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taniguchi_c's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jillmakin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kristinvdt's review against another edition
4.0
Book is short but the writing is still dense. Read it slowly to get the full effect of the story.
elon's review against another edition
4.0
This was a dark read. Following the mind of a woman's mind as she struggles between life and death, reality, hopes, dreams and memories jumble together in a horrifying mess.
hopecaldwell's review against another edition
1.0
Now I remember what I didn't like about setting a reading goal - I feel compelled to read/finish books like this. I was expecting more from Joyce Carol Oates. This is a waste.
bikes_books_yarn's review against another edition
4.0
A very long time ago in a distant land known as the 90's, I was working with a woman who also liked to read during her lunch. She asked me if I had any interest in going with her to hear an author she liked go speak. I had never heard of this Joyce Carol Oats woman. (Seriously.) So we went to this huge church in St. Paul and the place was packed. I was surprised - This many people for some author? Hu. Cool. (I know - I was young and pretty darn clueless.)
We were all just sitting there and then all of a sudden you could feel a current in the room. I look over and this tiny woman (who looked like someone's executive assistant) walked in and took the podium. She read. It was really great.
A few days after the reading my co-worker brought in this book with a thank you for going with her to the reading. I read the book and I have to say it still haunts me. I knew nothing of the Kennedy scandal when I read this - and I was horrified. I still think about this book.
We were all just sitting there and then all of a sudden you could feel a current in the room. I look over and this tiny woman (who looked like someone's executive assistant) walked in and took the podium. She read. It was really great.
A few days after the reading my co-worker brought in this book with a thank you for going with her to the reading. I read the book and I have to say it still haunts me. I knew nothing of the Kennedy scandal when I read this - and I was horrified. I still think about this book.
awilliams08's review
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This book is the embodiment of "your life flashing before your eyes". A very compelling read, even when you know exactly what is going to happen.
bookishblond's review against another edition
4.0
Once, I read somewhere that Oates is fascinated with the moments before tragic death, that terrifying and confusing passage of time where seconds seem like hours, when a person realizes death is eminent but still holds dearly to the hope of a miraculous rescue. In searching for a vehicle to explore these emotions and adequately chronicle them in proper context, she stumbled upon the Chappaquiddick incident and realized, in an epiphany of sorts, that this would be the perfect forum in which to expand upon this chilling human drama.
Taking the Chappaquiddick incident and propelling it forward into the late 1980s, Oates attempts to insert a certain modernity and novelistic flair into the already well-known plot; an overly entitled U.S. Senator (whose fictitious description throughout this storyline and name as it becomes revealed at the end does little to dissuade the reader from envisioning a young Ted Kennedy) meets a rather meek but nevertheless budding and strongly political young woman (who I also fear Oates has described distinctly as a latter day Mary Jo Kopechne) at an exclusive, leftward leaning summer party on an upper class, Cape Cod-like Maine island, in which “The Senator” charms the young lady into leaving with him, after, of course, imbibing many a party spirit. Driving recklessly and drunkenly to reach a ferry that will take them to a hastily made reservation at a hotel on a “main island,” the Senator misjudges a sharp curve on an isolated road and smashes through a guardrail and into a marshland tributary where then the thrust of the novella begins.
Seen, from this point, almost entirely from the perspective of Kelly Kelleher, the young seduced woman, we’re then witness to her panicked, racing survival anticipations; over and over and page after page we’re drawn into her innermost dying perceptions, her hallucinations and her struggles for a precious air pocket within the slowly filling car, all the while being trapped by the carnage of the crushed vehicle against her fragile body. Although at times overly drawn out, these timorous periods are nevertheless truly captivating; the fear, anxiety and loss of hope are palpable throughout this discourse and keeps the reader locked into wondering what’s really happening and what’s actually just an illusion in Kelly’s mind.
I would only say that there is a certain repetitiveness in Kelly’s plight and an episodic nature to much of the novella… even with it being only one hundred and a half pages, this could have been cut to a feature magazine piece, in my opinion. Nevertheless, Black Water succeeds regardless of these quibbles and remains an intense, somewhat intellectual and brilliantly paced novella that I would recommend to all.
Taking the Chappaquiddick incident and propelling it forward into the late 1980s, Oates attempts to insert a certain modernity and novelistic flair into the already well-known plot; an overly entitled U.S. Senator (whose fictitious description throughout this storyline and name as it becomes revealed at the end does little to dissuade the reader from envisioning a young Ted Kennedy) meets a rather meek but nevertheless budding and strongly political young woman (who I also fear Oates has described distinctly as a latter day Mary Jo Kopechne) at an exclusive, leftward leaning summer party on an upper class, Cape Cod-like Maine island, in which “The Senator” charms the young lady into leaving with him, after, of course, imbibing many a party spirit. Driving recklessly and drunkenly to reach a ferry that will take them to a hastily made reservation at a hotel on a “main island,” the Senator misjudges a sharp curve on an isolated road and smashes through a guardrail and into a marshland tributary where then the thrust of the novella begins.
Seen, from this point, almost entirely from the perspective of Kelly Kelleher, the young seduced woman, we’re then witness to her panicked, racing survival anticipations; over and over and page after page we’re drawn into her innermost dying perceptions, her hallucinations and her struggles for a precious air pocket within the slowly filling car, all the while being trapped by the carnage of the crushed vehicle against her fragile body. Although at times overly drawn out, these timorous periods are nevertheless truly captivating; the fear, anxiety and loss of hope are palpable throughout this discourse and keeps the reader locked into wondering what’s really happening and what’s actually just an illusion in Kelly’s mind.
I would only say that there is a certain repetitiveness in Kelly’s plight and an episodic nature to much of the novella… even with it being only one hundred and a half pages, this could have been cut to a feature magazine piece, in my opinion. Nevertheless, Black Water succeeds regardless of these quibbles and remains an intense, somewhat intellectual and brilliantly paced novella that I would recommend to all.
siren_books's review against another edition
4.0
You love your life, you believe you chose it. a young woman's fate is decided by a politician and his seemingly terrible choices. The tale of her short life and the intensity of that night will thrill you and enthrall you with how things could be different. You love your life, you believe you chose it.
tracie_nicole's review against another edition
2.0
Repetitive and exhausting. I'd rather like to learn about the real Chappaquiddick than this exercise in historical fiction.