "No, non fa per me".
Ecco, Una brava ragazza della Oates mi ha messo addosso talmente tanto disagio e a volte schifo che penso di averlo trovato.. La lettura del libro mi ha veramente disturbato!
Se un rapporto malato tra una 16enne e un 68enne non vi crea problemi, il libro è scritto magistralmente. D'altronde parliamo della Oates, vecchia carogna ♥
Ecco, Una brava ragazza della Oates mi ha messo addosso talmente tanto disagio e a volte schifo che penso di averlo trovato.. La lettura del libro mi ha veramente disturbato!
Se un rapporto malato tra una 16enne e un 68enne non vi crea problemi, il libro è scritto magistralmente. D'altronde parliamo della Oates, vecchia carogna ♥
September 8, 2018
Ew.
Not her best work.
Not her best work.
May 16, 2020
That weird strange tv show that you saw on the television in passing and can’t stop watching.
May 28, 2013
I found A Fair Maiden on a discount table at Chapter's, and remembering how I cried while reading We Were The Mulvaneys, I decided I'd give Joyce Carol Oates another read. In the end, I'm not certain this slim novella is a fair follow-up to my previous experience with the author, but reading some reviews here, perhaps it is.
Right from the beginning, when Katya meets Marcus Kidder and he asks, "What would you choose if you had your wish?", the teenage girl feels like she's being drawn into a fairytale. The fairytale elements continue until, abruptly, the old man tells her the fable of the Fair Maiden and his intentions become explicit. I don't know if I understand why the author decided to stop the allusions and force the plot in this way, but just as it interrupted the flow of the story for me, it also seemed to break the spell for Katya and she reverts to her former self; the lower class partygirl, so desperate for love and attention, that she offers herself up to her rough and abusive cousin in order to feel human connections. That with remorse she returns to fulfill her destiny with Mr. Kidder rings true with both Katya's own sense of compassion and the requirements of a sort of "happily ever after" ending.
I remember reading a conversation on facebook once where a young mother was lamenting that as much as she wanted to read classic fairytales to her kids, she found it challenging to sanitise them as she went along because they were far too violent and scary. Her friends agreed, this editing is something each of them did, and one of them remarked that she couldn't even show her kids Disney's The Little Mermaid because it was too violent. This is where I itched to jump in, to say that I hadn't let my girls see that movie when they were little because it had been too sanitised. When I read the original Hans Christian Anderson tale, I was struck by the commonsense moral it was trying to impart: a woman should not change herself, give up what is important to her (neither her inherent gifts or her family), for the love of a man. That's a powerful message, one that likely doesn't get through to women in love, and it's a message that Disney totally removed from their version of the story. The last thing I wanted imprinted on my little girls' minds was that they, like Ariel, could give up everything, literally give up their voices, and that would lead to happily ever after. I wanted to tell these young mothers that fairytales have survived all these years for a reason; not despite the violence and fear mongering but because they must satisfy a basic human psychological need. In the end I didn't intrude upon the conversation, just watched it, bemused, as though through a magic mirror.
In this modern fairytale, Oates updated some archetypes for her characters. Like Cinderella, Katya has been abandoned by her father to be raised by a mother and siblings who don't seem to care much about her welfare. In Bayhead Harbor, she wistfully gazes at the castle-like homes and imagines what it would be like to live in one.( I was intrigued when, in the fairytale within the book, it said that the Fair Maiden was raised by her grandmother. I was waiting for it to be revealed that Katya was actually the daughter of one of her sisters left in the care of what was her grandmother, but whom she had been told was her mother, explaining her apparent neglect, but that never came out. Still, I wonder if that's the assumption we are meant to make.) Katya keeps assuming that someday her Dad will come back to her, that like Hansel and Gretel's father, he didn't leave on purpose. And Marcus Kidder is a wolf in sheep's clothing, literally, when he removes his "snow white" wig to reveal a monster underneath.
I was intrigued by the inclusion of crystal meth in this book as it dovetails with some of my reading this year. I must be naïve, but I just don't see meth around me. But, watching Breaking Bad on Netflix and reading books like Beautiful Boy A Father's Journey through His Son's Meth Addiction and Tweak Growing Up On Methamphetamines, I am told that it is everywhere around me and destroying lives and families. As Tina Fey said in a prayer for her daughter in Bossypants: When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half and stick with Beer. This is a prayer I've never thought to say-- could this be the greatest danger my kids will have to face? Is this the real moral of this story? I also recently watched the movie "Winter's Bone", and find Katya to be similar to Jennifer Lawrence's character in that she's from a low income neighbourhood, surrounded by meth users, has a missing father (who in the end has a similar fate), a mother who is more needy than nurturing, and a community that is not above dealing violently with her. Is this the modern day dangers that the author is trying to warn the reader about? And does it take the creepy Lolita scenes, the discomfort and danger of this fairytale situation, to imprint the dangers on a deep psychic level? Maybe I'm answering my questions as I ask them, but if there's a way to have my kids turn out more like Jennifer Lawrence's character than Katya, I'm ready to hear it.
I can usually find a few quotes to mark and savour but in A Fair Maiden I did not. These seem to be some favourites of others:
To the young there are no degrees of old just as there are no degrees of dead - either you are, or you are not.
A female is her body. A guy can be lots of things, not just his body.
While these might be some interesting observations (and in the second case, while it might be more trope than truism, it at least illuminates Katya's thinking), I don't find them to be examples of amazing writing. And if I may share a peeve about the author's writing in this story: why did she repeat the phrase "sick-sinking feeling"? I think it occurred four times throughout this short work and it jolted me every time I saw it repeated after liking it the first time.
I can understand why this book was on the discount table-- it wouldn't be for everyone, but it did give me some things to think about. I'll definitely give Joyce Carol Oates more opportunities to enlighten me, knowing that she's not likely to sanitise her storytelling.
Right from the beginning, when Katya meets Marcus Kidder and he asks, "What would you choose if you had your wish?", the teenage girl feels like she's being drawn into a fairytale. The fairytale elements continue until, abruptly, the old man tells her the fable of the Fair Maiden and his intentions become explicit. I don't know if I understand why the author decided to stop the allusions and force the plot in this way, but just as it interrupted the flow of the story for me, it also seemed to break the spell for Katya and she reverts to her former self; the lower class partygirl, so desperate for love and attention, that she offers herself up to her rough and abusive cousin in order to feel human connections. That with remorse she returns to fulfill her destiny with Mr. Kidder rings true with both Katya's own sense of compassion and the requirements of a sort of "happily ever after" ending.
I remember reading a conversation on facebook once where a young mother was lamenting that as much as she wanted to read classic fairytales to her kids, she found it challenging to sanitise them as she went along because they were far too violent and scary. Her friends agreed, this editing is something each of them did, and one of them remarked that she couldn't even show her kids Disney's The Little Mermaid because it was too violent. This is where I itched to jump in, to say that I hadn't let my girls see that movie when they were little because it had been too sanitised. When I read the original Hans Christian Anderson tale, I was struck by the commonsense moral it was trying to impart: a woman should not change herself, give up what is important to her (neither her inherent gifts or her family), for the love of a man. That's a powerful message, one that likely doesn't get through to women in love, and it's a message that Disney totally removed from their version of the story. The last thing I wanted imprinted on my little girls' minds was that they, like Ariel, could give up everything, literally give up their voices, and that would lead to happily ever after. I wanted to tell these young mothers that fairytales have survived all these years for a reason; not despite the violence and fear mongering but because they must satisfy a basic human psychological need. In the end I didn't intrude upon the conversation, just watched it, bemused, as though through a magic mirror.
In this modern fairytale, Oates updated some archetypes for her characters. Like Cinderella, Katya has been abandoned by her father to be raised by a mother and siblings who don't seem to care much about her welfare. In Bayhead Harbor, she wistfully gazes at the castle-like homes and imagines what it would be like to live in one.( I was intrigued when, in the fairytale within the book, it said that the Fair Maiden was raised by her grandmother. I was waiting for it to be revealed that Katya was actually the daughter of one of her sisters left in the care of what was her grandmother, but whom she had been told was her mother, explaining her apparent neglect, but that never came out. Still, I wonder if that's the assumption we are meant to make.) Katya keeps assuming that someday her Dad will come back to her, that like Hansel and Gretel's father, he didn't leave on purpose. And Marcus Kidder is a wolf in sheep's clothing, literally, when he removes his "snow white" wig to reveal a monster underneath.
I was intrigued by the inclusion of crystal meth in this book as it dovetails with some of my reading this year. I must be naïve, but I just don't see meth around me. But, watching Breaking Bad on Netflix and reading books like Beautiful Boy A Father's Journey through His Son's Meth Addiction and Tweak Growing Up On Methamphetamines, I am told that it is everywhere around me and destroying lives and families. As Tina Fey said in a prayer for her daughter in Bossypants: When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half and stick with Beer. This is a prayer I've never thought to say-- could this be the greatest danger my kids will have to face? Is this the real moral of this story? I also recently watched the movie "Winter's Bone", and find Katya to be similar to Jennifer Lawrence's character in that she's from a low income neighbourhood, surrounded by meth users, has a missing father (who in the end has a similar fate), a mother who is more needy than nurturing, and a community that is not above dealing violently with her. Is this the modern day dangers that the author is trying to warn the reader about? And does it take the creepy Lolita scenes, the discomfort and danger of this fairytale situation, to imprint the dangers on a deep psychic level? Maybe I'm answering my questions as I ask them, but if there's a way to have my kids turn out more like Jennifer Lawrence's character than Katya, I'm ready to hear it.
I can usually find a few quotes to mark and savour but in A Fair Maiden I did not. These seem to be some favourites of others:
To the young there are no degrees of old just as there are no degrees of dead - either you are, or you are not.
A female is her body. A guy can be lots of things, not just his body.
While these might be some interesting observations (and in the second case, while it might be more trope than truism, it at least illuminates Katya's thinking), I don't find them to be examples of amazing writing. And if I may share a peeve about the author's writing in this story: why did she repeat the phrase "sick-sinking feeling"? I think it occurred four times throughout this short work and it jolted me every time I saw it repeated after liking it the first time.
I can understand why this book was on the discount table-- it wouldn't be for everyone, but it did give me some things to think about. I'll definitely give Joyce Carol Oates more opportunities to enlighten me, knowing that she's not likely to sanitise her storytelling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2012
Very engaging and well written. The subtle power plays that prove Katya's ultimate powerlessness are interesting to follow throughout. I'm not sure I entirely agree with Oates's strong anti-male (I won't exactly call it feminist, she seems to discuss the lack of control that a women has, but does not really propose any alternatives; her heroine is far from prototypical as a new "modern" feminist). In that vein, she has some great quotes: "A female is her body. A guy can be lots of things, not just his body."
"You can be on easy terms with such a man, you can see that he likes you, then by mistake you say the wrong word or make the wrong assumption and something shuts down."
"his gentlemanly good nature was possible only when he was obeyed in all things."
Certainly, Oates's point is that all males (and all females) are interchangeable (to some extent). She argues that men are all driven by sexual motives, and they all hold the power. I get her point, and I like the way she develops the theme, but I don't agree that you can generalize to quite this extent.
Another motif that I thought was well done was the daddy/grandpa need that Katya has and which Marcus Kidder fulfills. I loved the innocence that Katya displays by thinking her father is coming back; I loved that she needed Mr. Kidder to love her: she recognized that he was the only one who loved her, but simultaneously acknowledged that he has ulterior motives. I was just as surprised as Katya when she finds out that her dad is most likely dead.
Ultimately, Katya is portrayed very well on this threshold between girl and woman-hood. She wants to be sophisticated, she wants to be envyed, but most of all she wants to be loved: "For Katya wanted to be liked, there was this weakness in her: desperately she wanted to be liked, even by people she resented."
"You can be on easy terms with such a man, you can see that he likes you, then by mistake you say the wrong word or make the wrong assumption and something shuts down."
"his gentlemanly good nature was possible only when he was obeyed in all things."
Certainly, Oates's point is that all males (and all females) are interchangeable (to some extent). She argues that men are all driven by sexual motives, and they all hold the power. I get her point, and I like the way she develops the theme, but I don't agree that you can generalize to quite this extent.
Another motif that I thought was well done was the daddy/grandpa need that Katya has and which Marcus Kidder fulfills. I loved the innocence that Katya displays by thinking her father is coming back; I loved that she needed Mr. Kidder to love her: she recognized that he was the only one who loved her, but simultaneously acknowledged that he has ulterior motives. I was just as surprised as Katya when she finds out that her dad is most likely dead.
Ultimately, Katya is portrayed very well on this threshold between girl and woman-hood. She wants to be sophisticated, she wants to be envyed, but most of all she wants to be loved: "For Katya wanted to be liked, there was this weakness in her: desperately she wanted to be liked, even by people she resented."
March 11, 2010
Oates is always a bit hit or miss for me; I've always preferred her short stories to her novels/novellas. That being said, if you handed me this book without any form of identification and asked me to name the author, I would probably have gotten it in one or two guesses. Oates has a very particular style and the same themes of gender, sexuality and power run through all of her works that I've read.
More than anything, Oates' observations regarding female/male relationships and cultural perception always feel spot-on, to me. There's a part in chapter three of this novel where Katya thinks about the difference between women and men where she says something to the extent of "men can be many things, not just their body. Women are only their bodies." This is maybe the part of the novel that stuck with me the most, especially since it seems to keep reappearing in the relationships between Katya and every other character in the book. The women fear her and disdain her because of her beauty, the men--even Marcus Kidder, who proclaims her his soul's mate--see only her physical being.
I wouldn't say this is an enjoyable book to read if only because the sinister feel of it that's present from the very beginning. From the moment Kidder approaches Katya at the beginning of the story, we have an inkling of his intentions and that inkling sticks with us as a sinister unsettling feeling until the end.
What I liked most about the novel was that it didn't end as expected, and I found the last few pages quite beautiful with their dream-like atmosphere.
More than anything, Oates' observations regarding female/male relationships and cultural perception always feel spot-on, to me. There's a part in chapter three of this novel where Katya thinks about the difference between women and men where she says something to the extent of "men can be many things, not just their body. Women are only their bodies." This is maybe the part of the novel that stuck with me the most, especially since it seems to keep reappearing in the relationships between Katya and every other character in the book. The women fear her and disdain her because of her beauty, the men--even Marcus Kidder, who proclaims her his soul's mate--see only her physical being.
I wouldn't say this is an enjoyable book to read if only because the sinister feel of it that's present from the very beginning. From the moment Kidder approaches Katya at the beginning of the story, we have an inkling of his intentions and that inkling sticks with us as a sinister unsettling feeling until the end.
What I liked most about the novel was that it didn't end as expected, and I found the last few pages quite beautiful with their dream-like atmosphere.
November 15, 2011
I usually love everything Joyce Carol Oates writes, but this was one of her lesser efforts. She is such a prolific writer....she pretty much lands on the bullseye with most books....but with such a large body of work, she's bound to miss once in awhile. I listened to the 5 CDs of this sad tale of a Jersey teen who gets in over her head with an old rich man, while being a nanny for a family at the Jersey shore. It's all been done before and we hear every thought in Katia's pretty little mind, whether they are good or evil. It is typical JCO in that she always brings us to the edge of situations where we will definitely...squirm. I like that part, but this is just a rerun of the same old stuff we've seen over and over many times before: poor girl, bad home life, nobody cares, vulnerable for trouble.....
May 26, 2012
I have really enjoyed most of the Oates books I have read so far, so I was kind of surprised by how bad this was. The writing is very bare and brings back memories of the cheesy YA novels I read in middle school. I think the subject matter had the potential to be intriguing and I am usually very appreciative of Oates's ability to portray gender issues through the thoughts and emotions of realistic women... but this just felt really sleazy and not even in an enjoyable way. I wasn't sure if she wanted us to sympathize with the Kidder dude or not, but I found him to be corny and cloying. At least Humbert Humbert had perceptible charm.
October 14, 2021
Joyce Carol Oates has won quite a few prizes in her career and apparently has been a Nobel Prize favorite since at least the early 80s according to Wikipedia. Hopefully, these accolades are based on other books than this one, but I won't bother to find out. This was pretty horrible, I should have followed my instincts and kept it unread in my bookcase.
December 10, 2023
"Tette, zinne, culo erano parole avvilenti per lei, che la facevano vergognare. Aveva cominciato in prima media, a sentire quelle parole. E immaginava che le avrebbe sentite per tutta la vita. Le femmine sono il loro corpo. I maschi possono essere un sacco di cose, non soltanto il loro corpo."
Katya è una ragazza di sedici anni che durante l'estate svolge il lavoro di bambinaia per una ricca famiglia del New Jersey. Durante una passeggiata con i bambini a cui bada, Katya incontra Marcus Kidder, un uomo anziano dai morbidi capelli bianchi, ricco, elegante, dai modi garbati, pieno di talenti artistici. Per Katya, abbandonata dal padre, quasi completamente ignorata dalle sorelle e con una madre indifferente e schiava di varie dipendenze, essere trattata con riguardo da un uomo tanto gentile quanto potente è una novità.
Ancora una volta la Oates mi soggioga con una delle sue short stories torbide, piene di pathos e con personaggi così vivi e interessanti. Non sono riuscita a staccarmi dalle pagine.
Katya è una ragazza di sedici anni che durante l'estate svolge il lavoro di bambinaia per una ricca famiglia del New Jersey. Durante una passeggiata con i bambini a cui bada, Katya incontra Marcus Kidder, un uomo anziano dai morbidi capelli bianchi, ricco, elegante, dai modi garbati, pieno di talenti artistici. Per Katya, abbandonata dal padre, quasi completamente ignorata dalle sorelle e con una madre indifferente e schiava di varie dipendenze, essere trattata con riguardo da un uomo tanto gentile quanto potente è una novità.
Ancora una volta la Oates mi soggioga con una delle sue short stories torbide, piene di pathos e con personaggi così vivi e interessanti. Non sono riuscita a staccarmi dalle pagine.
January 7, 2025
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