The Gravedigger's Daughter

Novel, by Joyce Carol Oates, 2007

I am an Oates fan, although her prose can be meandering and dense.  Oates is big on characters, not so big on plot, which is something you just have to appreciate going in.  If you're not into that kind of book, just stop reading now and know it's not your thing.

For those interested in character studies, I thought this one was pretty excellent.  The opening scene is something of a chase scene, but the impeccable first person narration follows Rebecca's frantic thoughts to convey the urgency of the scene and take care of a great deal of exposition at the same time.  The story then backtracks, though, to Rebecca's youth.  I found this early section of the novel to be somewhat tedious, because I kept wanting to get back to the time the novel started with; I was interested to read in the "P.S." interview at the end of the book that these early scenes were Oates's personal favorites.  Perhaps this blinded her to the fact that they were kind of boring.  Anyway, we follow Rebecca's entire young adult life, adding incredibly vivid characters to her surroundings and ending with a strong enough sense of closure to appease those looking for some idea of plot.

The book is perhaps about the Holocaust, and perhaps about American in the 50's through 70's, and perhaps about upstate New York (as most of her books are, in some way or another), but mostly about creating a fully realized life for an excellent female character.  More, please.

The back of the book recommends other Oates novels--she has written approximately 1,000,000--among which I would most like to try: The Falls (2004), Blonde (2000), and Black Water (1992)