Product Description

A novel of tremendous sweep and pace about the American family in crisis -- but also about America itself in the mid-20th century. This novel is the crowning achievement of Joyce Carol Oates's career to date. A man climbs over the railings and plunges into Niagara Falls. He's a newly-wed, and his bride has been left behind in the honeymoon suite the morning after their wedding. For two weeks, Ariah, the deserted bride, waits by the side of the roaring waterfall for news of her husband's recovered body. During her vigil, an unlikely new love story begins to unfold when she meets a wealthy lawyer who is transfixed by her strange, otherworldly gaze. So it all begins, in the 1950s, with the dark foreboding of the Falls the sinister background to events. From this cataclysmic event unfurls a drama of parents and their children; of secrets and sins; of lawsuits, murder and, eventually redemption. As Ariah's children learn that their past is enmeshed with a hushed-up scandal involving radioactive waste materials, they must confront not only their personal history but America's murky past: the despoiling of the American landscape and the corruption and greed of the massive industrial expansion of the 1950s and 1960s. This novel of tremendous sweep and pace is about the American family in crisis -- but also about America itself in the mid-20th century. This book alone places Joyce Carol Oates definitively in the company of the Great American Novelists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #837413 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 496 pages

Review
Praise for Joyce Carol Oates: 'One of the female frontrunners for the title of Great American Novelist.' Maggie Gee, Sunday Times 'A writer of extraordinary strengths...she has dealt consistently with what is probably the great American theme -- the quest for the creation of self...Her great subject, naturally, is love.' Ian Sansom, Guardian 'Her prose is peerless and her ability to make you think as she re-invents genres is unique. Few writers move so effortlessly from the gothic tale to the psychological thriller to the epic family saga to the lyrical novella. Even fewer authors can so compellingly and entertainingly tell a story.' Jackie McGlone, Scotland on Sunday 'Novelists such as John Updike, Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer slug it out for the title of the Great American Novelist. But maybe they're wrong. Maybe, just maybe, the Great American Novelist is a woman.' The Herald

This outstanding novel by the controversial and prolific Joyce Carol Oates tells the story of Ariah, married and widowed in one day. Ashamed and despairing, she stands vigil where her husband committed suicide at Niagara Falls. As her life takes a new direction, she remains living close to the Falls, a huge destructive force of nature, whose deadly currents echo the dangerous forces that affect Ariah, her family and the whole community, for the area associated with the famous cataract is also notorious for a toxic-waste scandal. Over a span of thirty years public and private attitudes change and the truth slowly emerges; the author subtly charts these shifts within Ariah and those close to her, too, as obsessions and secrets hinder understanding. Oates' skill is to imbue her story with the violence and power of nature without losing sight of her characters' intensely personal and impermanent human lives. (Kirkus UK)

Sunday Times
'Oates offers a shrewd, often chilling analysis of an unhappy marriage...[she] deftly widens her focus to...Niagara, corrupt and dangerously polluted.'

Mail on Sunday
'If you only read one new novel this autumn, make it this... you'll be hooked within pages'

Customer Reviews

Buried Secrets and Individual Responsibility
At the beginning of this novel we are introduced to Ariah Erskine who is an intensely creative and complex individual. She is nonetheless very naive and is led into a marriage because she thinks it will enhance her own self worth. When the marriage ends abruptly during the couple's honeymoon to Niagara Falls in the first few pages of this novel she suddenly becomes a hapless victim and she believes herself to be damned. In actuality the reason for her husband's death has nothing to do with her personally, yet the guilt is still affixed to her and she feels that she has failed him. The shadow of that naive personality is turned into a local legend known as "The Widow Bride of the Falls". But the spirited individual remains and she is in a sense brought back to life by a charismatic, well-known member of the community called Dirk Burnaby. The two decide to forge a life for themselves despite Ariah's humble background and Dirk's influential, wealthy family. Although they are successful at first, submerged problems well up causing difficulties. When Dirk becomes involved with an enormously contentious community problem, it threatens the safety of their beloved family and extremely difficult choices need to be made. A powerful question arises: Where does personal sacrifice end in the pursuit of justice?

Oates used the historical Love Canal incident as a reference point in this novel. If you aren't already familiar with the case, it's useful to know that the Love Canal was a neighborhood near the city of Niagara Falls that was built upon a severely polluted landfill. The families who lived in this community suffered terribly for almost three decades because they were lied to from officials, could not afford to move away and had their cases dismissed by the justice system. Only in 1978 were they able to receive some compensation for their suffering. By this point, many of the victims were dead or had contracted severely debilitating medical conditions. Oates' fictional character Dick Burnaby becomes heavily involved in the controversy surrounding this case. Rather than giving us a full picture of the victims, Oates shows us someone outside the event who has a choice to make a real difference in helping to change it. He is even someone who could be said to have been implicated in the continuation of this disaster through his business associations. With tremendous power and stamina, the author writes in this novel about the ways in which a sense of social responsibility can at times supersede the loyalty one feels to his or her own family, friends and colleagues. Oates wrote a similarly themed novel called Do With Me What You Will which has now been sadly forgotten and I would suggest that anyone who enjoys this novel try to obtain a copy of it. She is able to write with razor sharpness about the complex way our lives become entangled with events we may feel morally ambivalent toward. For all the dark aspects of life that this powerful novel portrays, the will of the individual is shown to dynamically stand in opposition to the inhuman acts of society. The greatest thing this tremendous writer has been able to do throughout her prestigious body of work is give voice to disparate people who have been rendered voiceless. As Oates said in her 1970 National Book Award Acceptance speech "The use of language is all we have to pit against death and silence." This novel speaks far further than the characters and events it contains.

the falls

Joyce Carol Oates's legions of fans will love this. It's a saga with all Oates's characteristically strong writing and huge ambitions. The scope is, as ever, huge - the story follows a woman, Ariah, from her doomed first wedding, right through the family she subsequently goes on to have. But this is not just a family epic - there are also themes of morality and capitalism and the fight of one individual - Ariah's second husband, the gorgeous, altruistic lawyer - to attain justice for the victims of a man-made disaster.

As a shocking insight into the immorality of big business and the local government corruption and collusion that big bucks are able to buy, this novel works. The blind eye turned by the authorities to the sickening effects of dumping of toxic waste are vividly evoked, and the campaigning young lawyer who fights for justice is everything a hero should be - not only handsome but also morally decent, honest and bravely outspoken.
My problem with the book was with Ariah. Despite her dire circumstances at the beginning of the book - bereaved on her first day of wedded life by a closet gay new husband - I never warmed to her, partly because I didn't feel that she had any likeable attributes. In fact, for me, she remained two dimensional, inadequately described, and unreal. My disbelief that the dashing, intelligent, wealthy lawyer would fall for her was difficult to suspend - sure, men like mystery, but she had no redeeming features apart from her tragic mystique, seeming unattractive, closed and cold, and I was sceptical throughout that she could incite such passion.

But then perhaps Ariah is meant to be closed and mysterious, cool and unfathomable. Oates has said in interviews that Ariah is her favourite among her fictional characters, and there is something of Ariah's aloofness and quiet dignity about the private but incredibly prolific Oates.

For my tastes, Oates's writing can become a little grating, her prose always carrying her signature brittle style. Humour is thin on the ground and sometimes the prose can feel heavy, self important and ponderous. But the story is gripping and Oates's fans will remain engrossed.

Buried Secrets and Individual Responsibility
At the beginning of this novel we are introduced to Ariah Erskine who is an intensely creative and complex individual. She is nonetheless very naive and is led into a marriage because she thinks it will enhance her own self worth. When the marriage ends abruptly during the couple's honeymoon to Niagara Falls in the first few pages of this novel she suddenly becomes a hapless victim and she believes herself to be damned. In actuality the reason for her husband's death has nothing to do with her personally, yet the guilt is still affixed to her and she feels that she has failed him. The shadow of that naive personality is turned into a local legend known as "The Widow Bride of the Falls". But the spirited individual remains and she is in a sense brought back to life by a charismatic, well-known member of the community called Dirk Burnaby. The two decide to forge a life for themselves despite Ariah's humble background and Dirk's influential, wealthy family. Although they are successful at first, submerged problems well up causing difficulties. When Dirk becomes involved with an enormously contentious community problem, it threatens the safety of their beloved family and extremely difficult choices need to be made. A powerful question arises: Where does personal sacrifice end in the pursuit of justice?

Oates used the historical Love Canal incident as a reference point in this novel. If you aren't already familiar with the case, it's useful to know that the Love Canal was a neighborhood near the city of Niagara Falls that was built upon a severely polluted landfill. The families who lived in this community suffered terribly for almost three decades because they were lied to from officials, could not afford to move away and had their cases dismissed by the justice system. Only in 1978 were they able to receive some compensation for their suffering. By this point, many of the victims were dead or had contracted severely debilitating medical conditions. Oates' fictional character Dirk Burnaby becomes heavily involved in the controversy surrounding this case. Rather than giving us a full picture of the victims, Oates shows us someone outside the event who has a choice to make a real difference in helping to change it. He is even someone who could be said to have been implicated in the continuation of this disaster through his business associations. With tremendous power and stamina, the author writes in this novel about the ways in which a sense of social responsibility can at times supersede the loyalty one feels to his or her own family, friends and colleagues. Oates wrote a similarly themed novel called Do With Me What You Will which has now been sadly forgotten and I would suggest that anyone who enjoys this novel try to obtain a copy of it. She is able to write with razor sharpness about the complex way our lives become entangled with events we may feel morally ambivalent toward. For all the dark aspects of life that this powerful novel portrays, the will of the individual is shown to dynamically stand in opposition to the inhuman acts of society. The greatest thing this tremendous writer has been able to do throughout her prestigious body of work is give voice to disparate people who have been rendered voiceless. As Oates said in her 1970 National Book Award Acceptance speech "The use of language is all we have to pit against death and silence." This novel speaks far further than the characters and events it contains.