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The Rise of Life on Earth
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the most notable books of 1991, Joyce Carol Oates's The Rise of Life on Earth is a memorable portrait of one of the "insulted and injured" of American society. Set in the underside of working-class Detroit of the '60s and '70s, this short, lyric novel sketches Kathleen Hennessy's violent childhood—shattered by a broken home, child-beating, and murder—and follows her into her early adult years as a hospital health-care worker. Overworked, underpaid, and quietly overzealous, Kathleen falls in love with a young doctor, whose exploitation of her sets the course of the remainder of her life, in which her passivity masks a deep fury and secret resolve to take revenge.
142 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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960 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates
859 books9,688 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 58 reviews
June 2, 2024
My god, my god, my god. God in heaven, this was brutal.
This 1991 work by Joyce Carol Oates, which chronicles the life of Kathleen Hennessy, a girl who is invisible and overlooked, other than perhaps inviting repulsion because of her unattractiveness, but whose invisibility inspires a terrible and equally invisible rage that allows her to effortlessly glide by her atrocities undetected... it has left me gobsmacked.
I knew Oates could go to depths, deep and dark and violent depths, after reading Zombie. This seems like a precursor of sorts, coming out four years before, or if not a precursor, a preparation, a red-blood-petaled path to how far she can go in literary horror.
Although, that's not fair, because it's not a horror story at all (despite elements being truly horrific). It's about a person who is abused and ignored and passed over and exploited. Or it could be, as the back cover of my copy insinuates, that this is about a class of American society, and the rising tide of what comes when a group of people are injured over and over, when their injuries don't matter to anyone.
The style of writing is interesting here. Long sentences, almost stream of consciousness, creating paragraphs that document nightmarish thoughts and actions. The writing is visceral and vicious. I could barely read the final chapter. It's brutal, as I said, and won't be for every reader. But this is something for those who, when they read, reach straight for the jugular. The real thing.
This 1991 work by Joyce Carol Oates, which chronicles the life of Kathleen Hennessy, a girl who is invisible and overlooked, other than perhaps inviting repulsion because of her unattractiveness, but whose invisibility inspires a terrible and equally invisible rage that allows her to effortlessly glide by her atrocities undetected... it has left me gobsmacked.
I knew Oates could go to depths, deep and dark and violent depths, after reading Zombie. This seems like a precursor of sorts, coming out four years before, or if not a precursor, a preparation, a red-blood-petaled path to how far she can go in literary horror.
Although, that's not fair, because it's not a horror story at all (despite elements being truly horrific). It's about a person who is abused and ignored and passed over and exploited. Or it could be, as the back cover of my copy insinuates, that this is about a class of American society, and the rising tide of what comes when a group of people are injured over and over, when their injuries don't matter to anyone.
The style of writing is interesting here. Long sentences, almost stream of consciousness, creating paragraphs that document nightmarish thoughts and actions. The writing is visceral and vicious. I could barely read the final chapter. It's brutal, as I said, and won't be for every reader. But this is something for those who, when they read, reach straight for the jugular. The real thing.
May 3, 2024
This book is so pure. My fave JCO, it’s her themes and her preoccupations, distilled to its purest manifestation on the page. Shudder.
March 4, 2019
Secrets make us.
3.5
3.5
August 21, 2023
Geschichte einer jungen Frau, die nie etwas anderes kannte als Gewalt und Lieblosigkeit und dadurch entsprechend für ihr Leben gezeichnet ist – was aber keiner zu sehen vermag. Dass sie in der Folge selbst grausam und zerstörerisch gegen sich und andere handelt, wundert kaum. Musste manchmal ein bisschen an Kings „Carrie“ denken.
Nicht schlecht, aber nicht so raffiniert konstruiert wie Pik-Bube.
Nicht schlecht, aber nicht so raffiniert konstruiert wie Pik-Bube.
October 21, 2018
En av mina absoluta favoriter av Oates!
October 7, 2015
A child survives a brutal attack by her father, the same attack that her little sister died in, an attack precipitated by her mother abandoning the family. The Rise of Life on Earth is a cold, detached and often brutal story of that child's life from recovery in a public hospital through foster care and her early twenties as a nurses aide, a series of events and encounters that shape the person she will be. The matter of fact nature of the description by Oates, a recounting of the correct method for sanitising hands on a hospital ward given the same treatment as the early assault for example, serves to heighten the impact, shocking the reader early on and then leaving you wondering what horror can possibly be in store next, but also helps elicit your sympathy for a protagonist who is actually quite the undesirable, to put it mildly. A pretty stunning early work, not even remotely what I expected from my first encounter with an author I'd heard mentioned and praised for years. I'm not sure I'm in any rush to find out how typical this is of her oeuvre though.
March 18, 2016
When you read this book, remember to breathe. You might forget in the pain, in the worry of it all.
January 30, 2011
Phenomenal style, story, imagination: typical JCO.
JCO gives brutal details of the abuse inflicted on the main character as a child and again as an adult, so vivid you'd think she was there to witness it. Somehow she manages to fully develop this character in less than 150 pages.
JCO gives brutal details of the abuse inflicted on the main character as a child and again as an adult, so vivid you'd think she was there to witness it. Somehow she manages to fully develop this character in less than 150 pages.
July 17, 2025
3/5 —
It’s evident this was much earlier in JCO’s career - but the story is so real. JCO creates characters like no one else.
There was hope in darkness w/ Kathleen. She is a lovely character.
TW: abortion, sexual / physical abuse, blood/bodily fluids, child abuse.
It’s evident this was much earlier in JCO’s career - but the story is so real. JCO creates characters like no one else.
There was hope in darkness w/ Kathleen. She is a lovely character.
TW: abortion, sexual / physical abuse, blood/bodily fluids, child abuse.
August 26, 2016
I read this on Christmas morning. It was horrible.
The book is full of violence - I skipped many pages - which is unusual for me.
I do not believe that the characters are well developed. I do not see how the protagonist loves the doctor - there is no suggestion of love at all - instead it is a warped dependency.
I do not find the plot credible and have no empathy for any character.I only finished the book as it was so short and I hoped that there would be some good at the end - but this was not the case.
The book is full of violence - I skipped many pages - which is unusual for me.
I do not believe that the characters are well developed. I do not see how the protagonist loves the doctor - there is no suggestion of love at all - instead it is a warped dependency.
I do not find the plot credible and have no empathy for any character.I only finished the book as it was so short and I hoped that there would be some good at the end - but this was not the case.
April 28, 2023
A quick read. This book's male character infuriated me. Unfortunately this topic matter (exploitation and abortion) is still relevant today. The novel follows Kathleen's devastating and hopeful life course. The characters ending left me confused, happy for her? upset with her? Sad for her? We are left to our own conclusions.
January 7, 2025
Such an unusual and bizarre little book, experimental prose, and acute character analysis. Not very appealing, but very, very interesting. I find JCO to be a fascinating writer and much to my taste.
October 11, 2025
Joyce Carol Oates is brutal and amazing - do not read this book for comfort, read it for dystopian hallucinatory nostalgia.
August 1, 2015
I first encountered the work of Joyce Carol Oates when I was taking an undergraduate course in Women's Studies in 1974. It was a time of great change for women and the books we read in that class opened up my eyes. We read Simone de Beauvoir, Fay Weldon, Betty Friedan and Doris Lessing, among others but the ones that affected me most were Oates' stories and novels. The immediacy, violence and passion were unlike anything I had ever read and her characters truly breathed on the pages. Terrible things they did happen could happen did happen to them, didn't they? This question is intentionally written that way, for that is how her writing is - shocking maybe not there surely there. It was the first time I had read something with a stream of conciousness in it and I was hooked for the next fourty years. Every time a new book or collection of hers would come out, I was thrilled couldn't wait to read it devoured it and though I have certainly not read all of her work, I still have that initial enthusiasm and wonder each time I pick up something of hers that I haven't read.
So... "The Rise of Life on Earth". Gulp... As visceral as ever, she pulled me into Chicago of the late 60's. Madmen indeed. The book is not a very long one but as you may have surmised, it is certainly an intense one that will make you very uncomfortable. There is no doubt about that. In fact, I actually was so horrified by the events at the end that I couldn't read it. I literally COULD NOT. My eyes jumped all over the pages because I could not take in more than a few disjointed phrases at a time. I would put it down and go back to it a few hours later and do the same thing but maybe read slightly different phrases. I know I did not read the whole thing and I know I never will. But I got the gist of it and that is more than enough. Oates created a character born of abuse and I still want to know where the evil begins, when it begins. This is what is quietly crawling out from under the rock. Although I feel empathy for the abused child, I cannot reconcile the evil and agony that abide in the young woman. She believes in God she does she doesn't. What we know for sure, is that growing up in this America of Joyce Carol Oates' book, is hazardous to your health.
I love the cover painting, "Morning in a City"(1944) by Edward Hopper, which evokes the solitary disconnect which is ever-present in the book.
Some of my favourite writing is:
- the fatty creases of the belly and thighs prematurely wattling though she was young - still young: YOUNG! - waiting for her life... (80)
...so long as she did not resist she would not be hurt or insulted, or rarely so... (81)
...For it seemed logical to her that God showered His gifts, say, upon a certain group of human beings as a flood of sunshine might move upon them thus if you were in the midst of the blessed His blessing might soon strike you too wasn't that logical? - wasn't that His way? - so Kathleen tried to choose her companions carefully... (92)
He said, "It's weird isn't it - everybody wanting to live. You see it in others, the desperation, the terror, it's so self-evidently comical, all these people, too many people... but in yourself, either you can't see it or you won't." And he began to laugh. (100)
...the meek and the lame and the halt and the blind and they that hunger after righteousness and shall inherit not the Earth but mere dirt shoveled into their mouths. (106)
So... "The Rise of Life on Earth". Gulp... As visceral as ever, she pulled me into Chicago of the late 60's. Madmen indeed. The book is not a very long one but as you may have surmised, it is certainly an intense one that will make you very uncomfortable. There is no doubt about that. In fact, I actually was so horrified by the events at the end that I couldn't read it. I literally COULD NOT. My eyes jumped all over the pages because I could not take in more than a few disjointed phrases at a time. I would put it down and go back to it a few hours later and do the same thing but maybe read slightly different phrases. I know I did not read the whole thing and I know I never will. But I got the gist of it and that is more than enough. Oates created a character born of abuse and I still want to know where the evil begins, when it begins. This is what is quietly crawling out from under the rock. Although I feel empathy for the abused child, I cannot reconcile the evil and agony that abide in the young woman. She believes in God she does she doesn't. What we know for sure, is that growing up in this America of Joyce Carol Oates' book, is hazardous to your health.
I love the cover painting, "Morning in a City"(1944) by Edward Hopper, which evokes the solitary disconnect which is ever-present in the book.
Some of my favourite writing is:
- the fatty creases of the belly and thighs prematurely wattling though she was young - still young: YOUNG! - waiting for her life... (80)
...so long as she did not resist she would not be hurt or insulted, or rarely so... (81)
...For it seemed logical to her that God showered His gifts, say, upon a certain group of human beings as a flood of sunshine might move upon them thus if you were in the midst of the blessed His blessing might soon strike you too wasn't that logical? - wasn't that His way? - so Kathleen tried to choose her companions carefully... (92)
He said, "It's weird isn't it - everybody wanting to live. You see it in others, the desperation, the terror, it's so self-evidently comical, all these people, too many people... but in yourself, either you can't see it or you won't." And he began to laugh. (100)
...the meek and the lame and the halt and the blind and they that hunger after righteousness and shall inherit not the Earth but mere dirt shoveled into their mouths. (106)
August 15, 2019
Brutal and disturbing, but well done. I couldn't read parts of the end; it just went beyond what I'm able to handle. I appreciate the courage of JCO to delve into the dark and disturbing worlds that others
dare not.
dare not.
January 20, 2025
Full review on Substack: https://sensibilities.substack.com/p/...
Written in an abstract, stream-of-consciousness style, The Rise of Life on Earth follows Kathleen Hennessy, who as a young girl suffered from an abusive father, abandoned mother, and survived a house fire that killed her sister. Finding herself an orphan, Kathleen endures adolescence in the foster care system and finds her calling working as a nurse’s aide.
Kathleen is described with so much pity and disgust. She is unattractive, strange, and intellectually behind. As an undesirable working class female, she is constantly ignored and overlooked by everyone around her. Yet she still manages to be taken advantage of by various men who exploit her innocence and loneliness. Kathleen is portrayed as an innocent creature at the core but her dark inclinations slowly reveal themselves over the course of the novel. Ultimately, her toxic love affair with a hospital doctor culminates to an ending that is so shockingly painful and grotesque, it made me sick.
I felt a strong disdain for the treatment of poor Kathleen, even when her darker nature reveals, as she clearly lacked developmental support and parental love. This disdain turned into a tiny bit of disdain for the author, I began questioning if even Oates herself hated Kathleen, which could speak something to Oates’ talent as a writer in crafting such a strong narrative. At times, however, the third person narrative felt too cold, too brutal. Kathleen’s abuse indeed served a purpose, speaking to the way that society treats marginalized, neglected women, the entire purpose of the novel. So I get it, I really do, but the barbaric narrative left me feeling conflicted.
This book reminded me so much of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh which features another female main character that is gross and obsessive and a plot that slowly dives into chaos. Fans of Eileen would likely enjoy this one, but brace yourself for something darker.
“She wondered if there were others of her kind and if these others knew of one another and knew of one another's secret strength, the terrible secret strength of those whom the human world has made invisible.”
Written in an abstract, stream-of-consciousness style, The Rise of Life on Earth follows Kathleen Hennessy, who as a young girl suffered from an abusive father, abandoned mother, and survived a house fire that killed her sister. Finding herself an orphan, Kathleen endures adolescence in the foster care system and finds her calling working as a nurse’s aide.
Kathleen is described with so much pity and disgust. She is unattractive, strange, and intellectually behind. As an undesirable working class female, she is constantly ignored and overlooked by everyone around her. Yet she still manages to be taken advantage of by various men who exploit her innocence and loneliness. Kathleen is portrayed as an innocent creature at the core but her dark inclinations slowly reveal themselves over the course of the novel. Ultimately, her toxic love affair with a hospital doctor culminates to an ending that is so shockingly painful and grotesque, it made me sick.
I felt a strong disdain for the treatment of poor Kathleen, even when her darker nature reveals, as she clearly lacked developmental support and parental love. This disdain turned into a tiny bit of disdain for the author, I began questioning if even Oates herself hated Kathleen, which could speak something to Oates’ talent as a writer in crafting such a strong narrative. At times, however, the third person narrative felt too cold, too brutal. Kathleen’s abuse indeed served a purpose, speaking to the way that society treats marginalized, neglected women, the entire purpose of the novel. So I get it, I really do, but the barbaric narrative left me feeling conflicted.
This book reminded me so much of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh which features another female main character that is gross and obsessive and a plot that slowly dives into chaos. Fans of Eileen would likely enjoy this one, but brace yourself for something darker.
“She wondered if there were others of her kind and if these others knew of one another and knew of one another's secret strength, the terrible secret strength of those whom the human world has made invisible.”
February 6, 2023
My full review can be found here: https://thereadingwife.com/the-rise-o...
September 5, 2025
This was a bag of laughs. Apart from, well, everything.
Gorgeous stream of consciousness narrative style. Messy but addictive. The physical violence is very explicit but the silent rage underneath is the main thing. Blink, and you miss it.
I think I’ll read this again in a few years.
Gorgeous stream of consciousness narrative style. Messy but addictive. The physical violence is very explicit but the silent rage underneath is the main thing. Blink, and you miss it.
I think I’ll read this again in a few years.
August 13, 2022
This is my first Joyce Carol Oates book and I am stunned. The narratives are raw and painful. The characters, all flawed. I was terrified watching Kathleen develop from a battered child to a teenager, whisked from one foster home to another. It was dismal seeing her mature into adulthood, contented and feeling fortunate with her life but grievously taken for granted by colleagues and ill-used by the men she casually saw. "Exploited", as Dr. Orson Abbott described her. But guess who had the last laugh in the end.
March 5, 2012
This powerful tale of neglect and abuse lasting throughout the life of Kathleen Hennessy is told with a methodical, detached voice by the author.
Pulling the reader into the tragic life of an everyday hard-working. overlooked and pathetic like person, we see the emotional scars that prevail and lurk beneath the surface to erupt in random acts of revenge.
Yet another dark tale by Joyce Carol Oates, still, worth the read because of the deep knowledge and psychological depiction of the down trodden.
While some of the pages were difficult to read because of the vivid descriptions of violent abuse, still, I would recommend reading this one.
Pulling the reader into the tragic life of an everyday hard-working. overlooked and pathetic like person, we see the emotional scars that prevail and lurk beneath the surface to erupt in random acts of revenge.
Yet another dark tale by Joyce Carol Oates, still, worth the read because of the deep knowledge and psychological depiction of the down trodden.
While some of the pages were difficult to read because of the vivid descriptions of violent abuse, still, I would recommend reading this one.
February 26, 2022
Oates gives us another incredible look at the recesses of human psychology. This one is disturbing in parts; but I found it very realistic. And Oates never flinches from what people do to one another and to themselves. A quote that gets to the nub of what is portrayed in the book: "she wondered if there were others of her kind and if these others knew of one another and knew of one another's secret strength, the terrible secret strength of those whom the human world has made invisible".
April 19, 2019
I stan anything written by my girl JCO, but this one was emotionally difficult for me to read. And I know that’s most definitely what she intended. This novella is a true testament to suffering and abuse, and most importantly, what happens when sadistic abuse isn’t ever addressed. Not for the faint of heart, like most of Oates more compelling works.
June 6, 2020
Just a brutal read. It's quick and painless, until the end, then everything is off the rails. Nothing can be taken for granted. Oates writes horrifying books that come out of nowhere. This fits that bill. I'm certain, even though it's only 135 pages or so, that most readers could not get through this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 9, 2021
Though I'd say Black Water is probably superior to this "Short Joyce" in its focus and disturbing power, this novella is not far behind. Oates has a way of sketching the downtrodden and poor of society and fantastically sketches this doomed character, her doomed life, and her terrible but understandable decision in stark, poetic, and often disturbing colors. Good stuff! Read it with your dog.
December 2, 2009
One of my favorite writers! The violence, the injustice, the cruelty of life - it's all in this short book (really a long short story). Not for the faint of heart...but brilliant nonetheless.
November 22, 2015
A horrifying short novel tells the story of a marginalized "invisible" young woman, Kathleen Hennessy. It is chilling…especially that final chapter.
January 19, 2024
“Now that she knew: she knew there was no hope: knowing there is no hope can be a wonderful thing and now she knew, now she would do it, what must be done, for Kathleen Hennessy's nature was practical and procedural after all. Not romantic. nor deluded. Sobriety best suited her. Brushes and detergent. Diagrams. White nylon, white stockings and white rubber-soled shoes.”
This paragraph best summarized Kathleen, whose traumas early in life beat her down so badly that she learned not to ask for more, not to be ambitious to improve her own life. Being a nurses assistant is good enough, she’s just lucky she’s made it this far. The procedure, the routine of the job is good enough for her after the chaos of her upbringing.
Joyce does a wonderful job getting to the heart of this, but ruins it partially by writing Kathleen to be someone who purposefully infects her patients with hepatitis by spreading the particles around to various of her patients’ rooms. Kathleen’s character makes sense as one who is passive and jaded, not as someone malignant and evil, which poisoning her patients obviously renders her.
Overall a really good book, but this particular aspect of Kathleen’s character soured me and didn’t make much sense.
This paragraph best summarized Kathleen, whose traumas early in life beat her down so badly that she learned not to ask for more, not to be ambitious to improve her own life. Being a nurses assistant is good enough, she’s just lucky she’s made it this far. The procedure, the routine of the job is good enough for her after the chaos of her upbringing.
Joyce does a wonderful job getting to the heart of this, but ruins it partially by writing Kathleen to be someone who purposefully infects her patients with hepatitis by spreading the particles around to various of her patients’ rooms. Kathleen’s character makes sense as one who is passive and jaded, not as someone malignant and evil, which poisoning her patients obviously renders her.
Overall a really good book, but this particular aspect of Kathleen’s character soured me and didn’t make much sense.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 28, 2018
Be careful how you treat people; because you're privileged in some way or many ways, doesn't mean you're invincible or invisible or somehow above treating your fellow animals decently. That's the message to be taken away from this fictional account of a young girl who is cruelly treated, who grows up to be a young woman treated dismissively by some, cruelly by others, just because she was never cherished and loved unconditionally. Her deeply buried rage and resentment find an out in her occupation as a health-care worker.
Long, rambling, run-on sentences that I suppose are similar to the jumble of thoughts running through Kathleen's head.
Long, rambling, run-on sentences that I suppose are similar to the jumble of thoughts running through Kathleen's head.
March 14, 2019
Published in 1991. Close 3rd person account of an emotionally damaged, and perhaps intellectually challenged young woman. Reads more like a prose-poem with long complex sentences, deliberate exclusion of punctuation, much of it train-of-thought and often quite visceral. Unlike much of her work written with conventional syntax, this book isn't for everyone. As an author I found it a useful exercise to expand the flexibility of my own writing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews