On Oates and her work
Joyce Carol Oates is one of few authors that I started reading in my early teens and continue to enjoy in adulthood. Her extreme productivity over the decades is probably why. She has written far and wide and touched on many different topics for different audiences. According to Wikipedia, she’s written no fewer than 58 novels since she first started in 1963 — quite impressive.
Perhaps I’m starting in the wrong end here by describing Oates’ looks. But her appearance is significant when it comes to analyzing her work. For starters, she has an incredibly interesting look: She really resembles an owl. That’s partly because her eyes are large and dark and slightly protruding, framed by thin and somewhat rounded eyebrows. She can hardly get more owl-like because she’s also wearing large ‘70s-style glasses.
When you listen to Oates speak about her authorship, you notice her soft and gentle but flat tone. She describes her owl-like self as an observer taking in the whole world and then channeling it through her writing. You can’t help but think that she looks a bit divine and ethereal in her seeming insignificance, not demanding any attention but rather just standing to the side, observing and then jotting down her notes with the wisdom and watching of an owl.
Despite her large number of works, the core of her literature always remains: It’s all-American and the setting is most often upstate New York (where she was brought up and has spent a large part of her life). Her authorship is so very human. The atmosphere and tone is natural and real and from time to time really dark. A recurring theme in her works is the disruptive in the ordinary and oftentimes these works are based on true stories. For example:
Blonde (about the tragic life of Marilyn Monroe)
My Sister, My Love (about the murder of JonBenét Ramsey — the child beauty queen)
Rape: A Love Story (about survival after being the victim of a brutal gang rape)
We Were the Mulvaneys (about family abandonment)
Black Water (about a US senator who drunk drives a young woman to death)
Oates oftentimes mixes authentic stream-of-consciousness passages with an outside omniscient narrator. This is the best of both worlds of storytelling. With Oates’ writing, you get the authenticity and closeness to what happens by getting into the head of the main character, while also seeing multiple perspectives from all the characters with the outside perspective.
On Carthage
So, to get back to the book in question, Carthage. It has the same red thread as most of Oates’ authorship: The dealing with dark and difficult subjects. This time the novel takes on the tragedies of war and love.
An upper class girl, whose family has a great social standing in the small New York town of Carthage, falls in love with a working class guy who decides to join the army in the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11. While there, he witnesses war crimes committed against Iraqi civilians, and when he reports this, his “brothers” in arms decide to take revenge. He ends up severely wounded in battle, and when he returns to Carthage he’s unrecognizable from his damaged body and PTSD, and this puts a great strain on his marriage. The sister of his wife then disappears and it turns out that he was the last one seen with her at a trashy bar. Although impossible to prove (because the sister’s remains are never found), he confesses that he killed her and consequently goes off to the New York prison of Dannemora. The plot takes a leap in time and space from there on and develops in gripping ways.
The storyline is good and the book is easy to digest as is so typical of Oates. It manages to bring up sibling rivalry, the horrors of war, and the tragedies of love. Class difference also seems to be a minor theme. As it turns out, the small towns of America are riddled with battered war veterans that you just don’t see in the wealthier parts
of the country — it’s the working class that’s sacrificed in war. The wealthier family also has the upper hand in court because of their social standing and greater “believability”.
If you want a long novel that feels short, with dramatic and captivating twists and turns, as well as, important themes, just pick up a copy of Carthage (or any Oates’ novel, as far as I’m concerned).