This book explores the 1970’s culture and how a rape victim of the times was treated. If you make it through the beginning the end is worth reading! Judd Mulvaney, the youngest child, tells this story which is written by Joyce Carol Oates. He takes on the role of omniscient narrator and the story is confirmed to be the unvarnished truth. The story is told from a realistic philosophy in that the character are presented in a truthful manner, which leads the reader to see the characters as real people.
Though the novel is set in the past, it has a here and now feel to it, in that the overall theme, of overcoming tragedy, is one that is universal. This is best seen in the characters of Marianne Mulvaney, Patrick Mulvaney and Corinne Mulvaney. The personal tragedy, a rape, happens to the young innocent Marianne and would be expected to have a severe emotional impact on her. However, the early 1970’s were not yet ready to accept the innocence of the girl in such matters. This family which was once described as the family who had everything, the family that was “joined at the heart” (14), fractures to the sum of its individual parts. Marianne Mulvanney is a young, bright, popular and religiously naive girl. The rape, although emotionally crushing, is nothing to the loss of trust and self-confidence that occur when she is thrust from the support and love of her family. These events throw Marianne into a pattern of self-depreciation and behavior that leads her to being a victim in many areas of her life. Running from success and waiting to be recalled to the family and made whole again puts this character in the static mode. Patrick, the brainy one, seeks to shut out living by exploring life in the mode of scientific theory. Unlike Marianne who refuses to live her life until returned to her family, Patrick is forever changing and discarding his life’s work, thereby keeping his life in a perpetual state of flux. Patrick has no use for the ‘family’ which does not fit into the model he has built to represent his life. Corinne Mulvaney is loving mother and wife, businesswoman and eccentric. Like Marianne the more her life comes apart, the more she hold on to the bits and pieces refusing to see that they are no longer whole, praying that somehow it will all work out if she can just hold on long enough. She works not only in keeping herself from changing but she attempts to also hold the others in stasis. The glue for this family is actually Mike Mulvaney Sr. It is his plunge from being on top of his world to the total depths of alcoholic despair on which the plot of this story hangs.
Though one might mistake the perpetrator of the rape as the antagonist of this story, in fact it is the injustice of the culture in the 1970’s that acts as the antagonist. One might be hard pressed to consider the total character of Mike Mulvanney Sr. as the hero but certainly there is no story without this character. There are many confusing events that seem to have no relationship to the plot. At times the extensive description actually detracts from the story, as it becomes weighty and complicated. However, the four main characters are well developed and believable when taken in the context of the ‘times’.
There are actually two main pivotal points in the story that effect how most of the character relates to the theme. The first is the rape and the second is the death of Mike Mulvaney Sr. At the last moments of his life, Mike Mulvaney Sr. manages to reunite much of the splintered piece of his family. Whether or not he actually comes to terms with his responsibility in the disintegration of his family is somewhat questionable. However, he does manage to start get the whole thing started and for Marianne and Corinne, this is all that was needed. The father’s death was not the catalyst for Patrick, however. Where he had always taken the role of observer, the action of seeking justice against the rapist has a strong effect on his character, being the catalyst for his ability to find himself and ultimately reconnect with the family. The decisions made in the face of adversity lead this family to the brink of annihilation and yet as each faced that which they found most feared they were able to over come the problems and return to the love that was always an underlying source of strength.