RARA-AVIS: Re: Man Crazy

From: Jacques Debierue ( matrxtech@yahoo.com)
Date: 23 Jan 2007


--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Michael Robison <miker_zspider@...> wrote:
>
> Just finished this short novel by Joyce Oates. It was
> recommended a long time ago on the list and I've had
> it for several years. If memory serves me correct, it
> was recommended by Jim Blue. Does anybody hear from
> Jim? I always liked his posts.
>
> Man Crazy is a white trash novel about a low-rent
> woman addicted to a violent and deadly Vietnam
> veteran, and how she passes this addiction onto her
> daughter with less than desirable results. The mood
> is deep melancholy, similar to Didion's Play It As It
> Lays or Woolrich's I Married a Dead Man. The story is
> told by daughter Ingrid, and the world she describes
> seems muddled and lacking in detail unless she's
> talking about clothing. If this was purposeful, it
> was less than successful. I eventually got tired of
> her obsessive and continuous description of her
> scratching at herself. The ending was hopeful. And
> more than a little bit doubtful. Also, a novel that
> was as strongly negative about women as this was about
> men would be condemned as misogynistic.
>

I could have told you so... hell, perhaps I did tell you so.

Best,

MrT



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 23 Jan 2007 EST