The Gravedigger's Daughter

by Joyce Carol Oates

Book Overview

In 1936 the Schwarts, an immigrant family desperate to escape Nazi Germany, settle in a small town in upstate New York, where the father, a former high school teacher, is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. After local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty result in unspeakable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca, begins her astonishing pilgrimage into America, an odyssey of erotic risk and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061236829
• ISBN13: 9780061236822
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 592 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Oates explores impact of childhood abuse on development of woman's identity

In "The Gravedigger's Daughter," Joyce Carol Oates explores the impact of childhood abuse on the development of a woman's identity. Her intricately designed and compelling novel details the brutal early life of Rebbeca Schwart and follows her into adulthood, one in which the grown woman casts off previous sufferings but never escapes their cruel shadow. The youngest child of an impoverished German Jewish immigrant family, Rebecca endures a barren early life that includes being subjected to an ill-tempered, violent father, the slow and tortured descent of her mother into mental illness and the callous disregard of her two insensitive older brothers. Unable to endure the moral and spiritual poverty of their graveyard surroundings, Rebecca's brothers flee the wrath of their father and the hopelessness of their condition. Eventually, Rebecca witnesses the murder/suicide of her mother and father, an event whose impact reverberates throughout her life. Abandoned, traumatized and directionless, Rebecca must reinvent herself, first as a ward of the court, then as a wife and mother. It is Oates' brilliant depiction of a woman struggling to create a new self while simultaneously attempting to submerge her previous identity that gives "The Gravedigger's Daughter" its emotional impact. Rebecca's cryptic personae permit her to survive but never grant her existential peace. What solace she savors derives from her brilliant but tormented son, he the product of one of the most nefarious characters of contemporary literature. Beguiled and then beaten by Niles Tignor, Rebecca re-experiences the controlling, violent outbursts that characterized her father. Her act of personal liberation, her reinvention of identity and her commitment to her child's wellbeing exemplify a quiet, implacable will to live. Always wary of being discovered, perpetually cautious and suspicious, Rebecca refuses to give herself away to any man or idea. She lives to survive. Written with excruciating detail, "The Gravedigger's Daughter" is much more than an exploration of one woman's consciousness. Joyce Carol Oates has crafted a work that explicitly describes violence, directly confronts social injustice and sensitively describes how a thwarted human spirit heals itself. This is a novel that will unsettle and upset, but it is also a cautionary tale of how identity, however shattered, will undergo reformation and reinvention.

Ultimately Rewarding

Difficult to get into. Brooding and depressing as much of Oates' work is, but hypnotic after a while. Her abiity to drop little clues keep you going even when most depressed. I was very touched by the ending. It's remarkable what this woman's imagination can come up with!

Another brilliant book by a Joyce Carol Oates

This book is amazingly intricate and simple at the same time...It is a hard book to read, because its theme is unpleasant at times, and somewhat depresseing. Joyce Carol Oates takes you again in her writer's journey and leaves you pondering with this big question. Do we all make up who we really are and were we come from ... are we truthful about our lives... this journey Rebecca's journey is a must read for those who love this writer...I could not put it down as painful as it seemed at times...and at other times somewhat predictable, as I have read so many of Oates books...it is an incredible read! Highly recommend it! You will not be disappointed at all...its quite memorable, and stays with you ... unforgettable story.

A riveting read

Joyce Carol Oates is quite a prolific author having penned 36 novels in her career so far [about a book a year] and its amazing that each of them is unique and makes for compelling reading [Middle Age, High Lonesome -my opinion anyway]. In her latest effort, we are introduced to a tortured soul in the form of female protagonist Rebecca Schwart. In the prologue, we learn that Rebecca narrowly misses being abducted by a stranger who calls her "Hazel Jones" as she returns from her factory job. As her story unfolds, we learn that Rebecca is the daughter of Holocaust survivors whose tortured memories of the past make it difficult for them to lead happy lives. Her father, a former schoolteacher, works as a cemetery caretaker, and later kills his wife and shoots himself [not before almost killing Rebecca herself]. Male brutality is a running theme throughout the novel, as Rebecca marries a beer salesman, Niles Tignor who turns out to be physically abusive. After she escapes being brutally beaten to death, Rebecca flees with her son Niley, and assumes the name Hazel Jones, and renames her son Zacharias. They lead a nomadic life, and Rebecca finds some contentment with an older man, Chet Gallagher who nurtures her sons prodigious musical talent, but never truly escapes her past. Yet Rebecca's story is a tale of self-discovery, of escaping a cycle of abuse, and many other things that define human relationships, and human lives. It is a long read, but the complexities of Rebecca's background, her relationships, and her own self make for compelling reading. Another masterpiece of human study by Oates.