New Ramsey case novel by Joyce Carol Oates - "My Sister, My Love"

Just Finished "My Sister, My Love"....

Just finished this new Joyce Carol Oates book and am still ruminating on all it's implications....

A very challenging and interesting read altogether....Not entirely enjoyable for me, I might add...

No doubt, everyone has their own favored writing style when it comes to recreational reading. I personally like a book with smooth continuous flow. The style of this JCO novel is unsatisfactory in several ways.

The author attempts to tell the story of the Rampike family and the death of their daughter, Skyler's sister Bliss, from Skyler's point of view starting with his early childhood from his current nineteen year old perspective and memory.

Granted this is a daunting task, still I feel compelled to say that especially in the first chapters, the novel lacks a realistic quality as the now teenage Skyler looks back at his years as a toddler, as a five yr. old and then through the age of nine when Bliss's murder occurs with what I can only describe as adult eyes and realizations.

The constant explanatory footnotes I found to be an annoying distraction. Most likely they are a literary embelishment to add depth and style to the novel while tying up loose ends that might fill out the story where the solitary perceptions of a young child might leave the reader wondering.

And speaking of the reader, Joyce Carol Oates also uses the technique of having the storyteller, Skyler, address the reader directly, sometimes even calling us "dear reader".

I am wondering if this particular element of style in the novel is part of JCO's social commentary. Is it possible that she is really directing her novel to those of us whom she refers to as members of "Tabloid Hell"? (That is those of us in the public realm who read or write constantly, both in print and on the internet, about a certain young girl killed in unusual circumstances.)

If so, I can understand her sly motive and in a way find it clever. On the other hand, I find this style element, along with the constant footnotes make the story seem disjointed and choppy distracting the reader from the charaters and the plot line.

A number of phrases and the use of the designation "Mummy" for Besty, Skyler's mom, remind one of expressions and endearments used in Britian rather than in the Northeast of the US, adding to the lack of reality as Skyler pours out his haphazard memories.

I make the remarks not to discourage anyone from reading this novel, but really to encourage readers to wade through a perhaps unfamiliar literary style to reach the heart of what Joyce Carol Oates is trying convey.

I do believe that she has made a serious case for the conclusion which she finally brings to us about Bliss's murder, therefore if we are to believe that this novel in reality is about the Ramsey Murder, the reader will reap the benefit seeing this murder solved.

In addition we are treated to the dynamics in the upper class American family, in competitive corporate tradition, and in wealthy suburban community which fostered the tragic fall from grace of this perhaps very ordinary family.

This is a book that probably requires a second of third read to obtain the full value of what it contains. There are some interesting character sketches that I recognize and some important messages brought forth as the book progresses. Many twists and turns for Skyler, our storyteller, for whom I lose all hope several times, in terms of survival, during the last half of the book.

Possibly the most serious problem in reading this novel for me was the lack of a character with whom to empathize until far into the book. Of course there was poor Bliss, but in the Oates novel she was only a distant memory and not fully developed so that she seemed like a one smiling one dementional paper doll rather than the central character of the novel whose bizarre untimely death destroyed a family. Each of the surviving family members from the beginning are drawn to seem so emotionally isolated and self involved that it is difficult to form an attachment or interest in any of them individually.

Still, I eventually found this an interesting book with an interesting theory about who committed this murder, both of the fictional Bliss and of the non-fictional but implicitly portrayed, Jon Benet, along with the reason why the murder occurred and the cover-up and deceptions that followed.

One last word in this review is to comment on the name Skyler Rampike....How annoying but how effective. It sticks in one's head like a silly rythm or song lyric, amazingly like another name that somehow has stuck irretrievably in our brains for approximately ten years now, Jon Benet Ramsey.....

Voyager

 

Oh good idea Cherokee!! Thanks - never thought of that!! :doh: :whistle: LOL!

 

Has Anyone Else Finished This Book?

I tried not to give away the final conclusion in my review/opinions of this book so that if any of you were still reading I would not spoil it for you....Anyone finish it yet? Any discussion?

Voyager

 

UGH. I had to put it down and I haven't been able to pick it back up again. It's just really bad writing IMO. I guess if I wanted to I could peek at the end and see how it ends. Then we could discuss. What do you think? Is anybody else here reading the book still?

 

I didn't have time to read it, wasn't sure I should spend the money, so I was waiting for the right timing.

Then this Lacy RST BS spin came out, I've spent so much time on that I haven't even wanted to read the JCO book. Frankly, I'm about sick of all of it, even the fiction based on it.

But your reviews have been interesting, dear readers, and I have a confession: I went to the bookstore and read the ending, just to satisfy my curiosity. I thought it was not unexpected, but she did manage a slight slant on the usual suspects.

I'm not sure how I'll feel about her "tabloid hell" judgments. I'm not much of a tabloid reader, in fact, and it took the Ramseys' CONSTANT media tours to bring me to even buying them without hiding them in my grocery cart. All the Ramseys had to do was cooperate with LE and quit going on TV and writing a book and they'd never have been in their tabloid hell, after all.

Anyhow, Moab will disown me after this. What can I say? I'm a cut to the chase kinda' girl. I mean, it HAS been almost 12 years....

Well, maybe I'll pick up a copy. I like your observations about the "insight" Oates gives into such a family/lifestyle. That sounds like it would be interesting. Thanks for sharing your opinions, all you Stupid Groupies! Love ya'!

 

New Rocky Mountain Review

Same old same old:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/17/more-jonbenet-ramsey-is-no-easy-sell/

Edited to add sample:

Sample of prose: "I am a runty little kid with a smile so eager it looks as if it had been sliced by a knife."
Yikes! how awful!

However, the RMN reviewer thinks differently:

Pros: "Great word usage and fine prose are usually givens in Oates' works."

 

The Buffalo News

Today, July 19, 2008, THE BUFFALO NEWS

Again, the same old same old. I am making a record of some of the shotty reporting, ref. the JBR case. Obviously, some news organizations just keep on repeating what others, of like mind, are writing and/or saying. So, for what it's worth, check this out:

http://www.buffalonews.com/149/story/394276.html

GL

 

Thank you thank you thank you Greenleaf. That certainly highlights that there was no balance in that reporting. It highlights that the writer just grabbed a headline and created one of their own. Garbage in, garbage out as it were.

Last week a customer asked me what I thought about this DNA thing (not that I'm an expert by any stretch, but my interest in the case really isn't a secret to those around me LOL). At any rate, she stated the she just didn't think the Ramseys were involved. I told her that I sincerely was interested in why she felt that way. She said "oh, it's that door, I mean that window", so I asked her what she meant and she said "well, it's that guy, I saw him on TV". "Smit?" I asked. "Yes" she said.

Sigh

That's the big wrinkle in this case, not that a woman from my town would have any influence in the courts etc., but it's the issue that the place where many get their information is from a media with an agenda which does not give complete information.

I honestly would love to read an article where both sides were thoroughly interviewed. I would love to watch a show where both sides were given the opportunity to give their reasons. A point/counterpoint type of show, and with a moderator with no dog in the fight.

Little

 

Bullsmit.

 

Little, the era of objective, unbiased reporting is long gone. It left with the federal law barring a foreign media conglomerate from owning and controlling too much of the media in our country. (Think Rupert Murdoch.)

Think about this: you can turn to any "news" channel and what you'll get is...the same exact "headlines". Repeated every 30 minutes. The scroll at the bottom of the screen...same same. Is there any doubt that with THIS MEDIA CONTROL TOOL the citizens of the U.S. are being manipulated with propaganda to go along with a disastrous war in Iraq, to sit like mushrooms while our economy is being destroyed by the few who are getting rich by the barrel, and to vote as programmed?

There is no objective reporting in the media. The talking heads are picked for their pliability. Pay them to look good and read the script. The reason is M O N E Y. Good journalists and reporters are no longer paid to gather news, uncover the truth in any important way, with a budget and a crew. This is now a corporate media fact: the era of investigative reporting is relegated to re-editing the likes of Tracey's biased propaganda and making a cheap program out of it. Who makes that choice? Not a well-trained, highly professional journalist, that's for sure.

Without the Internet, we'd have no idea what really is going on that is newsworthy and no way to know what "the truth" might be. That's why a stupid PERVERT like PERV KARR saturated the news two years ago: CHEAP THRILLS, and FEW NEWS ORG'S EVEN QUESTIONED THE BS FROM TEAM RAMSEY!

 

Another review..Yikes!

"Once again, Oates produces people so horrible we cannot look away."
By Colette Bancroft
St. Petersburg Times
Article Last Updated: 07/17/2008 02:24:44 PM CDT

Edited to add this excerpt:
..." a savage satire of marriage and parenting, an unnerving dissection of our fascination with tabloid-style celebrity, a stylistic tour de force and a compelling mystery."

Read it all:

http://www.twincities.com/bookawards/ci_9911994?source=rss

GL