A Book of American Martyrs: A Striking Family Saga of Violence, Faith, and the Abortion Debate
Joyce Carol Oates's A Book of American Martyrs is a novel about violence shaped by religion and politics. Through two opposing families, it portrays the fracture lines of an American society in which convictions collide.
Work Information
A story of two families caught in violence shaped by religion and politics.
Published by Ecco in 2017, the novel presents American division and moral conflict through multiple viewpoints. It takes on a major public issue while still delving deeply into the characters' inner lives.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Ecco
- Published
- 2017-10-10
- Pages
- 752 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.49 x 4.29 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780062643056
- ISBN-10
- 0062643053
- Price
- 6892 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Mystery & Thrillers/Thrillers/Psychological & Suspense
Oates American saga captivates because it exists within an actual drama playing out across the country...Martyrs is a graceful and excruciating story of two families who do not live very far apart, but exist in different realities. -- USA Today , 4-star review Successful because [Oates] refuses to satirize or dehumanize anyone, even murderous foes of abortion...With its wrath and violence, A Book of American Martyrs offers this teaspoon of warmth in these troubled times: that it is possible to be wrong without surrendering your humanity. -- Los Angeles Times The most relevant book of Oatess half-century-long career, a powerful reminder that fiction can be as timely as this mornings tweets but infinitely more illuminating. -- Washington Post A powerfully resonant and provocative novel from American master and New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates In this striking, enormously affecting novel, Joyce Carol Oates tells the story of two very different and yet intimately linked American families. Luther Dunphy is an ardent Evangelical who envisions himself as acting out Gods will when he assassinates an abortion provider in his small Ohio town while Augustus Voorhees, the idealistic but self-regarding doctor who is killed, leaves behind a wife and children scarred and embittered by grief. In her moving, insightful portrait, Joyce Carol Oates fully inhabits the perspectives of two interwoven families whose destinies are defined by their warring convictions and squarely-but with great empathy-confronts an intractable, abiding rift in American society. A Book of American Martyrs is a stunning, timely depiction of an issue hotly debated on a national stage but which makes itself felt most lastingly in communities torn apart by violence and hatred.
Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the 2019 Jerusalem Prize, and has been several times nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys ; Blonde , which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the New York Times bestseller The Falls , which won the 2005 Prix Femina. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
Reviews
-
Fascinant
Un livre glaçant et fascinant sur la nature humaine fasse à l’endoctrinement religieux. Des pensées radicalement opposées sont décortiquées et décrites de façon exceptionnelle. Superbe roman
-
All very good
Its a. Üresent for a friend in the. US and i do though it might be a very good. Birthday. Present for a very very good friend in the. US thanks a lot everything is fine and in good shape thanks for that and right in time. Thank you very much
-
A profound, raw and achingly intimate portrait of grief and consequences
This powerful, sprawling novel begins with the murder of an abortion doctor by a right-wing evangelical Christian, then goes on to provide an in-depth character study of the families on both sides, examining the legacy of "martyrdom" and the effect it has on those left behind. Oates, smartly, refrains from injecting her own moral judgments. Instead, she moves from one character to another, writing them as they perceive themselves and each other, so that we the readers can make our own. This approach yields a complex understanding of each character. There's a specific focus throughout on the eldest daughters of each family as they attempt to find meaning and purpose in the absence of their fathers and the aftermath of their broken families. With a relentless pace that moves quickly in spite of the carefully detailed prose and 700+ pages, Oates delivers a profound, raw and achingly intimidate novel—a visceral and stunning portrait of grief and consequences amid the backdrop of a contentious social issue.
-
Astonishing - JCO going full throttle
I’m crying as I write this review, having read the last sentence of JCO latest novel. It’s safe to say I enjoyed it then. I don’t cry over books that don’t speak to me. A Book of American Martyrs is one JCO’s best novels. I loved it. The book is a weighty tome even in digital form. It’s been years since I read a thick novel in just a few days. I didn’t want to stop reading and had to force myself to put it aside. A Book of American Martyrs deals with big issues; abortion, grief, loss, death and the impact of murder. It’s the abortion issue that makes A Book of American Martyrs so relevant. Until I read this I had no idea how contentious the issue of abortion is in America. Naïve, of me, I guess, but would I know when I’ve never been to America and am not a history buff? My own opinions about abortion are complicated and private and I won’t share them suffice to say I felt empathy and sympathy for both Gus Voorheeses and his murderer. A Book of American Martyrs spoke to me and I loved every word. This is the kind of book that makes me glad I’m such a book nerd. The writing is spot-on as can only be expected from JCO when she’s going full-throttle. I also loved the character development and how well I felt I knew everyone. If you only read one book this year read A Book of American Martyrs.
-
Profound and profoundly touching
Well- constructed characters and their lives in detail, it offers an intimate insight into some aspects of the ‘American’ psyche, very emotionally tough at some points in the novel. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a beautifully elaborated story unveiled through the minds of a few central characters.