you must remember this joyce carol oates pdf

But when piled one on top of another for 436 pages of fairly small print, it loses its impact. And in a short story, it creates a stunning and memorable impression. She writes amazing individual scenes, detailed, poignant, affecting. The aspect of Oates's writing that makes me so much of a fan of her short story, 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' is unfortunately what I'm not thrilled about in this novel. A strikingly realistic and insightful view into certain aspects of life that, ultimately, could have used a more panoramic view.

Time's passage is markedly hastened, and the overwhelming press of early themes are often resolved without satisfaction (many of them actually.). One which she clearly has the skills to have addressed.Īdditionally, the second half can feel rushed and uninspired. Whether this was intentional or an oversight, I feel it was a mistake. We see certain details clear as day, while sensing there are many scenes she has failed to mention. The choice of floating, mostly, free from time's restraints accentuates her individual vignettes while failing to create a larger, more universal, picture. Parts of the story are superfluous, many parts are underdeveloped and abandoned.

Plot is underutilized in strengthening the theme. She succeeds at this task with a keen empathy and understanding of the dark and melancholic stuff of life.Īs wonderfully as these ideas are rendered, the book does have flaws. Oates mostly wants to bruise us, as she does her characters, to convey her point.

These standout lines often act directly as the above mentioned 'things', striking with impact at the reader. She employs her formidable writer's intuition often, creating elegant sentences which jostle for attention against the larger picture. Some characters are tight strokes of insight, while others are portrayed as vaguer blurs of background. 'You Must Remember This' is built upon these 'things.' Oates flashes between these things (situations, feelings, injuries, insanities and impurities) with non-linear plotting, painting an abstract-expressionist theme. And things done but never named might well be forgotten' (p. 'Though it was a truth Warren had picked up somewhere that things once said within a family cannot be unsaid.

You must remember this joyce carol oates pdf