The Gravedigger's Daughter: A Novel [Paperback]

The central character of Joyce Carol Oates's 36th novel changes her identity several times in the course of the epic, conveniently changing portions of her brutal past to transform into a more pure, acceptable lady. In her heart, she remains the Gravedigger's Daughter, the American-born daughter of WWII-era Jewish immigrants Jacob and Anna Schwart. Jacob was humiliated by his stateside job as the local cemetery caretaker, which afforded his family a life of squalor from which Anna slowly withdrew into catatonic madness. As the family spiraled violently out of control in the racist small-town atmosphere of 1940's upstate New York, Rebecca Schwart was orphaned as a young teenager.

Forced to reinvent herself as a charity case, a ward of the state, Rebecca begins to suppress the violent secrets of her past and emerge as a reliable, hard-working girl with no family, but also with no ghosts in her past and no need for anyone's pity. As Rebecca works her way up in society, earning legitimacy through marriage and motherhood, she hears the echoes of her father's harsh words to her. "In animal life the weak are quickly disposed of. So you must hide your weakness, Rebecca." The Gravedigger's Daughter is a novel about identity, and the lengths to which we will go to suppress our past to gain the acceptance of others. Rebecca ascends into a life of privilege, but not without looking over her shoulder for past demons.

Rebecca is guarded throughout the novel--to outsiders, to herself, and to the reader--proving herself an unreliable narrator, but the reader who is frustrated by this must remember that Rebecca is unreliable to herself, deluding herself to survive in an impossibly bleak world. The most compelling portions of this dense novel, which is told in three parts, center on the resilience of Rebecca in her quest for legitimacy and acceptance. The gravedigger's daughter first transforms her identity after the childhood loss of her family and later flees from an abusive, murderous husband to live under the assumed name of Hazel Jones. Unfortunately, Oates wrote her story not about these two metamorphoses, but in three portions, so the book opens with an overwrought, dreary exposition about the struggle of an immigrant family working in low-skilled jobs in a new country.

The plight of the immigrant family is close to Oates's heart--the author worked for over a decade on this novel to honor her family heritage. As an adult, Oates discovered that her own grandmother was Jewish (a secret that was buried in the 1890's to assimilate into the United States). Oates knew her grandmother, but no one in the family knew of her religious heritage or the last name she had abandoned upon arriving in the United States. In an interview with Edmund White, Oates revealed, "My grandmother had experiences very similar to Rebecca's experience with her father. In actual life the man who was my great-grandfather was a gravedigger. He did not kill his wife; he did injure her, though. And he did threaten his daughter, and he did commit suicide with a shotgun. That's all true." Oates reveals how exactly her grandmother's experience inspired the life of Rebecca Schwart/Hazel Jones by insisting, "[She] was unfailing. She never was the girl whose father had almost killed her and blew his head off with a shotgun... She was never the woman whose husband had abused her and then left her. She never would have wanted to play those cards."

The Gravedigger's Daughter is an expansive portrait of American life from one of our most agile living storytellers. Oates may lose a reader or two with her opening ruminations on poverty and family structure for inland immigrants, but those who read on will be rewarded with a challenging drama of fortune and identity in America. In the end, you may love or hate this book, but it is hard not to admire it.

In "The Gravedigger's Daughter," Joyce Carol Oates explores the impact of childhood abuse on the development of a woman's identity. Her intricately designed and compelling novel details the brutal early life of Rebbeca Schwart and follows her into adulthood, one in which the grown woman casts off previous sufferings but never escapes their cruel shadow. The youngest child of an impoverished German Jewish immigrant family, Rebecca endures a barren early life that includes being subjected to an ill-tempered, violent father, the slow and tortured descent of her mother into mental illness and the callous disregard of her two insensitive older brothers.

Unable to endure the moral and spiritual poverty of their graveyard surroundings, Rebecca's brothers flee the wrath of their father and the hopelessness of their condition. Eventually, Rebecca witnesses the murder/suicide of her mother and father, an event whose impact reverberates throughout her life. Abandoned, traumatized and directionless, Rebecca must reinvent herself, first as a ward of the court, then as a wife and mother. It is Oates' brilliant depiction of a woman struggling to create a new self while simultaneously attempting to submerge her previous identity that gives "The Gravedigger's Daughter" its emotional impact. Rebecca's cryptic personae permit her to survive but never grant her existential peace.

What solace she savors derives from her brilliant but tormented son, he the product of one of the most nefarious characters of contemporary literature. Beguiled and then beaten by Niles Tignor, Rebecca re-experiences the controlling, violent outbursts that characterized her father. Her act of personal liberation, her reinvention of identity and her commitment to her child's wellbeing exemplify a quiet, implacable will to live. Always wary of being discovered, perpetually cautious and suspicious, Rebecca refuses to give herself away to any man or idea. She lives to survive.

Written with excruciating detail, "The Gravedigger's Daughter" is much more than an exploration of one woman's consciousness. Joyce Carol Oates has crafted a work that explicitly describes violence, directly confronts social injustice and sensitively describes how a thwarted human spirit heals itself. This is a novel that will unsettle and upset, but it is also a cautionary tale of how identity, however shattered, will undergo reformation and reinvention.

First I must say that this is the first book I have ever read by Joyce Carol Oates. This book is easy to get into, but once strapped in, be ready for the bumpy ride! There is no question (at least to me) about Ms. Oate's genius. I found myself reading passages repeatedly just to appreciate the complexity of word use and the fascinating mirror on humanity that Ms. Oate's holds up again and again in her story. There is a lot of violence in this book, however, I found its use necessary to the story. The story is about a strong woman's survival against incredible odds. I say that the book is a bumpy ride simply because the author flashes backwards and forwards in reality. When the book ended I felt somewhat dissafisfied and didn't know exactly why. However, I find myself thinking of the story and reflecting on the characters. So I think I am dissatisfied because I wanted the book to continue. In any case I recommend this book, however, this is not your "vacation" book. Be in the mood for heavy themes and startling insights into human nature.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 84 reviews  3.6 out of 5 stars