In 1937 Detroit, 16 year old Loretta contemplates an evening date with a boy she likes. She lives in an apartment with a father who doesn't work and is drunk all the time, and with a brother who might be dangerous for all she knows. Her life takes a sudden twist from innocent dreams of happiness and success after her brother kills a man she loves and a marriage to a policeman (to hide the fact) forces her into early motherhood. 'them' chronicles the life of Loretta and subsequently her children, Jules, Maureen and Betty. Jules and Maureen take up the latter portion of the book and through the young man's eyes (Jules) and his sister Maureen, we are taken through a world of turbulent relationships in a city were racial segregration, drugs, prostitution and death take precedent in their lives.

Anyone who loves drama, history and emotional stories.

The story of Jules. His felt more 'real' to me while reading, the different events that he goes through makes him a tragic and heroic figure all in one.

Maureen's side of things. Goodness knows, I wanted to slap her myself after reading some of the things she does. It almost doesn't make sense of why she acted in some way and the writer (Oates) doesn't seem to have any clear cut idea of what to do with her.

Lay my head in a bucket of ice. It was quite draining emotionally.

As mentioned, emotionally drained, somewhat sad and a willingness to know what happened to the characters long after they had moved on.

Joyce Carol Oates

It does teach you a lot about the human psyche and how individuals treated each other (Negroes vs. Whites) in a turbulent era of American history.

Oates writing style is almost suffocating. She uses a lot of words repeatedly (especially in Maureen's section) and perhaps that was deliberate, but I had to skim through most of those sections.

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Created Jul 29, 2007 at 7:16pm • Submit your own review...