We Were the Mulvaneys tells the story of the Mulvaney family: handsome, successful patriarch Michael Mulvaney Sr., who owns a thriving roofing business and enjoys the friendship and contacts of many of the movers and shakers in small Mt. Ephraim, New York; blue-eyed, lithe, religious Corinne, mother to the Mulvaney clan and avid antique collector; eldest son Mike Jr., a football star at local Mt. Ephraim High School; Patrick, the brainy, analytical son who graduates valedictorian of his high school class and goes on to study on scholarship at Cornell; beautiful Marianne, a cheerleader, devout Christian, and popular student; and little Judd, who, even at his young age, exhibits a precocious charm.

The family lives with a friendly collection of animals - cats, dogs, birds, horses, cows, etc. - at gorgeous High Point Farm, a large estate with attending acreage and outbuildings. The house, painted a dreamy lavendar color (with, of course, a top-of-the-line roof) perches within vew of scenic Mt. Cataract. The family, as Judd (our narrator) will tell us, has a "talent for happiness." They are loved and respected in their community. Everyone knows the Mulvaneys.

But then something horrible happens to one of the Mulvaney clan. And the reader continues in horror as this awful event ripples outward, changing the lives of the happy family forever. Judd, recalling the events as an adult, tries to accurately document the story of the Mulvaneys' fall, their eventual re-discovery of one another, and their "special gift for happiness."

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The characters are real. They leap off the page. The story is utterly compelling. The book is much about family, and memory, and the evolution of who you are and who you will become. The book is about God and those who believe in him and those who don't. The book is about doing what's expected of you and what is not expected. The book is about shame and public opinion, how others see you and how you see yourself. The book is about claiming your identity, recovering, moving on from tragedy. Though the book only covers a brief span of years, it feels like an epic.

It's long-ish (about 450 pages), but it's worth every minute it takes to read, in my opinion. Read this book. Amazing stuff.

Without doubt this must be THE most depressing novel I have read to date. The only words that come to mind to describe this tedious tale are: bleak, grim, dreary, cheerless, desolate, gloomy, dismal, sad, dragging endlessly on!

This sounds like a good one but it's not. The story line is fine but it takes so long to get into! It's over-written almost & too over-descriptive. I keep waiting for something to happen but this book jumps between too many flashbacks & present happenings. I think I will give up & return this to the library. Only on page 63 but this book has "suck" written all over it.

If you enjoy stories about the complexities of family life, this book is probably one you will like. I've read this years ago and loved it. I believe this is one of JCO's best books although I've come across some readers who do not agree. I immediately joined the Mulvaney clan -- disliking much of what they represented. Loved the relationship between brother & sister. Could not relate to either Mr. or Mrs. Mulvaney although I think I knew from whence they came. As a reader, this book satisfied on all levels & it is highly recommended.

As I read the ending of this book, I found myself crying. I enjoyed this novel and found that it was an emotionally wrenching work. Wrenching because of the cruelty of the father toward his daughter and by extension of the mother toward the daughter, who had already been victimized by a rapist.

There are the standard ways that Joyce Carol Oates shows herself. I found it hard to accept that the father especially and the mother in particular could be so profoundly cruel to their own daughter, banishing her for something that could not be her fault. All through the novel, I found that behavior to be unmotivated. That said, each of the characters were quite unique.

One other thing that I saw from "them", another novel by her that I recently read. If you have a sequence of events: A,B,C,D that in reality happened in that order, Oates will tell you about events: A,B,C,D briefly and then she will go back and fill in event B even thought she moved ahead of that. So, you have to accept those Oatesian discontinuity.

Ultimately, I cried at the end. It moved me.

As I read this book I was amazed at how Joyce Carol Oates maintains the drama of when and how the revelations of truth occurs, especially the revelation of Marianne's rape. Oates has done a marvellous job of telling the story of what happens when children are overly protected, as well as the story of religion gone stupid. Marianne's story is the story of the murder of innocence. The book presents a faithful account of the dynamics of an alcoholic family, particularly the enabling spouse. A cogent sub-title for "We Were the Mulvaneys" might be "When Things Fall Apart!" This is an excellent read, a page-turner.

I tried on several different occasions to read this book, but lost interest each time. Very disappointing...

Oates paints the picture of a broken family in such a descriptive way you feel as if they were your own family.

I appreciate good writing. I really do. Joyce Carol Oates is, technically, a top-notch author. Her turns of phrases made me go, "Damn! I wish I'd thoguht to say that!" So why did I give it only three stars? While this book was fantastically written, it was a chore to get through. I had to force myself to pick it up and read. The storyline was good, but trying to read it and engage myself with a rather unlikable cast of characters was like trying to jog in quicksand. One hundred and fifty pages easily could have been pruned and the story would still have been there. I understand - this is supposed to be literature - but I don't think reading should ever have to feel like a chore. Ever. Unless you're reading a geology textbook, but that's a story for another day...

I had to use this readers companion for a 315 point paper that I had to write for school about We Were the Mulvaneys. I needed something that was more of a critiscim of the book, but this kind of gave you different perspectives on situations in the book. Although it didn't give me too many critiscims, it did help me add more dept to my paper. It is fairly short and easy to read. I do recomend it if you have to do a project or a paper on We Were the Milvaneys.

I picked up a copy of this book at a library sale before I knew it was an Oprah book. I tend to avoid the Oprah books because I find them preachy (though I admittedly read and enjoyed several of them before they were Oprah books.) Though this wasn't preachy, it seemed to me a less interesting and far less funny version of David James Duncan's brilliant study of family (in pretty much the same time period) 'The Brothers K.' It wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't really that good. It was often disengaging, which made it tedious. There are far better works to spend 450 pages reading.

This sprawling novel charts the gradual disintegration of a family. The exuberant Mulvaneys are a prominent family in the rural community of Mt. Ephraim, New York. Mike Mulvaney owns a successful roofing company and uses the profits from his business to support the sprawling family homestead, High Point Farm where his beautiful wife, Corinne oversees their four children, high school football star Mike, rational aspiring scientist Patrick, bright, curious 10-year-old Judd and their beloved, dreamy sister Marianne. The farm overflows with a myriad of beloved horses, dogs, cats, goats and children whose boisterous conversations can make mealtimes a free-for-all. But on Valentine's Day, 1976, a tragic event cripples the Mulvaney family, wreaking destruction on the close-knit, loving home. Fifteen-year-old Marianne is raped by the son of a prominent family. This horrific event damages every member of the Mulvaney family as they struggle to understand. Fearful and guilt-ridden, Marianne refuses to testify against the boy, certain that she must have invited the assault. The Mulvaney boys are bewildered and angry, unable to accept that their beautiful, fragile sister can have been mistreated by a classmate. But it is their father, Michael Mulvaney Sr. who is outraged and overwhelmed by the rape of his daughter by the son of a good friend. Angry at Marianne because she refuses to press charges, Mulvaney turns his rage on first on the father of the attacker, then on the friends and business acquaintances who turn away and finally on his own family. Marianne is sent away in disgrace, denied her home and her family even on holidays. Mother Corinne is unable or unwilling to stop the black rages and drunken assaults that Mike Mulvaney commits against her and their sons. Soon, their oldest son has escaped into the military, Patrick has gone away to college, leaving Judd alone with his devastated parents who, unable to overcome their grief and rage over Marianne's rape, allow first their business then their home to drift away. Oates has crafted a magnificent story that chronicles the breakdown of a family that was blessed with everything that made life sweet: success, beauty, health, fine children and a gorgeous home that made them the envy of their fellow townspeople. She unflinchingly portrays the selfish pride that compels the destruction of a once happy family. It is not the violation and suffering of his daughter that propels Mike Mulvaney into the self-destructive behavior; instead, it is the way in which the town refuses to support him against the family of Marianne's attacker. He cares only about the way in which Marianne's assault shows how little true power Mulvaney wields in the town. His injured pride is more important than her pain. An excellent absorbing tale.

This is a compelling and entertaining novel from Oates, and it is one of her most popular novels. It was not chance that the book was picked for Oprah's Book Club list.

I have read some of her other works. Oates is a gifted writer and most of her works are good. The present book is a family story where the mother seems to be the hero of the story. The family is very similar to the one in Oates's book "The Falls," i.e.: a few boys, one problem girl, and a problem husband. The problems faced by the family are realistic and some outcomes are positive. It is not all negative. In these novels she explores personalities and family dynamics including the interaction between the parents and the children, or the lives, marriages, and the careers of the children.

Oates grew up in New York State. She knows the area and most of the local references are authentic. It is well written and has a lot of rural New York color. The story is set in the Chautauqua Valley, 60 miles south of Lake Ontario.

The story is well written but one has one flaw that challenges the reader. The story is written in a narrative style as told by Judd, the youngest member of the Mulvaney family. Judd tells a narrative of what has happened to the family over the past 20 or 30 years. But Oates uses a double flashback technique which becomes disruptive to the flow of the story. Judd will start to tell about an incident but then just before he gets to the key part a second flashback is inserted, often four or five pages long. That interrupts the flow of the story. The reader tends to speed read through those pages in the secondary flashback in order to get back to the main point. That seems to be the primary flaw in the book. It gives a general feeling of confusion or too much trivia.

Otherwise, the plot is good and the characters are very interesting. Those parts are fine and I read the novel in a day. It is a quick light read.

So, this is a fine 5 star read but perhaps not a classic but it is a highly recommended read.

This is a compelling and entertaining novel from Oates, and it is one of her most popular novels. It was not chance that the book was picked for Oprah's Book Club list.

I have read some of her other works. Oates is a gifted writer and most of her works are good. The present book is a family story where the mother seems to be the hero of the story. The family is very similar to the one in Oates's book "The Falls," i.e.: a few boys, one problem girl, and a problem husband. The problems faced by the family are realistic and some outcomes are positive. It is not all negative. In these novels she explores personalities and family dynamics including the interaction between the parents and the children, or the lives, marriages, and the careers of the children.

Oates grew up in New York State. She knows the area and most of the local references are authentic. It is well written and has a lot of rural New York color. The story is set in the Chautauqua Valley, 60 miles south of Lake Ontario.

The story is well written but one has one flaw that challenges the reader. The story is written in a narrative style as told by Judd, the youngest member of the Mulvaney family. Judd tells a narrative of what has happened to the family over the past 20 or 30 years. But Oates uses a double flashback technique which becomes disruptive to the flow of the story. Judd will start to tell about an incident but then just before he gets to the key part a second flashback is inserted, often four or five pages long. That interrupts the flow of the story. The reader tends to speed read through those pages in the secondary flashback in order to get back to the main point. That seems to be the primary flaw in the book. It gives a general feeling of confusion or too much trivia.

Otherwise, the plot is good and the characters are very interesting. Those parts are fine and I read the novel in a day. It is a quick light read.

So, this is a fine 5 star read but perhaps not a classic but it is a highly recommended read.

This is a compelling and entertaining novel from Oates, and it is one of her most popular novels.

I have read some of her other works. Oates is a gifted writer and most of her works are good. The present book is a family story where the mother seems to be the hero of the story. The family is very similar to the one in Oates's book "The Falls," i.e.: a few boys, one problem girl, and a problem husband. The problems faced by the family are realistic and some outcomes are positive. It is not all negative. In these novels she explores personalities and family dynamics including the interaction between the parents and the children, or the lives, marriages, and the careers of the children.

Oates grew up in New York State. She knows the area and most of the local references are authentic. It is well written and has a lot of rural New York color. The story is set in the Chautauqua Valley, 60 miles south of Lake Ontario.

The story is well written but one has one flaw that challenges the reader. The story is written in a narrative style as told by Judd, the youngest member of the Mulvaney family. Judd tells a narrative of what has happened to the family over the past 20 or 30 years. But Oates uses a double flashback technique which becomes disruptive to the flow of the story. Judd will start to tell about an incident but then just before he gets to the key part a second flashback is inserted, often four or five pages long. That interrupts the flow of the story. The reader tends to speed read through those pages in the secondary flashback in order to get back to the main point. That seems to be the primary flaw in the book. It gives a general feeling of confusion or too much trivia.

Otherwise, the plot is good and the characters are very interesting. Those parts are fine and I read the novel in a day. It is a quick light read.

So, this is a fine 5 star read but perhaps not a classic but it is a highly recommended read.

This book was a real chore to plow through for me. What could have been a good story was marred by a jumbled plot and unsympathetic characters. In the end I was relieved to finish this and move on to greener pastures.

The plot at its simplest is similar to "The Lovely Bones" or "She's Come Undone"--at least the latter was also and Oprah book--where a girl is raped and the family goes all to pieces in the aftermath. In this case darling cheerleader and chaste Christian Marianne is raped after the prom in 1976. Until that time the Mulvaneys were a respected family. The father Michael Sr. owned a successful roofing company. The mother Corinne was active in the community and churches. The oldest son Michael Sr. was a star athlete and the other son Patrick on his way to becoming valedictorian. This all changes after the rape. In the community the Mulvaneys become pariahs. Michael Sr. becomes a raging alcoholic and loses his business. Michael Jr. joins the Marines. Patrick takes vengeance on his sister's rapist and then disappears to live off the grid. And Marianne is bundled off to live with a cousin before joining a hippie commune. And from there things get worse until they get better.

The first 100 pages or so reads like "The Waltons" written in the style of "The Shipping News" with lots of run-on sentences and fragments. Oates dances around the rape for a long time, well after anyone with an iota of intelligence has figured out what's happened. Especially annoying to me was when Marianne finally tells her mother, instead of getting to the aftermath of this we're hauled back for a flashback 24 years earlier of how Michael and Corinne got together. That's worse than those soap opera cliffhangers that make you wait 3 days (or longer) to find out who shot someone.

The biggest problem with the book then is after the rape. Everything from then out is told in jumbled snippets. Most of the growing and maturing the Mulvaney children do as they scatter from the nest is done outside the book so that we see only glimpses of it. It is essentially like looking at a family photo album where you see a picture of someone at 10 then 16 then 18 then 24 but you don't really know what happened between all those snapshots. Perhaps that was the author's intention, but it takes away from having a cohesive narrative.

It's amazing when you go back and think about it how absent the Mulvaney children are from much of the book. Michael Jr. goes off to the Marines and is almost never heard from again until the end. After Patrick takes his vengeance he too disappears with at least a third of book left. The youngest son (and narrator) Judd was barely present to start with. Marianne gets a couple extended parts towards the end and I wish she didn't because she was so danged precious, as innocent as a small child even at the age of 29; that got on my nerves.

There was no one in the book I was rooting for because I didn't like any of them. Michael Jr. and Judd are exempt because they were all but invisible so there was nothing to like. Patrick was an obnoxious know-it-all, sort of the Lisa Simpson or Stewie Griffin of the Mulvaney clan. I already went into Marianne. Michael Sr. was just a mean drunk (can you ever like someone who exiles his own daughter for being raped) and Corinne was such a spineless, overzealous doormat.

The author had this annoying habit too of overusing some expressions. Especially Marianne "plucking" her hair. It's amazing she had any left by the end. In the epilogue, Corinne mica-shimmering silver hair was referenced three times at least in case you were too dense to figure it out the first time. This is the kind of stuff that annoys me because I'm a very analytical reader, but I doubt most people would care.

Were there good things about the book? Sure. The descriptions that weren't overused were good. The characters mostly had different, albeit irritating, personalities. So it's got that going for it.

Bottom line is if you're a fan of Oprah books like the two I mentioned earlier then this is probably right up your alley. It's not for me.

That is all.

This book was a real chore to plow through for me. What could have been a good story was marred by a jumbled plot and unsympathetic characters. In the end I was relieved to finish this and move on to greener pastures.

The plot at its simplest is similar to "The Lovely Bones" or "She's Come Undone"--at least the latter was also and Oprah book--where a girl is raped and the family goes all to pieces in the aftermath. In this case darling cheerleader and chaste Christian Marianne is raped after the prom in 1976. Until that time the Mulvaneys were a respected family. The father Michael Sr. owned a successful roofing company. The mother Corinne was active in the community and churches. The oldest son Michael Sr. was a star athlete and the other son Patrick on his way to becoming valedictorian. This all changes after the rape. In the community the Mulvaneys become pariahs. Michael Sr. becomes a raging alcoholic and loses his business. Michael Jr. joins the Marines. Patrick takes vengeance on his sister's rapist and then disappears to live off the grid. And Marianne is bundled off to live with a cousin before joining a hippie commune. And from there things get worse until they get better.

The first 100 pages or so reads like "The Waltons" written in the style of "The Shipping News" with lots of run-on sentences and fragments. Oates dances around the rape for a long time, well after anyone with an iota of intelligence has figured out what's happened. Especially annoying to me was when Marianne finally tells her mother, instead of getting to the aftermath of this we're hauled back for a flashback 24 years earlier of how Michael and Corinne got together. That's worse than those soap opera cliffhangers that make you wait 3 days (or longer) to find out who shot someone.

The biggest problem with the book then is after the rape. Everything from then out is told in jumbled snippets. Most of the growing and maturing the Mulvaney children do as they scatter from the nest is done outside the book so that we see only glimpses of it. It is essentially like looking at a family photo album where you see a picture of someone at 10 then 16 then 18 then 24 but you don't really know what happened between all those snapshots. Perhaps that was the author's intention, but it takes away from having a cohesive narrative.

It's amazing when you go back and think about it how absent the Mulvaney children are from much of the book. Michael Jr. goes off to the Marines and is almost never heard from again until the end. After Patrick takes his vengeance he too disappears with at least a third of book left. The youngest son (and narrator) Judd was barely present to start with. Marianne gets a couple extended parts towards the end and I wish she didn't because she was so danged precious, as innocent as a small child even at the age of 29; that got on my nerves.

There was no one in the book I was rooting for because I didn't like any of them. Michael Jr. and Judd are exempt because they were all but invisible so there was nothing to like. Patrick was an obnoxious know-it-all, sort of the Lisa Simpson or Stewie Griffin of the Mulvaney clan. I already went into Marianne. Michael Sr. was just a mean drunk (can you ever like someone who exiles his own daughter for being raped) and Corinne was such a spineless, overzealous doormat.

The author had this annoying habit too of overusing some expressions. Especially Marianne "plucking" her hair. It's amazing she had any left by the end. In the epilogue, Corinne mica-shimmering silver hair was referenced three times at least in case you were too dense to figure it out the first time. This is the kind of stuff that annoys me because I'm a very analytical reader, but I doubt most people would care.

Were there good things about the book? Sure. The descriptions that weren't overused were good. The characters mostly had different, albeit irritating, personalities. So it's got that going for it.

Bottom line is if you're a fan of Oprah books like the two I mentioned earlier then this is probably right up your alley. It's not for me.

That is all.

I thought that this was a good book. I felt that it was a bit too drawn out at times but it is well written. Definately a very sad story from beginning to end. I am glad I read it.

The book pulled me in and there are many parts of the book that were so disturbing it kept me up for nights. I almost had to find a local psychologist and have therapy it brought up so many unresolved issues of my own. Unlike some other people who have read it...the book did not leave me resolved or happy. It was painful and in many ways I found some parts of what happens unforgiving. It's watching your greener grass on the other side die and burn. So, be prepared to be pulled in and if you are a survivor of some sort and sensitive to certain issues...I warn you to either one do not get the book or 2. have your therapist on speed dial. Oh, and no it's not an easy read...the writer is very descriptive.

Just Awful
It seems I only write reviews when they are negative, but I think this is because I feel so cheated when a book is so horrible that I actually feel angry for having invested my time and money in it. I feel I want to warn fellow readers so they don't make the same mistake I made. This just may be the most long-winded, boring, disappointing book I have read in a long time. The characters were not believable. However, they are gutless and heartless. Imagine abandoning your own daughter because she is the victim of rape, or any crime for that matter. Imagine the daughter accepting this as though she deserves to be treated in such a fashion by her own family. The storyline went nowhere, and the author prattled on and on without ever getting to the point. I stubbornly kept reading in the hope that at some point it would finally draw me in, but NO SUCH LUCK! In addition, the ending left much to be desired. What a disappointment!

Reading this book was an exercise in frustration. Oates takes three pages to describe an event that could have been summed up in two paragraphs. But beyond that, she never made it clear why the family fell apart. We saw how happily "perfect" they were prior to the tragic event (cutesy nicknames and all) and then how they fell apart at the seems afterwards. But we never saw WHY. That made the entire second half of the story almost implausible. By the time I got to the end, I was less concerned with what happened to the characters than I was with just FINALLY finishing the book.

This isn't a light, fluffy book. It deals with the disintegration of a family. While it is beautifully written, I was looking forward to the end of it, hoping for a satisfying resolution. I would recommend this to friends, but with a warning! Buy it if you want to be engrossed in a novel.

We Were The Mulvaneys is an epic family saga about the rise, fall and redemption of a family in upstate New York. In mainly takes place in the 1970s, but follows the Mulvaneys' fortunes up to the early 90s. The family consists of the parents, Michael and Corrine, sons Michael Jr., Patrick and Judd and daughter Marianne. Judd, the youngest child, starts off as the narrator. Later on, the point of view changes as we get into the heads of the other Mulvaneys. I found the changing viewpoints a little awkward after it seemed that the whole tale was going to be from Judd's point of view. To me, Judd reveals himself early on as a somewhat unreliable narrator. In the first pages of the book, he starts talking about the Mulvaneys and their farm in such a glowing, effusive manner that I thought the novel was going to be about a wealthy family like the Kennedys. Judd's awestruck descriptions are provincial to the point of being childlike, even though he is supposed to be telling the story at age 30. It seems that Judd's view of his childhood is meant to paint an idealized picture in the reader's mind, making later unhappy events seem more striking and tragic by contrast. To me, however, Judd's viewpoint from the outset seemed overly romanticized.

This is a long book with detailed descriptions of people, places and animals (which play a large part of the family's farm life). Oates is clearly a writer who loves to write. I found her descriptions sometimes moving, at other times excruciatingly long-winded. Marianne is a sweetly naive young girl who takes after her religious mother, Corrine. Marianne is popular, a good student and a cheerleader, until she is date raped on the night of her prom. What follows is a familiar, though still moving, description of the difficulties a young woman faces in such a situation. Filled with shame, and getting little support from her family, she decides not to testify against her rapist, who goes unpunished. Her traditional father Michael, feels rage and frustration at the situation and can no longer stand being around Marianne. So, like parents in a 19th Century English novel, they "send her away" to live with a distant relative hundreds of miles away. This proves to be the great turning point for the Mulvaneys. Gradually, we watch the family decline and its members grow estranged from each other. Michael in particular begins to unravel, eventually losing his business and becoming an alcoholic. From my point of view -- and I can't believe I'm the only reader who reacted this way-- this treatment of Marianne was another kind of turning point in the novel; the point where I lost all sympathy for the parents. While the father's reaction was understandable considering the kind of person he was, it does not justify, at a period as recent as the 1970s, such an anachronistically callous treatment of a daughter. So I was unable to really care what happened to the family from this point on. In fact, as far as the parents were concerned, it seemed like karmic justice when things started to go badly for them.

While the characters in this novel are diverse and sometimes complex, I did not find any of them especially sympathetic for the most part. Michael, the father, turns into something of a brute, throwing out his daughter and behaving violently towards his wife and youngest son. Corrine, the sometimes sitcommishly cheerful mother, repeats platitudes while expelling her own daughter from the household and alienating her son Patrick. Mike Jr., the oldest son, seems to turn out the most healthy and normal, but he plays the smallest part in the novel's events. Marianne evokes sympathy from the tragic event described above, but her personality is extremely pious and self-effacing and I found her role as the martyr tiresome after a while. Patrick, meanwhile, is her polar opposite; a coldly rational atheist who has trouble relating to people. He also plays a large part in the novel, as he concocts a plan (with Judd's help) to get justice for Marianne outside the legal system. While I empathized with this action, Patrick in general (until the very end of the book) is such a detached, purely logical character that he is hard to like. Judd, meanwhile, is portrayed as the stereotypically ignored youngest sibling.

I initially thought that Oates was constructing a rather subtle but searing attack on traditional American family values, exposing an inner depravity underlying religious, respectable, hard-working people. Yet, the novel's sentimental ending, as well as the interview with the author (which is given at the end of the audiobook version), suggest that Oates was doing nothing of the kind. I actually think that We Were the Mulvaneys is meant to be an affirmation of the traditional family, and I can't say it succeeds in this despite some compelling writing and characters.

This book was neither bad nor good and therefore leaves me with little inspiration to write a review. What must be said is that this book had great potential, which was never fully developed. The idea was good. Even some characters were good. Well, actually just Patrick. And come to think of it, I ended up liking Muffin (the cat) more than I did any of the other Mulvaneys. Though even as a cat lover, I got sick of hearing about Muffin and the other animals which were way too many in the first place.

The book did go on and on, too much description about the ordinary (and, oh so cliche at times!).I didn't like the way it jumped between 3rd person and 1st person narrative. I didn't find it confusing, I just found it awkward. It didn't give the chance to really get inside Judd's head (I mean, it was "his" story after all).

I couldn't love or hate anyone in the book. It was hard to tell what their motives were and "who" the real person was inside them. They seemed so in-and-out of character. Maybe that was the author's way of exposing them as phonies? I'm not sure. But without love or hate, there's really nothing left to feel as a reader. Left to chose between a ditzy mother, a jerk-of-a-father (but not a jerk enough to hate him or care about what happens to him), an eldest son who is like a prop in this book, a brainiac son who gets revenge only to disappear and become someone completely different without warning or reason, a victimized daughter, that you can't really feel all that sorry for, the youngest son (also a prop), I'm not sure who to root for (if anyone).

The worst part was, just when I started warming up to the book (forgiving its flaws, hoping for a great ending), I was hugely let down. It took me about a week to finish the last 2 chapters because the end of the book just dragged and I found myself too tired to pick it up. We are told in a quick (but ironically again, long and tedious) after-the-fact fashion about what has become of Marianne and then in the Epilogue everything is "wrapped up" quickly and neatly with no realism whatsoever. I feel if you're going to resolve things in the end, then RESOLVE them---Tell us what it is and how it came to be without just glossing over everything. The book was long enough; some pages should have been assigned to the ending instead of all the fluff in between. This is a book that should make you cry, but I felt nothing (and I am one of the biggest crybabies ever).

If you want a good book about family and family secrets, read Ann-Marie MacDonald's "Fall On Your Knees" or "The Way the Crow Flies" instead. Both excellent books.

I thoroughly enjoyed We Were the Mulvaneys. If you would rather not read an extra long novel, then this isn't the book for you. But I enjoyed every page.

Wow, I cannot sum this novel up in a paragraph...In short, it's about a prominent family with everything in the world to look forward to and how they fell from grace. What's heart wrenching is that the route of the problems (the rape of the daughter) is beyond their control, and the shameful pleasure of this boy (the rapist) was so blatantly temporary that he actually forgot about the incident. Nevertheless, his actions started a chain of events that robbed this family of their happiness. What I love about Joyce Carol Oates is that she puts the reader into the characters' shoes for better or for worse. And in her stories, it's usually for worse. She has an undeniable knack for making fiction seem real. She takes much time to develop her characters to the point where you feel you are actually part of this family. So naturally, when she brazenly rips this family apart, you truly feel their pain. I can't further describe her writing...it's unparallel, and this book clearly shows it.

This was the first novel I've read by Joyce Carol Oates, and if We Were the Mulvaneys is reflective of her other work in terms of craftmanship, I can certainly understand the accolades she's received; This was a great novel. Oates's characterization is brilliant--I feel as if I actually know these characters. She ably conveys the dynamics of the family in such a way that, when tragedy arrives, real emotions are evoked. I felt something like genuine nostalgia for what was lost, and in a sense, I think Oates is aiming for that, arguing that not only have the Mulvaneys moved on, but that perhaps a certain American lifestyle has as well. However, this is just one arguable point of discussion in a work that generates several, a sure sign of quality in any artform. The biggest mystery to me is why many Amazon reviewers categorize this book as a slow read. In contrast, my wife and I both rocketed through this book; I couldn't put it down, and this is another aspect that I found admirable about the book: it's fast paced, yet it is also constructed like literature as well, with layers of symbolism to dissect beyond the basic story. Simply stated, We Were the Mulvaneys is the best novel I've read in some time. I highly reccomend it.

This is a story about the disastrous consequences of a victim's decision not to report a crime. The victim frequently says, "must not bear false witness" because, having been intoxicated at the time of the crime and therefore unable to remember the complete sequence of events from beginning to end, the victim is unsure who the perpetrator(s) was. The victim is correct in assuming it's wrong to falsely accuse a person of a crime, yet the victim is wrong not to report the crime. The crime was committed and therefore there is a criminal(s). This criminal should not be allowed to avoid punishment and continue to harm unsuspecting victims.

Therefore, for the public good the victim should have reported the crime. The physical evidence and the victim's clear memory of key events would likely lead the police to the perpetrator(s). If it fails to convict the criminal(s), then at least the investigation would warn other potential victims and provide community support to the Mulvaney family in their time of need.

This book focuses not on the crime itself but the series of negative consequences that result from the victim's decision not to report the crime. The victim is driven away from home, Mr. Mulvaney's business is destroyed, the criminal continues to attack others, the list is extensive and when considered as a whole the consequences of not reporting the crime are catastrophic. Nevertheless, there is hope and some healing at the conclusion.

The plot is generally linear with historical episodes added occasionally. The style of writing is hyper. Sentences often run on and on. The characterization is average, not very deep. Perhaps the book's strongest quality is its ability to convey emotions without a lot of sentimentality.

I haven't been this inspired by a book in a long time. Oates creates such a complete world for her characters, one into which I feel I could easily step. There was a lot to learn from how she lay all of this out for the reader and then placed these intricate and individual people into this scene. It might be, though, that I am hypercritical of novels right now because I'm aiming at composing my own. So many I've read recently seem to fall into trouble in the end. Oates sets things up beautifully and then besets trouble on the Mulvaneys. Things certainly fall apart for them and there doesn't seem much of a way out for them. Indeed, Oates lets them each fall about as far as possible. This nadir happens with only fifty pages left to read. An event reunites the family, and an epilogue shows us them together many years later. The problem: there is no reconciliation. No recounting of the lessons learned. They somehow come out of this darkness with little effort and stumble right into the daylight as the novel closes. I really did enjoy this book, and that's what made the ending so unsatisfying.

A hundred pages in I never expected to be affected by this book as much as I ultimately was. The Mulvaney's were a seemingly perfect family, complete with loving parents, dynamic attractive all American kids, and a bevy of animals to populate their sprawling farm. However, the picturesque existence is shattered when daughter Marianne is sexually assaulted, and the ripple effects prove devastating to the family.
What resounded most with me was how masterfully Oates conveyed the sometimes painful, gut wrenching journeys people take through their lives while tethered to the anchors of a family bond. I also appreciated the ultimately redemptive tone of the story which could of easily ended on a somber note, as opposed to something that while is melancholy, at least has poignancy and hope.

I'm an avid reader and English major and I love to read mostly 18th c. novels... so I feel I have a lot of pateince when reading overly descriptive or slower storylines. My friend reccomended this book to me and so I bought it.

I had a hard time following the narrator. At the beginning he declares himself to be the youngest son in this family. But then the narrator seems omniprecent and able to read other peoples thoughts. It was so confusing to me. One minute you can tell it is the youngest son and the next it's a daughter or mother who tells the story with their insights or ideas.

The characterization was also difficult for me to get into. I feel that Ms. Oates really wants us to love her characters from the start, but I never felt that she gave me any reason to love her characters. They seemed to be apart of this tight knit family fabric and yet their nicknames for each other, or all of the many quirks and habits they have didn't establish this bond believably for me. I wanted to like them, but didn't feel I was given sufficient substance.

One stumbling block I found was that there are many inconsistancies about what the character supposedly believes, but their actions or language showed otherwise. Maybe I'm missing the point and what the author truly intended, but I found this destructive to her characters instead of the reverse.

I found the novel slow paced and the texture or the sentence structure choppy and sometimes difficult to follow. It seems at time you are tracing an individual's thoughts, but the next minute the style changes.

I'm sure there are many who loved this novel and could identify with the issues of unraveling families, but I really struggled to get a good grasp of the Mulvaney's.

Too bad she has recommemded this book. It may be worthy but I'll no longer waste my time reading anything she recommends after, The House of Sand & Fog, Beloved and The 5 People you meet in Heaven. None of those books had any usefull information or were entertaining. But they did bring suicidal tendencies forward in my mind. 1 person in our book club was chosing the books 9 out of 10 dropped out and will no longer read anything Oprah endorses.

This is a hard read, but a very realistic view into the ripple effect of violence. We see through the eyes of the children how their lives are all turned upside down, and their family ripped inside out, after the rape of 'Muffin' a young girl who is too kind for her own good and becomes the prey of a troubled boy with a rich father.
Joyce Carol Oats is a prolific writer who has no trouble dealing with turbulent relationships and families. You may feel a little 'down' after reading this, but the reader won't be able to put the book down once they begin...
Chrissy K. McVay
author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

I was forced to read this book for a college English course and everyone (except two people) hated this book. One of the worst books I have ever read in my life.
This book was WAY too discriptive. She had to descibe everything to the smallest crack on the wall. What's worse, the story, characters and plot were unrealistic, boring, and the way the family handles the daughter getting raped made me think what planet this family lives on.
The narrator (who is supposed to be the youngest son) is nonexistant in the story. Plus the ending was a real disapointment. I think Oakes was trying too hard to come up with a happy ending.
In short; don't bother reading this book.

I enjoy a book that will immerse the reader in the story, but the descriptive nature of this book is redundant and at times, very annoying.

This book generated a lot of hype, due to being a Oprah book club book. I don't think it lived up to the hype. I found much of the plot somewhat unbelievable. I felt as though the reader never truly got to know any of the characters, nor did I grow to care or relate to any of them.
Much of the book dragged, only to rush at the end to conclude the storyline and tie everything up.

"We Were the Mulvaneys" is a powerful, moving story of the disintegration of a family. It is a classical tragedy in that the disintegration is largely due to the pride of the father; pride causes him to have undue satisfaction in his country club membership, and pride causes his subsequent failure to come to terms with his daughter's misfortune, or to adapt to a less successful role in the world, so that he falls farther than he should have. Fittingly, all the other family members achieve redemption, although one could argue that the happy ending is artificially grafted onto the body of the novel. I accept the happy ending, but I think Oates went overboard: did Mike Jr. have to somehow have earned a college degree, for example, and becoming a physical therapist, as Patrick does, also requires years of training. Oates draws significance out of the little details of everyday life, and vividly portrays several member of the family. Portraying Marianne, with her spirituality and reactions to hurt, was a special challenge, one Oates successfully meets; Marianne very slowly heals, until she is capable of marriage. I did not feel as comfortable with Patrick, but I do find him plausible. Oates' prose style is forceful, but sometimes borders on the overdone, and while I enjoyed the book, I could understand a reader who felt differently. Example of a sentence which works despite itself: "With that strange fated compulsion with which swirling water is drawn down a drain, each discrete molecule and atom seeming pressed for extinction, Marianne felt a wildness come over her".

Another one I read because it made Oprah's list.

The story of a tragic event affecting this family is terrible. The poor daughter's life is changed by a rape and the father falls apart. I felt bad for the daughter's character and wanted to smack the father and hug him all at the same time.

Although long... this is a great story.

It is a wonderful book that says a lot about the human condition, at least I think. Disfunctional families, etc. And how it can all come back together. I cried at times reading this book. The sadness carried over until Oates brought everyone together in the end. I saw the Movie, which was not too bad as movies go. JC Oates is a great writer, and I think this is one of her best for the masses. It's just a wonderful story that says an awfull lot about life, and how preciously fraduel (sp?)it is for all of us.
It's a good read - Joyce Carol Oates is a great writer.
Barry

You need the stamina of a long-distance runner to get through this family saga. It never reveals too much about its members (excepting Patrick the middle son, the necessary black sheep) and wavers annoyingly from first person narration by youngest son Judd (who opens the story) to third person. The plot hinges on the rape of the Mulvaney's only daughter/sister and the murderous plot to avenge her, which keeps the reader interested (out of morbid curiosity in the lack of any higher motives) but even these are improbable. Why would a girl with two older brothers who grew up on a farm be so naive? Why would Patrick take so long to execute revenge? Patrick is the character we get closest to and he saves the story. What's missing here though are description, dialog and depth of character. We are left with the impression that the Mulvaney family isn't the smartest on the hill. I just read a playwright's lament that today "We need more drama that unpeels society, that roots through the cubbyholes to fetch us nuggets of human behaviour that opens our eyes a bit ... Not just the dark stuff - but wondrous fragments of ordinary people that can take our breath away." We Were the Mulvaneys is yet another tale that falls short of the mark.

The Mulvaneys were the perfect family who lived in a picturesque old house on beautiful Hill Point Farm. Mike and Corinne Mulvaney are an attractive couple with four wonderful children: athletic Mike Jr., brainy Patrick, popular Marianne, and baby brother Judd. This is the kind of family that everyone dreams of: fun, quirky, and full of love. But in typical Joyce Carol Oates style, their idyllic world doesn't last forever. When something tragic happens to 17-year-old Marianne on the night of the Valentine's Day prom, the Mulvaney's perfect world is shattered. The family members who have always been there to rely on each other are each affected by the tragedy. Once respected and admired by the entire town, the Mulvaneys are now ostracized at every turn. In an attempt to deal with the problem, the parents who once seemed so flawless do the unthinkable and send their tormented daughter into exile, an event which sets up the tragic downfall of a business, a marriage, and an entire family.

"We Were the Mulvaneys" is an incredibly powerful novel that tackles issues of family, society, and compassion. Readers will fall in love with the Mulvaneys and then be heartbroken by the tragedy that befalls them. I recommend this book to everyone.

Every summer, I try to read at least one book of Joyce Carol Oates. This summer, it was the Mulvaneys. This books lets you dwell on certain thoughts - for instance, What is normal? People in life seem so normal at times, but most people are hurting or damaged in one way or another. Life is also precarious - how do different people react to difficult circumstances? We Were The Mulvaneys is really a case study of how people react in a normal, or on the surface "normal" family when a tragedy occurs. There are many twists and turns, and not the gore that I associate with some other Joyce Carol Oates novels. It's fascinating, she covers a time period that I remember well, as will anyone coming of age in the late 1970's. Oates also does a great job describing the economic slump of 1980, and how this affected upstate NY, which has yet to recover from the hard times. This is a book you easily picture in your head, these are thoughts and characters that you recognize, perhaps even in your own family. I think this is a great book and I'd recommend it. It's very hard to put down once you are reading.

The author knows her biology. She understands that new species often start out as a relatively small population somewhere on the outer range of the then dominant species. It's geographical separation that produces a species difference. Thus, new species always seems to happen "somewhere else", or as a biologist would say, allopatrically. When, against the odds, one of these new species manages to successfully invade, and then replace its ancestor, the new species endures for a considerable time. Evolution proceeds in fits and starts; a species lasts until it is replaced by another----and that replacement is rapid. Taken together, the two ideas---the endurance of species, and allopatric speciation---make up the conceptual basis for the theory known as punctuated equilibrium, or as they say in the trade, "punk eck".
When viewed from the perspective of "punk eck", it is Homo Sapien Mulvaney, previously isolated in its own little world--- a farm on the fringe of the dominant species--- who becomes the invader. Like most minority intruders, they are repelled. In the end, instead of converting their dominant neighbors into Mulvaneys, it is the Mulvaneys that are quickly punctuated into---into what?---into average white people, with average ambitions, and average offspring, destined (creationists would say predestined) to lead average lives.
So it goes. Equilibrium is maintained.

Being the first book I've read by Oates, I had no idea what to expect from this book. I was pleasantly surprised with how involved I was with the characters and while the plot is presented in a fabulously circular fashion, it seems that some points do drag. I realize after having finished it that I was simply so into the story that I couldn't handle the extra language and background Oates introduced before relaying the climax of a chapter...etc. But this is the most endearing part about Oates' style and the story itself; it is as though you are a Mulvaney with Judd (the narrating youngest son) and can't help but become emotionally involved.

I was disappointed to see that it was an "Oprah" book as they are usually depressing, but this was a shining light and an overall great read. If you liked it, I would recommend "The Brothers K" by David james Duncan-another fabulous character novel about the challenges of keeping the All-American family together through turmoil.