AUTHOR: Joyce Carol Oates
STARTED: October 13, 2015
FINISHED: October 17, 2015
PAGES: 154
GENRE: Fiction
FIRST SENTENCE: After she was gang-raped, kicked and beaten and left to die on the floor of the filthy boathouse at Rocky Point Park.
SUMMARY: [From BN] Teena Maguire should not have tried to shortcut her way home that Fourth of July. Not after midnight, not through Rocky Point Park. Not the way she was dressed in a tank top, denim cutoffs, and high-heeled sandals. Not with her twelve-year-old daughter Bethie. Not with packs of local guys running loose on hormones, rage, and alcohol. A victim of gang rape, left for dead in the park boathouse, the once vivacious Teena can now only regret that she has survived. At a relentlessly compelling pace punctuated by lonely cries in the night and the whisper of terror in the afternoon, Joyce Carol Oates unfolds the story of Teena and Bethie, their assailants, and their unexpected, silent champion, a man who knows the meaning of justice. And love.
THOUGHTS: I "enjoyed" this book as much as one can "enjoy" such a book. Oates' story is well-written, well-paced, and deeply moving. Too bad it made me cranky. The subject matter is one of great importance to me, and I found it hard to divorce my opinions from the book to simply read the story. I guess my view of this book has more to say about me than it does about the book itself. Oates handles a difficult subject with a deft, realistic hand.
RATING: 7/10 [Very Good]
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