Today marks the start of 20 Books of Summer and for me it begins with a novel that will no doubt take me the entire three months of the challenge to finish (with many other books on the go at the same time, of course).
I technically started reading Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates back in February, but I’ve only reached page 70, where I’ve been stuck for weeks. It’s not that I’m not enjoying it, but the type is so small and thus the writing so dense on the 700+ pages that I never seem to make any progress. Even setting myself micro-goals of 10 pages per day, for instance, failed as I’ve found that I always want to pick up other ‘easier’ books instead. In these sorts of situations, I would be inclined to skim, but that would be missing the whole point of an Oates novel, which seems to be the style just as much as the plot.
I’ve failed with her twice before, alas: in 2020 I read about 80 pages of We Were the Mulvaneys before giving up. My pithy response: “Too much of quirky folks.” (The other attempt, that same year, was Night-Gaunts, of which I only read the first story.) And “too much” seems about right for describing JCO in general. Too dark, too wordy. “Prolix” is an adjective I’m tempted to apply, but it doesn’t seem fair when I haven’t managed an entire book yet. Moreover, I’m committed to a casual Oates buddy reading project with Marcie (of Buried in Print) this summer and autumn. We’re choosing different books but trying with our selections to get a good sense of her range. Towards Halloween time we’ll read some spooky stories, for instance. I’d also like to source some of her novellas and nonfiction.
In any case, today is the perfect day to introduce this read as it would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday. Oates calls her novel a “radically distilled ‘life’ in the form of fiction, and, for all its length, synecdoche is the principle of appropriation.” After a prologue about Death coming for Norma Jeane, the early pages have been about her childhood with a vain, neglectful mother who ends up in a mental hospital. “The primary fact of Gladys was the primary mystery of Gladys: She could not be a true mother to Norma Jeane. Not at the present time.” Already we see the forces that will shape Norma Jeane’s future: the deep wound of an absent father and an unfit mother, a fascination with glamour and Hollywood, and the genetic curse of substance use disorder.
Here’s a song about endometriosis that uses Norma Jeane as its starting point: “One in Ten” by Jenn Butterworth. Every time I so much as look at the cover of Blonde, I get it in my head…
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I haven’t succeeded yet with Joyce Carol Oates either, and I always feel like I’m missing a trick.
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A tough nut to crack, I feel! But she has soooo many books that surely one will hit the spot.
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I’m a huge JCO fan, although the pace at which she writes is quite astonishing. I totally understand why people don’t get on with her work though, she can be overwrought at times. If Blonde doesn’t work out for you, I’d recommend Black Water. It’s a novella in her signature style and also about a real life incident (Chappaquiddick)
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You and Eric (Lonesome Reader)! A novella does sound more my speed.
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I really liked We Are the Mulvaneys but I wasn’t drawn to read more… I still appreciate JCO’s internet presence though! She’s on Bluesky too so I don’t miss it on account of not being on twitter.
I hear ya on the small print though, I would probably read the ebook if it’s that bad…
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Is she?! That’s pretty much the only account I miss from Twitter!
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Yes indeed, she posted some rage bait about how bluesky is too quiet and boring a couple weeks ago (as many people noted, she only follows about 200 people so…. yeah). She even replied to me once! And posts pics of her cats.
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I’ve never read any JCO, but I’m currently reading a 1,191-page novel in translation because the translator is a friend and neighbour, and having a similar experience – though micro-goals are helping in that case. (And I’ve decided I’ll only read it when I’m home; while I’m out and about, I can get through other, more portable books, like 20 BoS picks!)
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I’ll be setting micro-goals in it for the rest of the summer for sure.
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I’m not a fan, either, I’ve tried a couple as far as I recall (I’m at my volunteering job so I can’t check my spreadsheet).
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I had a copy of this – I don’t any more – couldn’t get started.
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It doesn’t ease you in, that’s for sure.
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[…] It’s become ever-more daunting, but waiting wouldn’t make the list shorter. Rebecca is writing today about her own reasons for reading Oates, in particular one novel of hers she’s wanted to read for some […]
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Like Annabel, my copy of this one went to another reader, but you might yet convince me to try again. It’s interesting to read the different responses to her work here, and I’m curious how we’ll think/feel at the end of our experiment, whether we’ll be tempted to continue or find that’s enough?
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We shall see!
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I really liked We Were The Mulvaneys when I read it in my early twenties, but I have a suspicion I would like it less if I returned to it now. The only other Oates I’ve tried, The Falls, was likewise a DNF.
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Uh oh, that’s (The Falls) one of the ones I’m targeting. /winces Do you remember what didn’t work for you, or was it one those quick-DNFs where it just didn’t connect at that time?
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hope you have better luck with Blonde this time round! I enjoyed it but agree you have to be ‘invested’ to get through it!
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Blonde is on my shelf! I loved the Mulvaneys and Bellefleur is one of my favorite books of all time. No one writes like JCO.
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She has a distinctive style for sure!
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I’ve haven’t read anything by Oates yet, but I’ve recently acquired a copy of her Hazards of Time Travel which sounds like a template for Yesteryear based on the early novels of Margaret Atwood, judging by a couple of reviews. I’ve never actually watched a full Marilyn Monroe movie, but I’ve been fascinated by her since I read one of her many biographies, which my husband bought back in the eighties (talking of time travel).
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I’ve seen a lot of the Monroe classics from my time going through the AFI top 100 list and recording random movies off of TCM in high school and college — Some Like It Hot is an essential!
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That’s the only one I’ve partially watched. It was always the sort of thing they put on late at night, or rather the early hours of the morning. I’m pretty sure I’ve watched the beginning more than once, but dozed off halfway through.
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[…] also the 88th birthday of one of our most prolific authors, Joyce Carol Oates. As I wrote in my introductory post for 20 Books of Summer, Marcie (of Buried in Print) and I have embarked on a casual Oates buddy […]
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