We Were the Mulvaneys

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Kokia skausmingai graži knyga. Viena tų, ilgų, kur kiekvieną veikėją pažįsti iš visokiausių pusių ir galiausiai kiekvieną savaip prisijaukini – netobulą, gal net visai nemielą, bet tiek pat artimą, kiek savos šeimos narys. Ir tiek pat po to, kai kartu 600 puslapių praleidai, mylimą ir saugomą. Jau seniai man nebuvo taip, kad net raidžių per ašaras nematyčiau – jei vietomis tik elegantiškai ritosi, tai į galą jau tiesiog kūkčiojau į megztinio atlapą. Čia tiek nesuvaidinto, tikro skausmo, be dramos vardan dramos, tiek daug buities, kuri patraukia paprastumu – kito autoriaus, ne tokio talentingo rankose, nesunku būtų nusukti į saldumą, susireikšminimą, tačiau šita knyga net neguli prie tų, kurias įprastai reklamuoja kaip „šeimos sagas“ – čia viena tų, kur bus vertinama kaip aukščiausio lygio klasika. Parašyta smulkmeniškai, elegantiškai, su milžiniška atida detalėms ir jausmams, visai jų amplitudei ne tik vienos šeimos, bet vieno miestelio, net vienos šalies kontekste. This is also a novel that can be read on many levels. Certainly it is the story of the deterioration of an American family, but it is also the story of how difficult it is to break the bonds of love once forged. It is also a story of the fragility of self-esteem solely based on how others view us, which, of course, can turn on a dime, with underscoring threads of the fundamental coldness of nature itself and the inevitibility of death. These themes are interwoven with the philosophies of Christianity, Darwinism, and the age of reason that in Oates' skilled hands seem not to compete with each other so much as to cooperate, and perhaps even complement. Because her family revolves around the cheery demeanor generated by Corinne, Marianne keeps the news of the rape to herself. She blames herself, not the boy, for what has happened. In the middle of a weekday morning, another mother tells Corinne that she has seen Marianne going into the Catholic Church, although school is in session and the family is Protestant. Corinne goes to the church and gets Marianne. En route home, the car runs over something in the road that seems to be a small animal, and Marianne becomes hysterical. Corinne takes her to the family doctor, who examines her and explains that Marianne has been raped. In 1978, Oates moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where she continues to teach in Princeton University’s creative writing program; she and her husband also operate a small press and publish a literary magazine, The Ontario Review. Shortly after arriving in Princeton, Oates began writing Bellefleur, the first in a series of ambitious Gothic novels that simultaneously reworked established literary genres and reimagined large swaths of American history. Published in the early 1980s, these novels marked a departure from the psychological realism of her earlier work. But Oates returned powerfully to the realistic mode with ambitious family chronicles (You Must Remember This, Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart), novels of female experience (Solstice, Marya: A Life), and even a series of pseudonymous suspense novels (published under the name “Rosamond Smith”) that again represented a playful experiment with literary genre. As novelist John Barth once remarked, “Joyce Carol Oates writes all over the aesthetical map.” In 2000, Oates was a National Book Award finalist in fiction for Blonde, an ambitious and imaginative portrait of one of America’s greatest cultural icons, Marilyn Monroe.

During these mad dashes to the wall phone in the kitchen she hadn’t time to fall but with fantastical grace and dexterity wrenched herself upright in midfall and continued running (dogs whimpering, yapping hysterically in her wake, cats scattering wide-eyed and plume-tailed) before the telephone ceased its querulous ringing – though frequently she was greeted with nothing more than a derisive dial tone, in any case. The past tense in the title hints at the book’s outcome. In some ways it’s about the decline and fall of a once prosperous, well-loved upstate New York family. One event that happens on Valentine’s Day in 1976 affects each of the six Mulvaneys differently, and this book, narrated mostly by the youngest child, Judd, tells the sad, sad story. On St. Valentine's night 1976, after prom, Marianne Mulvaney goes to a party where she becomes intoxicated and is raped by an upperclassman, whose father is a well-respected businessman and friend of Mr. Mulvaney. Oates employs various narrative techniques and symbolism to enhance the novel's depth. The shifting narrative perspective allows readers to engage with each character's thoughts and emotions, fostering empathy and understanding. The symbolism of the family farm, once a symbol of unity, becomes a representation of loss and fragmentation.

As one Mulvaney child says about his family late in the book, “It’s like things are in code and the key’s been lost.”

Darwin and the theory of evolution are discussed at several points in the novel. What point is Oates trying to make with this? How does Darwinian evolution relate to the central incident of the book? It happens in some families, perhaps many more than we know that a "split" occurs. A parent is hurt. It might be a father, as in this case, it might be a mother. Someone who is strong-willed, very loving, but also very dominating. Someone who, until the split occurs, you wouldn't expect to be so stubborn. So heartrendingly stubborn. This parent is hurt, or insulted, or thwarted, or "disappointed." This parent's pride is lacerated. And the individual, often a child, who has caused the rupture can't be easily forgiven. Maybe he or she doesn't wish to beg for forgiveness. Maybe he or she is as stubborn as the parent. And suddenly... the family is "split." People choose sides. People cease speaking to one another, sometimes for years. And only after a duration of time can things be made right again and healing can begin again. He querido leer este libro desde hace años, cualquiera que me conozca sabe lo mucho que lo busqué por todos lados, incluso en librerías en Estados Unidos, por algún motivo su edición había sido descontinuada y se habían retirado todas las copias disponibles de librerías. Dopo che me ne sono andato quel giorno, quella domenica di Pasqua, ricordi? Mi sono svuotato. Il veleno che avevo nel sangue è colato fuori. Come fossi stato malato, infetto, e non me ne fossi accorto finché il veleno è scomparso. Però non rimpiango nulla. Penso che la vendetta debba essere bella. I greci lo sapevano. Sangue chiama sangue. Credo che l’istinto della “giustizia” sia innato, presente nei nostri geni. Il bisogno di ristabilire l’equilibrio.»

Malveiniai nuo pat kūrinio pradžios piešiami kaip mano įsivaizdavimą atitinkanti tradicinė amerikiečių šeima. Didelė, garsi, turinti kartais keistų tradicijų, ir net jei ne visada tobulai sutarianti, kažkokiu būdu vis viena labai vieninga. Pasakodama apie šios iš pirmo žvilgsnio tvirtos kaip kumštis šeimos byrėjimą autorė yra labai rūpestinga su kiekvienu jos nariu – iki smulkiausių kaulelių išnarstome visus, ir būtent todėl ta šeima skaitytojui tampa tokia brangi. Jie – tai žmonės, kuriuos pažįsti, jie – kartais tavo paties atspindys, net jei iš pradžių gali pasirodyti be galo tolimi, atskirti vandenyno, kito laikotarpio ir visiškai skirtingos aplinkos. Tačiau žmogiškos patirtys yra universalios, o čia jų pilna. Ir dažniausiai jos skaudžios, tokios, nuo kurių norėtųsi nusisukti, į kurias mieliau nežiūrėtum. Bet būtent to pasekmes šis kūrinys ir meistriškai narsto, o skaitytojas paliekamas tvarkytis su krūva emocijų, kurias tai palieka. after, without any discussion with the rest of the family, the parents arrange to send Marianne away to live with a distant relative. They do this because Michael cannot bear the constant reminder of his powerlessness in the face of what happened to her. We Were the Mulvaneys is perhaps the novel closest to my heart. I think of it as a valentine to a passing way of American life, and to my own particular child —and girlhood in upstate New York. Everyone in the novel is enormously close to me, including Marianne’s cat, Muffin, who was in fact my own cat. One writes to memorialize, and to bring to life again that which has been lost. When the rape is revealed, Marianne refuses to press charges against the student (whose father is a well respected businessman, and a friend of Marianne's own father). She feels she can't be her own witness because she had been drinking and the entire night had turned into a blur.