Has anyone ever read "We Were the Mulvaneys" by Joyce Carol Oates? I picked it up for a dollar at this sale to benefit the library. I'm about 170 pages into it and it's something like 450 pages long. So far it seems really freaking weird and I'm considering not finishing it. Does anybody know if there's some sort of payoff in the end?
2006-09-01 04:16:41 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
I read that book about a year ago... it wasn't my favorite by any means but it does get better. I don't want to give away the ending but it's a good representation about how families can be torn apart by tragedy and even though they can never get back to where they once were, they eventually find their ways back to each other. I'd recommend finishing it :)
2006-09-01 04:26:28 · answer #1 · answered by sommerluvn77 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The book unravels the portrait that we paint of ourselves to present to the world, the portrait that we paint in viewing ourselves and the portrait that exists in truth. It reveals that what we present and perceive on others and in ourselves is most often an illusion. Each of us carries our own insecurities and our own fears, the greatest fear being that somehow we do not measure to others' or our own standards of who we should be. The payoff is finding a happy ending with the characters' self discoveries and in coming to terms with accepting who they are and what life has offered to them. The title, "We Were the Mulvaneys", offers that who they once presented themselves to the world as and who they indeed truly were became a very different portrait.
2006-09-01 13:43:00 · answer #2 · answered by laura l 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, that depends on how you'd define "payoff." I thought it was well-worth finishing, but then, I'm an Oates fan.
The links below may help you decide, without giving away too much.
2006-09-01 11:28:01 · answer #3 · answered by johnslat 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I tried to read it, too, but it didn't hold my interest. I find Joyce Carol Oates' books and short stories to be "over my head." Give me John Grisham any day!
2006-09-01 11:25:11 · answer #4 · answered by Heather K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I saw it on Lifetime and it made me want to run out and kill myself. Sooooo depressing! There's no payoff at the end. Nothing good happens.
2006-09-01 13:37:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I saw the movie on Lifetime Network and it is a very sad movie. Her dad does not accept her or her baby in the entire movie even though she was raped I think and got pregnant, then that tore the entire family apart.
2006-09-01 11:57:35 · answer #6 · answered by daisy 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I saw the foreshadowing...and couldn't get through it...the drama trauma was more than I wanted to deal with at the time.
2006-09-01 11:38:00 · answer #7 · answered by magnamamma 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋