The novella brutally starts with: “After she was gang-raped, kicked and beaten and left to die on the floor of the filthy boathouse at Rocky Point Park. After she was dragged into the boathouse by the five drunken guys – unless there were six, or seven – and her twelve-year-old daughter screaming Let us go! Don’t hurt us! Please don’t hurt us! After she had been chased by the guys like a pack of dogs jumping their prey, turning her ankle, losing both her high-heeled sandals on the path beside the lagoon" and we hardly find any time to breathe between pages, bound to go through the ordeals and struggles that the mother and daughter have to face. Teena Maguire together with her 12 year old Bethie chose the shorter way home, on the night of 4th of July, and being the victim of a gang rape, she is now left to regret that she has survived.
The dreadful trial, the shame and the blame that the community casts over them leave the two in the impossibility to move forward, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands. Out of love for Teena and to see justice being done. The book finally takes a positive turn when we see the two characters being avenged. Somehow.
Could things have been different? Was it their destiny? Bethie tries to find an answer:
“There was a final shake of the dice. Another time it might have been averted. When Casey said, ‘Teena, let me drive you two home. Wait a minute, I’ll get the car,’ and your mother thanked him and kissed him on the cheek, telling him not to bother – ‘We want to walk, don’t we, Bethie? It’s a perfect night.’”
It was not a perfect night, but there is hope at the end of the last page.
Read for: Orange in January Challenge and New Authors Challenge
7 comments:
I thought this was a powerful book. I really felt for both women, and Oates showed how negatively the society around them reacted. Bethie was always "the daughter of that woman who was raped".
My stomach hurt while reading it, since it felt so real. And all that undeserved hatred from the ones around them... a bit too much, but I guess that's called "writer's talent" :) I am planning to read another Oates soon, since this was my first :)
Wow, what a tense novel. The last one I read from Oates was We Were The Mulvaneys also about rape, and the way the family disowned their daughter even though she was an innocent victim. Joyce must have some issue she's working through with her writing about this topic. I can't say I'm eager to pick up any more of this theme...
I will definitely not pick that one, since the subject is too disturbing :( I have here A Fair Maiden, I'm hoping I will enjoy the topic more :)
I have never read anything by her but have "A Bloodsmoor Romance" on my TBR pile. This sounds intense, probably nothing I would like to read.
@Rikki: I won't consider reading it twice, that's for sure...
i am trying to figure who help to lure Fritz to the motel...a girl called him.... and the station wagon was parked at the motel....
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