Matt Snediker’s Reviews > We Were the Mulvaneys > Status Update

I’ve read BLACK WATER, WHERE ARE YOU GOING, and 52% of this book. JCO’s oeuvre posits that men see the world as being all male, invariably: front to back, guy to lady, animal to human,vegetable to mineral; and that the most progressive and understanding the men can hope to become is to eventually, with much dismay & self-loathing, come to the conclusion that everything male, including themselves, should be killed

I wanna say that the popular 2 star goodreads review of this book where the person’s like “um, this isn’t about a horrible event destroying a perfect family? The parents are awful!!!” is a perfect example of the literacy crisis in America, but I think there’s a lot more than illiteracy going on there tbh…

Not a book for someone who wants their messages spoon fed, themes highlighted, morals made clear.

A book about the downfall of wanting to be the main character and author of someone else’s story you happen to be living in.

Oates gets at this thing of how men see the dignity, character, & perception of the women in their life as a reflection of their own self-worth – treat them like show dogs whose misgroomed fur, or too-long claws,or unwiped eye boogies are a direct reflection of their owner’s own shortcomings, mean the owner is worth less – and that this objectification & ownership is at the root of a big Evil Thing in our world

The amount of rage JCO induces in the reader, the emotionally-unsatisfying-but-deftly-rendered realism with which she grounds the story, the magic and surreality of the Judd solo sequences.

It’s just all so overwhelming.