Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed" Buddy Read Part 4 - 2013

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed" - 2013

As already announced in my Hello September post, and my Buddy Read post, Lisa @Capitvated Reader and myself are hosting a buddy read this month. And here is Lisa's post. Have a look at her review, there is a lot more to this part than what I have said.

Spoiler alert:

A buddy read like this cannot be as vague as many of my other reviews. On the other hand, I can't hide everything, so I will have to talk about this book as if I were in a book club and we all read the book.

Therefore, I will be quite open in the next couple of weeks but will, at the end, write a description of the whole book in the way you are all used to. So, if you haven't read the book but still would like to, be patient, I'll get there.

I am not a big fan of fantasy or fantastic, mythical figures. I probably wouldn't have even looked at the book were it not by one of my favourite authors and for a dear blogger friend who invited me to join her buddy read.

Week 4 (Oct 25–Oct 31)

• Climax, resolution, and unpacking the narrator’s reliability

• Part Four: The Curse Exorcised: Moves toward the chaotic unraveling and attempts to lift the dark legacy affecting Princeton.

What an end to a challenging and highly interesting read! I don't even know where to begin and what to reveal. As I said before, this contains spoilers.

I will go through some of the LitLovers questions again because they now cover everything.

How would I define the book? Is it a vampire story, social commentary, satire, fictional history, gothic tale? In a way it is everything. I tried to concentrate on the social commentary and satire as that is what I love most, and not just in JCO. But it certainly has all those elements in it. Definitely also some horror, I can see Tim Burton making a movie out of this.

Let's talk about Winslow Slade. Is he the evil one in the story? Is he the one who is responsible for all this? Maybe, especially if we look at his final sermon or "confession". I would have preferred this to NOT be written in capitals only. It's hard to concentrate on the wordings that way.

We are also supposed to discuss the era's attitudes toward—and treatment of—women, African Americans, Jews, workers, and immigrants. I think I mentioned it but only briefly. I often read historical novels and therefore was not surprised but it is still shocking. As I said, my view of Woodrow Wilson has changed, though I should probably try to see what his individual contemporaries were thinking, I might change my mind of a few of those people.

Socialism, yes, as they mention, much "accursed" in American history, even in this day. I can never understand how people can be against it. After all, the meaning behind it is totally good. We should all think about our neighbours—even the bible is socialist, yes, it is. If you listen to what Jesus said and if you claim to be a Christian, you shouldn't be so much against it.

I can't really find a real hero in the story. Maybe Joshua and Todd???

The women had a hard stand. As all women in the past—and still today.

Here is a fitting quote: "Imagine a female senator! A female President! The United States would be the laughing stock of the world." Woodrow Wilson
In the meantime, the USA is a laughing stock of the world just because they do not want a female President!

If there are other questions in the LitLovers list and you would like to know what I think about them, please, let me know.

And then to the last, the discussion question: Do life's mysteries have logical solutions—does Joyce Carol Oates believe they do? What does her novel suggest? What do you think? Is all of life open to reason and logic? Or are there life events too mysterious to be explained by human understanding? 

I don't believe in mysteries, fantasy, whatever you might want to call it. For me, there is always a logical solution. And as to anything you might call fate or karma or whatever you want to call it, it is often the action you take that comes back to you and not some supernatural being.

And one last quote for all us avid readers. 

"He (WW) must give up his habit of reading books: for a man of Dr. Wilson's temperament can't read another man's line without wishing to combat it, which inevitably leas to 'vocalizing' his thoughts, and thereby to speechifying. He is plagues by ceaseless thinking like wheels churning in mud. This has caused his high blood pressure, and a strain to all the nerves and vital organs." Dr. de Sweinitz to Mrs. Wilson

Aren't we glad medicine has advanced? I think I would not be here anymore if it wasn't for all the wonderful books that could distract me from the bad parts of my life.

All in all, I am really glad I read this book. And I am really glad I read this with my buddy Lisa. If you plan to read this in future, follow our reading plan and join in the discussion once you have finished a part, no matter how quick you are.

Book Description:

"This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset by a powerful curse. The Devil has come to this little town and not a soul will be spared. 'The Accursed' marks new territory for the masterful Joyce Carol Oates - narrated with her unmistakable psychological insight, it combines beautifully transporting historical detail with chilling fantastical elements to stunning effect."

Book Quotes

  

"A reader has it good: he can choose his own writers." Kurt Tucholsky 

Aren't we the lucky ones?

"Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace." Voltaire 

Every time. Where would we be without our books?

"Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, It might have been". Kurt Vonnegut in Cat's Cradle 

One of the truest sentences there are. 

Find more book quotes here. 

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander "In the First Circle"

Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr "In the First Circle" (RUS: В круге первом/V krugue pervom) - 1955

The book description states that this is an extensive and substantive work—and that is absolutely correct. Spanning nearly 800 pages, it explores life in the Soviet Union shortly after the Second World War. It is not, however, a book about everybody; it chronicles the lives of political prisoners and their families.

Once someone ended up in a so-called "sharashka"—a labor camp for scientists and engineers—or in the Lubyanka, the notorious Moscow prison for political prisoners, they could effectively consider their life over; most never regained their freedom. Although these prisoners may have enjoyed a few minor concessions compared to others, they remained captives, forced to work for the very regime they loathed.

The narrative details the lives of various inmates, both before and after their imprisonment. It also covers the women and families, who were effectively punished alongside them.

For everyone involved, this marked the end of life as they had known it—or, as the final chapter puts it, "the first circle of hell."

Along with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the poet Osip Mandelstam is another figure who wrote about his "life" under this regime. It is fortunate that such individuals existed—and continue to exist—to shed light on these conditions.

A deeply compelling book; alongside "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", it is surely one of the best works written about this subject.

And last but least a quote that should be of particular interest to all bookworms:

"There were so many immeasurably valuable, indispensable, first-rate books in the world, and the desire to read them all prevented Rubin from ever writing a book of his own. Now, he had prepared himself to read well past midnight, with no thought for the workday ahead. But in the evening, his mind—and his penchant for debate—would always awaken, and his wit would become especially sharp; it took very little, then, to draw him into entertaining the company at large. ..."

Book Description:

"In the First Circle depicts the lives of the occupants of a sharashka (a research and development bureau made of GULAG inmates) located in the Moscow suburbs. This novel is highly autobiographical. Many of the prisoners (zeks) are technicians or academics who have been arrested under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code in Joseph Stalin's purges following the Second World War. 

Unlike inhabitants of other gulag labor camps, the sharashka zeks were adequately fed and enjoyed good working conditions; however, if they found disfavor with the authorities, they could be instantly shipped to Siberia. The title is an allusion to Dante's first circle, or limbo of Hell in The Divine Comedy, wherein the philosophers of Greece, and other virtuous pagans, live in a walled green garden. They are unable to enter Heaven, as they were born before Christ, but enjoy a small space of relative freedom in the heart of Hell."

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed" Buddy Read Part 3 - 2013

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed" - 2013

As already announced in my Hello September post, and my Buddy Read post, Lisa @Capitvated Reader and myself are hosting a buddy read this month. And here is Lisa's post. Have a look at her review, there is a lot more to this part than what I have said.

Spoiler alert:

A buddy read like this cannot be as vague as many of my other reviews. On the other hand, I can't hide everything, so I will have to talk about this book as if I were in a book club and we all read the book.

Therefore, I will be quite open in the next couple of weeks but will, at the end, write a description of the whole book in the way you are all used to. So, if you haven't read the book but still would like to, be patient, I'll get there.

I am not a big fan of fantasy or fantastic, mythical figures. I probably wouldn't have even looked at the book were it not by one of my favourite authors and for a dear blogger friend who invited me to join her buddy read.

Week 3 (Oct 17–Oct 24)

• Hysteria spreads; moral decay of the Princeton elite

• Part Three: "The Brain, Within Its Groove . . .": Dives deeper into psychological torment, visions, and the bizarre intervention of historical figures like Woodrow Wilson and Upton Sinclair.

The title of this part is taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson:

The brain within its groove

Runs evenly and true;

But let a splinter swerve,

'T were easier for you

To put the water back

When floods have slit the hills,

And scooped a turnpike for themselves,

And blotted out the mills!

Good introduction.

The hysteria in Princeton gets worse and worse. Everybody thinks they are cursed and that something bad is going to happen to them. People get "visions" of deceased visiting them. And they fantasize about everything, e.g. their spouses being unfaithful. This leads to madness and murder.

And it gets more Gothic, as well. More and more historical figures appear, even fictional ones: Sherlock Holmes, for example.

My conclusion is there is no demon, just everyone's idea of their own guilt.

And my assumption, that Woodrow Wilson was a man of his time, a conservative man of his time, is manifested here:

Dr. Wilson concluded with an appeal for sympathy, understanding and patience: "For Woman, whom Nature has burdened with a load far heavier than Man - that is, propagation - must be judged with tolerance and forbearance in areas where, with no regard for intention, she has seriously lagged behind man."

I cannot see where women lag behind men, only where they are not given the same opportunities.

The question also comes up at LitLovers whether M.W. van Dyck is a reliable narrator. Well, usually we get notes and a bibliography and can check what is right and what isn't. However, since this is a fictional tale, it is tough to rely on something like that. I suppose we will just have to believe that he (or she) is a decent writer and the stories are true.

Book Description:

"This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset by a powerful curse. The Devil has come to this little town and not a soul will be spared. 'The Accursed' marks new territory for the masterful Joyce Carol Oates - narrated with her unmistakable psychological insight, it combines beautifully transporting historical detail with chilling fantastical elements to stunning effect."

Mahfouz, Naguib " The Beginning and the End"

Mahfouz, Naguib "The Beginning and the End" (Arabic: داية ونهاية/Bidaya wa Nihaya) - 1949

I have read several books by this great author. And when the Read the Year Challenge came up for 1949, I saw that he had published a novel in that year. So, the decision was easy.

We meet a family in Cairo. The story takes place in the late 1930s. They have four children, an adult son, an adult daughter and two school-age boys. The father suddenly dies and leaves the family in abject poverty. The eldest son was never destined to become a successful supporter of the family, so the second one steps in. However, everyone in the family faces issues with their sudden situation and nobody really manages to get out of it, except for the second one who seems to be on the best way. The others, however, face a lot of problems. There is no happy end for them.

This book is still a masterpiece.

Book Description:

"Set in Cairo during World War II, this novel is a masterpiece of human compassion reflecting with sympathy and well-balanced pathos the material, moral, and spiritual problems of an Egyptian family.

Suddenly confronted with poverty when the father, its sole support, dies unexpectedly, the family's middle-class respectability and conformity can only be supported on the backs of a brother and a sister who sacrifice their own reputations by immersing themselves in the seamy underworld of Cairo.

This is a powerful portrayal of a middle-class Egyptian family confronted by material, moral, and spiritual problems during World War II."

Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed" Buddy Read Part 2 - 2013

Oates, Joyce Carol "The Accursed" - 2013

As already announced in my Hello September post, and my Buddy Read post, Lisa @Capitvated Reader and myself are hosting a buddy read this month. And here is Lisa's post. Have a look at her review, there is a lot more to this part than what I have said.

Spoiler alert:

A buddy read like this cannot be as vague as many of my other reviews. On the other hand, I can't hide everything, so I will have to talk about this book as if I were in a book club and we all read the book.

Therefore, I will be quite open in the next couple of weeks but will, at the end, write a description of the whole book in the way you are all used to. So, if you haven't read the book but still would like to, be patient, I'll get there.

I am not a big fan of fantasy or fantastic, mythical figures. I probably wouldn't have even looked at the book were it not by one of my favourite authors and for a dear blogger friend who invited me to join her buddy read.

Week 2 (Oct 9–Oct 16)

• Historical cameos; the eerie Bog Kingdom; social satire

• Part Two: The Curse Incarnate: Explores the spreading supernatural afflictions and social paranoia across elite families and historical figures.

So, we find out what and who Axton Mayte really is. Annabel is not his first victim, as she finds out when he brings her to his hidden "castle". The Bog Kingdom is where he can live out his real character, abuse the women he abducted, reduce them to the lowest status possible. And create more demons like himself.

I still don't see this as a vampire story. Or a ghost story. I think we are warned that the more we believe in something like "the curse", the more we will end up in a bad situation. Like if you think Friday the 13th is unlucky, something will happen that proves you right. You are over-careful and start tripping, for example.

Another question by LitLovers:

Are we to suppose that they "happen" to the fictional characters in the course of the story? Or are we to gather they are the result of the characters' subconscious? Are they dreams? In other words, is this realistic fiction...or fantasy?

I think I mentioned it before. I am a very rational person and don't believe in fantasy. So, I am pretty sure this is the latter. People work each other up, or - as we say in German - they bump each other up while swinging. One person mentions a curse, the next one thinks it is the truth and looks for something that will prove it.

I still think it is highly interesting to see what people wish to believe.

For me, Josiah is the real hero, at least of this chapter. He tries to help with logic, tries to understand what really happened. Though, even he is not sure what to believe. Which shows how much hysteria is contagious.

We also meet up with some more historic figures. I had read about Woodrow Wilson in other books before and had a positive opinion of him. That has, unfortunately, changed with his vie to slaves and black people. Yes, it might have been the time he lived in and also the area he grew up in but that doesn't mean he should have had that opinion. After all, there were people in the South and in that timeframe that helped slaves escape.

After reading a few books about Mark Twain, where he travels Europe, I had not a good opinion about him and that has not changed at all. He is portrayed as the conceited snob I have read about before.

Okay, I think that is it for today. There is so much in this book, I doubt I can give it perfect credit.

Book Description:

"This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset by a powerful curse. The Devil has come to this little town and not a soul will be spared. 'The Accursed' marks new territory for the masterful Joyce Carol Oates - narrated with her unmistakable psychological insight, it combines beautifully transporting historical detail with chilling fantastical elements to stunning effect."

Romney, Rebecca "Jane Austen's Bookshelf"

Romney, Rebecca "Jane Austen's Bookshelf. The Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend" - 2025

A Christmas present from my son. What a gift!

The subtitle says it all: The Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend. The Legend being Jane Austen.

Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and talks to us about her hunt for rare editions. And of the lives of the other female authors from two centuries ago.

Yes, we always read about Jane Austen and what kind of books she is reading. But do we give those authors a second thought? I know I didn't before reading this book.

There are so many different authors from that time. And more women than we might think.

After beginning with Jane Austen, the author takes us to the other ladies who wrote at a time where no women were supposed to write: Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Hannah More, Charlotte Smith, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, Maria Edgeworth.

While we might not have heard all their names, a lot of the titles they wrote are known to us:

And since I love lists and know that many of you do, as well. Here is a list of the authors and some of their books:

Jane Austen (1775-1817, 41 years)

Frances Burney (1752-1840, 87 years)
Cecilia, 1782
Evelina, 1794
Camilla, 1796

Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823, 58 years)
Fountainville Forest, 1794
The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1794

Charlotte Lennox (c. 1829-1804, 74-75 years)
The Female Quixote, 1852
Shakespear Illustrated, 1854

Hannah More (1745-1833, 88 years)
Sir Eldred of the Bower, 1776
Percy, 1778
Coelebs in Search of a Wife, 1808
The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, 1810

Charlotte Smith (1749-1806, 57 years)
Emmeline, 1788
Desmond, 1792
The Old Manor House, 1793

Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821, 67 years)
Appearance is Against them, 1785
Mrs. Inchbald, 1786

Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi (1741-1821, 80 years)
Letters to and  from the late Samuel Johnson, 1788

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849, 81 years)
Tales of Fashionable Live, 1809/1812
Patronage, 1814
Harrington, and Ormond, 1814
Helen, 1834

As you see, most of them got a lot older than our Jane. Oh, would she have lived eighty years, the novels we could have had!!!

I doubt that I willl ever be able to read all those novels but I hope to catch a few.

So, do I recommend this book? If you are a Jane Austen fan and want to know about the women who influenced her, definitely. If you love classics and would like to find some more authors that you haven't read, yet, for sure. If you like to read about books in general, go ahead. What do you think, would you like to read this?

It is definitely a pleasure to accompany the author on her quest to find out more about Jane Austen and her literature.

There are some quotes I just have to mention:

"On the one hand, we come back to certain books because we want to experience, again, the feelings they first sparked. But books inevitable change with us. We notice new aspects of old favourites because our lives are different. Books are not static things. …"

Very true. We think of a book that containes letters and words in a certain order that won't change. But we change. And with it the content of the book. Re-reading does not mean we have forgotten the book and try to remember it, it means we remember the book and want to experience it in a different lifetime.

And this one on not DNF a book:

"But I'm stubborn. I'm one of those readers who struggles to stop reading abook even when I dislike it. Logically, I know this is absurd. But emotionally, it makes me feel like a quitter. This comminemtn to follow through is how I finished James Joyce'S Ulysses, even thouhg I think I understood only about 35 percent of what I was reading. Joyce hadn't defeated me."

I had to smile. I never give JJ a thought when it comes to finishing a tough book. Because a tough book it is. But I was so happy when I finished it. Sometimes that's also great.

She also quotes Italo Calvino from his book "Why Read the Classics?" (IT: Perché leggere i classici?) which I have read and mentioned before. "A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say." Totally.

Book Description:

"Who were the women that inspired Jane Austen?

Why have they all but disappeared from our shelves?

When Rebecca Romney discovered a clothbound edition of Evelina by Frances Burney she was delighted to find a novel cherished by Jane Austen. Inspired by the connection between the two writers, she revisited Austen’s books with a new lens, picking out clues sprinkled throughout her works that pointed to the writers she had admired.

Romney noticed that while male writers like Shakespeare and Milton still dominate our shelves, the works of Austen’s favourite authors such as Frances Burney and Ann Radcliffe have all but vanished. This ignited a new mission for Romney, she needed to collect Jane Austen’s bookshelf.

Delve into the lives and works of these female writers, and explore their disappearance from history in this page-turning literary adventure."