Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates

 

Joyce Carol Oates, JCO as she calls herself, has been wrapped up in reflective memoir-type books for the past few years now, ever since her husband and thoroughly-bonded life partner died suddenly.  Mudwoman is a great novel, in my opinion her best since The Falls, this time chronicling the life of a person who has cared too much, maybe because they haven’t cared enough.

This JCO novel is great because she has returned to using her brilliant writing talent to dig deeply into one person’s life.  She delves into their waking thoughts and late night dreams, and often halfway in between.  She stirs the seething broth of her protagonist’s crazy thoughts, bubbling in and out of sanity, finding it hard to keep a firm grasp on reality. 

JCO explores most deeply, the thoughts of her protagonist as she ages, losing parents.  The odd thing about Mudwoman is that her protagonist is cut awfully close to the bone of JCL herself.  M.R. is an academic – a professor of philosophy at a distinguished New York University.  Does JCO’s character overreach to obtain the Presidency of this august university?  As JCO unfolds MR’s life story, we learn of a great deal about M R’s psychopathic tendencies.

Adopted kids, like twins garner a lot of interest by authors and certainly a huge crowd of readers who share in their uniqueness.  M R is a defensive loner all her life – not just no sex life {but rich fantasies}, but no family or friends {except the King of Crows}.  JCO is a master at expressing fantasy from an otherwise normal character she has developed.  She contrasts the 99% outwardly acceptable stable character with a shockingly violent, sadistic inner 1% of this same character, which normally never actually surfaces.  Thus we readers are sometimes left with the questions:

a)   Was her character normal, just like us?

b)  Or was that character demonic, like we might be capable of becoming?

c)   Or is it JCO that is demonic, trying to channel Ann Rice?

 

It may not be real, but for me, JCO is reviewing her life in this novel.  She talks about morals and political imperatives; 9/11; choices along the long road of life: books, teaching, academics.  She dwells on children, marriage, relationships, friendship, and duty.  There is rarely romance in JCO’s writing.  To be frank, there is rarely much joy or happiness.