A review by litdoes
The Barrens by Joyce Carol Oates
2.0
This is the first JC Oates book that I didn’t enjoy. Written under one of her pen names, Rosamond Smith, this less-than-engaging thriller centred on a thirty-something real estate agent Matt McBride, who is forced to confront his memories of the abduction and murder of his high school crush, when a young female artist disappears.
Matt’s connection and attraction to this missing girl is never fully nor convincingly explained, which leaves the reader wondering about his obsession with her. Did he or did he not have a relationship with her? It appears even Oates did not quite know. His deteriorating relationship with his wife is also rather sketchily played out. Although there was some attempt to address Niezsche's quote 'Ultimately one loves one's desire, not the desired object', this was also rather hastily inserted with Matt's transference of attraction to the missing girl's twin.
Perhaps this novel was not written in Oates’s name for good reason – it bore none of her incisive characterisation and breadth and depth of her other works. Definitely an off-day effort by an otherwise accomplished writer.
Matt’s connection and attraction to this missing girl is never fully nor convincingly explained, which leaves the reader wondering about his obsession with her. Did he or did he not have a relationship with her? It appears even Oates did not quite know. His deteriorating relationship with his wife is also rather sketchily played out. Although there was some attempt to address Niezsche's quote 'Ultimately one loves one's desire, not the desired object', this was also rather hastily inserted with Matt's transference of attraction to the missing girl's twin.
Perhaps this novel was not written in Oates’s name for good reason – it bore none of her incisive characterisation and breadth and depth of her other works. Definitely an off-day effort by an otherwise accomplished writer.