I'm a huge, huge JCO fan so it pains me to be so critical - but this is a messy book that is also increasingly predictable, a cardinal literary sin that one would never expect to apply to the fertile imagination of JCO. 

The first 30% or so draws us in to one of those complicated families that inhabit the JCO universe: the voice is that of Violet Rue, the youngest girl and her father's favourite, just 12 when the book opens, 27 when it closes and from which point she is telling her tale. Without giving away spoilers, this section deals with violence and loyalty within the family, and what happens when Violet unintentionally transgresses an unspoken family code. 

From then, though, this descends into a litany of woes as Violet becomes a magnet for every kind of abuser out there and it's unconvincing that she should be such a poor little (female) victim preyed upon by an ongoing series of (male) predators. That's not to say that this kind of masculine violence doesn't happen, it just feels poorly imagined and rather superficially written, almost as if these gender roles are both institutionalised and impossible to overturn. It's the 1990s, after all, and Violet is at university - her utter naivety and passivity, her complete lack of any kind of resistance just doesn't ring true no matter how toxic her experience of family was.

The last part of the book returns to Violet's family... and, yes, more violence is in store for the poor girl.. I don't know - the whole thing feels messy emotionally and structurally and lacks the depth of emotional and politicised intelligence I expect from JCO. She draws some very crude lines between racism and misogyny (yes, of course they're linked) that feel like a throwback to the 1960s or 1970s. 

I would never want to dissuade anyone from reading JCO but this is far from her best...

Joyce Carol Oates hits us with her new novel, which is as you would expect a powerful read.  The basis of this is actually a short story that was originally published in 2003 as Curly Red, and it also appeared elsewhere the following year.  I must admit that I cannot recall reading the short tale, so I do not know what the basic elements of that were, but the author has certainly crafted something which is well worth reading here.  Narrated by Violet Rue Kerrigan so when this novel finishes, she is twenty seven years old, but she takes us back initially to when she was only twelve.

From a large family, the Kerrigan clan is even more extended as they are from Irish stock who emigrated in the past to America.  We thus see the dynamics of not only the immediate family, but also that between more distant members, and friends.  As a black boy is killed so Violet sees something that she shouldn’t have, which implicates her two brothers in the killing, and when this is coaxed out of her, so not only does she help solve the crime, but also becomes ostracized from her home and family.  We thus follow this girl’s fortunes and misfortunes as she grows up, from eventually being taken in by her aunt, and then onwards, as she strives to finish a college course and make her way in the world.

A tale filled with surprises, so we see that Violet has a hard time, and this takes in not only racism but also abuse, what family means, and other elements.  Very readable so you are drawn into the tale from the very beginning, which certainly has a grip on you.  Sad but also hopeful so this shows that people do at times have chances to pull themselves out of a bad childhood and look to the future.  But will her family ever forgive Violet for what they see as a betrayal of her siblings, and who was the person who really killed the black boy?

For fans of Joyce Carol Oates this will be a pleasure to read, and this will also probably fare well with book groups, and if this is the first time you are thinking of reading a book by this author, then you will not be disappointed.  Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC.