Gravedigger's Daughter | 
 enlarge | Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Creator: Bernadette Dunne
Publisher: Books on Tape
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  52 reviews
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Items: 17
ISBN: 1415944555
EAN: 9781415944554
ASIN: 1415944555
Publication Date: January 2007
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Product Description
In 1936 the Schwarts, an immigrant family desperate to escape Nazi Germany, settle in a small town in upstate New York, where the father, a former high school teacher, is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. After local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty result in unspeakable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca, begins her astonishing pilgrimage into America, an odyssey of erotic risk and imaginative daring, ingenious self-invention, and, in the end, a bittersweet—but very "American"—triumph. "You are born here, they will not hurt you"—so the gravedigger has predicted for his daughter, which will turn out to be true. In The Gravedigger's Daughter, Oates has created a masterpiece of domestic yet mythic realism, at once emotionally engaging and intellectually provocative: an intimately observed testimony to the resilience of the individual to set beside such predecessors as The Falls, Blonde, and We Were the Mulvaneys.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 *Sigh* October 3, 2008
I eagerly set off to read this book, but by page 100, I was just plain tired of it. Besides being drawn out and having too many repetitive passages, the book lacked the pen of a critical editor. Had this book been tightened to 350 pages, I might have been able to withstand the never-ending hammering of abuse and poor choices then went on and on and on. With every page turned, I felt like a noose was being tightened around my neck. The balance between light and dark, which I feel is necessary for a book this disturbing, just wasn't there. Everyone needs to take a breath between dark scenes, and this book left me choking for air.
 Grim, Dark Misery September 26, 2008
Despite the supposed quality of the writing, I can't get past the content of this book. It's disgusting; no lightness, joy, goodness of human nature here. Sorry, but if I wanted to wallow in misery, it would hardly be in a novel.
The hovel they live in with "death leaking downwards" from the graveyard typifies the type of miserable grayness in this awful book. I finally have thrown in the towel after about 120 pages and am sorry that awfulness is in my mind. Violence, blood, cruelty, crassness, obscene, with no redeeming qualities. I don't know one person like any of the characters and am thankful for that.
There is no nobility in this book, no kindness, no caring; nothing but the worst of humankind and despicable people. What a world to inhabit...
 Masterpiece! August 28, 2008
My idol lives up to her reputation. If she doesn't win the Pulitzer for this, I'm going to be p---ed!
So glad to be done with it! August 18, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I finished it tonight and am so glad I'm done! I would have stopped sooner but I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. I agree with other reviewers that have mentioned repetitive words and metaphors. Yeah, her hair is long; yep, his groin is like a goiter. We get it- cutting her hair is representative, but do you have to beat us over the head with it?? Also, the switch between characters was very choppy. And I'm okay with endings that don't tie up all lose ends, but this one made no sense at all, and I tried to read the letters between her and the cousin and then got tired of it all. I did enjoy the first 1/3 of the book- the sections when she was Rebecca living in the stone house. There seemed to be a story and somewhat of a plot, but it got lost somewhere. Others might like it, I didn't. Read all the reviews, and don't lose sleep over a $14 book.
boring August 17, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I took the book on vacation because the reviews had been good and Amazon indicated it was like other books I've like in the past. Immediately, I found that I didn't care for Oates' style of writing and the storyline wasn't engaging (i.e., it was painful to slog through). I made it about 50 pages in and jumped ship. If you want to take the risk, go for it. Otherwise, I'd say look elsewhere for a good summer read.
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