Childwold: Off to a slow start
When I started reading Childwold, I had a problem getting used to the shifting point of view. The story was told through some characters in first person, others in third and still others in second person. It took a while for me to become comfortable with the particular method of expression used with each character.
I see a strong connection between Childwold and The Tattooed Girl, but found reading the latter to be less work and more enjoyable.
Click the title of this entry to link to a listing of
JCO books compiled from the database at
Celestial Timepiece. This links to a listing of
JCO novels, updated on February 3, 2005.
Wonderland: Plot Discussion
It struck me as weird when Jesse's father came to get him early from Jesse's after-school job, just as it struck Jesse and his employer as weird. We know something's going to happen, something has already happened. It is with trepidation that we watch Jesse leave the security of his familiar routine at work to go with his father.
I found it touching that Jesse kept thinking his father coming for him had something to do with Christmas, expectations of things as normal, thinking there might be presents from Montgomery Ward. He is still thinking things are normal as they drive up the familiar drive to the house, as he walks into the warm house, the feeling of home, then the slow realization, the smell....
We want him to run, but he is still taking it in, doesn't move, then his father comes in, and Jesse finally makes his move, dives through the window, runs, escapes....
When I was growing up in a small town in Southern Illinois in the 60s, I remember a family where the father killed everyone except the two older brothers who hid from him while he was on his rampage. He killed himself after giving up on the boys. One was my age, 7th grade, but I didn't know him very well, I don't even remember his name, just what happened to him. I remember everyone talking about how he and his brother stayed out of school after this happened. Eventually the boys came back to school, but I don't remember what happened to them or who they lived with. At the time I couldn't imagine how they must have felt, hiding from their father who just killed their mother and younger siblings. It was easier not to think about it, to forget that such a terrible thing happened. Reading the early parts of Wonderland brought it back to me. Terrible things do happen to children, scarring them in ways we can only imagine. I love the way JCO is able to take us inside such people so that we can know them and understand (sometimes) their actions better than they do themselves.
A Striking Resemblance
I found a photograph taken by Lewis Carrroll of his Alice in a book on photography. It reminded me immediately of a photograph of JCO that I found on
Academy of Achievements: Joyce Carol Oates Interview.
I believe it was also included with the photographs in Invisible Writer. Here are the juxtaposed photographs for those who are interested in comparing the young Alice with the young Joyce:
Foxfire: Plot Discussion
How seductive Legs is in the beginning; how easy to understand why Maddie and Rita are pulled into her world. How easy to understand why they see the enemy as men, men with power to hurt and cheat those who are weak and can't resist. No wonder Legs seeks revenge for the injustices facing them daily, from the perverted teacher, the nasty uncle. Those men deserved punishment, we feel as we read Maddie's account of the gang's actions, even when the brutality of those actions frightens us as it crosses the line into violence. The "bond of sisterhood" in a world they create without men is gratifying, even though we know it eventually will collapse around them. Although it is impossible to foresee the internal strength of their final victim, we know that the kidnapping plan will backfire from the moment Legs suggests it. It is the "CAPITOL CRIME" they commit, not justified revenge, that brings them down in the end. Fascinating to watch the disintegration of the gang and the final flight from justice in Lightning Bolt, the aptly named car that Legs acquires and the girls decorate to make their own. Just some thoughts as I contemplate this story before moving on to my next JCO exploration of humanity.
