A Review of We Were the Mulvaneys
Examining an Oprah's Book Club selection by Joyce Carol Oates
Introduce yourself to the Mulvaneys, witness their heart-wrenching story, meet unforgettable characters, and fall in love with a real family with real problems.
The Mulvaneys – to the outsider peering in their living room window they seem the perfect family, one of which everyone wants to be a part. To the Mulvaneys themselves the family name represents a dream to realize, a standard to uphold or a prison to escape. When a tragic turn of events destroys the façade that is the Mulvaney family, each member must decide what to do with regard to his family name – protect it, seek revenge for it, run away from it, destroy it or forgive it.
Family Faces
We Were the Mulvaneys is not the biography of any one family member. The family itself is the main character. The plot revolves around how each person responds to his idea of the Mulvaney family. Judd tries to find his place in it, while Marianne molds herself by it. Michael Jr. seems to achieve it, at least in the opening chapters, while Michael Sr. and Corrinne, the patriarch and matriarch respectively, define it by applying both positive and negative elements from their own childhood family experiences. In the Mulvaneys readers find the perfect portrait of a dysfunctional family made up of dysfunctional people who truly love each other, but operate in a fantasy world.
Family Findings
From page one of We Were the Mulvaneys, readers encounter unforgettable themes such as the power of family secrets, the danger of keeping up appearances, the effect of parental expectations, the journey toward identity discovery, the tragedy of inherited addictions, the role of faith in family crises, the horror of sexual violence, the cycle of blame and justice versus revenge, and most of all the power of forgiveness and healing. In essence readers will find a bit of their own life stories in the family saga of the Mulvaneys. They are all things to all people.
Family Fine Points
In her heartbreaking novel Joyce Carol Oates invites her readers to take up residence at High Point Farm for a difficult season. She brings life to each of her characters in intricate detail. At times their growth seems a bit tedious, but as readers soon discover, the details are essential. To fully understand the Mulvaneys readers must know them intimately, must become Mulvaneys. Oates’s vivid descriptions of her characters’ nuances accomplish just such a relationship with her readers.
We Were the Mulvaneys is not a quick weekend read, nor is it a consistently riveting page-turner. At times the novel begs to be set aside for reflection and contemplation. We Were the Mulvaneys must be savored like a long lost family photo album. Readers who choose patiently to explore it as such will find snapshots of their own families within its pages.
We Were the Mulvaneys
By Joyce Carol Oates
Copyright 1996 The Ontario Review, Inc.
ISBN: 0-525-94223-8
