Customer Reviews

Broke Heart Blues

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I have the distinct advantage of not having read any other Oates works, and so Broke Heart Blues writes on a tabula rosa. I thought it allegorical, not "a stretch" like others. I found it wholly engaging, not "tedious" as some did. And far from trivial, I found it profound.

The book parlays the contrast between female adolescent male hero-worship and middle-aged female angst into a wonderfully insightful and moving story. Oates evokes both the harmony and the discord of each of these life stages; one hears the cacaphony of emotions as they play out in each. She paints the tragedy (as well as the inevitability) of the co-existence of adult yearnings in teenagers and adolescent yearnings in adults. The mix is equally problematic, and often disasterous, for the members of each group. While devoting few words to sex per se, the book is mostly concerned with about precisely that, and its continuing power over the emotions, and often the actions, of young girls and boys, middle-aged parents, and even children and old men. Trouble is greatest when a character acts on chronologically out-of-synch emotions.

At the center is the child-adult Heart, who grows into the adult-child Heart, and is thus is nearly always out of synch. He serves (literally and figuritively) as the lightening rod for the women characters' emotional and physical cravings in both adsolence and adulthood. He also functions as the focal point for the fanatsies (including the heterosexual ones) of the male characters. They lust after their female peers vicariously, deeply envious of their dream girls' devotion to the mythology of Heart. This hero-worship by both sexes is beautifully and evocatively symbolized by a certain tatoo on a main character's body, and by her boyfriend's public self-prostration in adoration of it.

This book is good stuff, and shouldn't be missed by any thinking person in their forties or early fifties with even a dim remembrance of themselves in high school or college.

I've enjoyed all of the books that I've read by author Joyce Carol Oates, except this one. She has portrayed the angst of adolescence so beautifully in previous novels. What happened?

Oates introduces the reader to fascinating people: mysterious John Reddy Heart, his luminescent mother and eccentric grandfather, but fails to flesh-out the characters, to establish deep family ties. Curiously, Heart's little brother becomes a computer industry tycoon and his pathetic little sister becomes a "famous" nun. If they had grown up to be less prominent citizens would that have diminished the plot?

The sensuality of being "young and restless" was ever-present as was the loss of that vitality 30 years later at the high-school reunion. In spite of the fact that the story was episodic, disjointed, I couldn't help but wonder what was the allure of John Reddy Heart (more saint than sinner). Alas, if only the story had been told from the "heart."

In "Broke Heart Blues" Joyce Carol Oates once again proves she is one of the great stylists of American literature. Like "Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang" this novel is a meditation on american life at a specific time. The novel takes us through the 1950's to the present (though years are never named), focusing on a group of upper-middleclass suburbanites as they are reflected through their obsession with the novel's anti-hero, Johnny Reddy Heart. Through the eyes of the townspeople who surround him, Heart seems to be a James Dean-like rebel. Oates uses this set up to reveal the shortcomings of America's intoxication and obsession with fame. It works; it is not so much for the story of Heart that we read the first half of the novel, but for the fasinating portrait of contemporary american life revealed as we swim through the obsessions of the various teenagers, housewives, teachers and businessmen who construct what becomes the myth of Johnny Reddy Heart. The second half of the novel reveals the objective (dare I say "true"? in Oates' post-modern world true is a risky word) story of John Heart after his involvement in a fame and myth-making murder trial. We slowly find out what happened--as opposed to the whimsical, subjective impressions given in the first part of the novel. Gaps are filled in, and filled in in marvelous, fluid, at times perfect prose. This is a great read. It delivers almost everything Oates is know for at one point or another--compelling narrative, stylistic grace, lurid violence, sex, strong themes and brutal honesty. This is not the best Oates, but to say a book is not the best Oates is a compliment most writers would kill for. Highly recommended for all Oates fans and for the general reader of both "serious" and "popular" contemporary fiction.

why Joyce Carol Oates devoted hundreds of pages to describing John Reddy Hart's high school comrades I just don't understand. The only good part about this book was when she finally let us into John Reddy's life from his point of view. I never good a good sense of any of the characters, and i never even began to recognize who was who in the high school crowd. the book was repetative, boring, and the worst Oates book I have read to date. I loved We were The Mulvaneys, but this one left much to be desired.

JCO is a phenomenal writer and I look forward to her books. I suppose that is why I was so disappointed in this book. I usually can not put her books down and yet I had to struggle to finish this without intermittent napping. The story line is cloying and not particularly believable. The writing style is great JCO stuff, but somehow it was not enough to make this stimulating. I see the larger themes she wants to touch upon, but boy is it a stretch here. Who are these characters and why do I fail to care? True enough many people are damaged by adolescent experiences (real and imagined) but this story just doesn't click. I found it repetitive and dull. Great effort, but also, for me, great disappointment. JCO writes so well that you just come to expect great things. I'll shelve this error and wait for another great success(like, We were the Mulvaney's)

I've read practically evrything written by JCO and must say her newest is not her best. In fact, I must say she seems to be on auto pilot. I wanted to like this book because it looked like it could be her most accessable. JCO is a writer who needs to be discovered by the mainstream to show how talented she is. The first two sections are tedious and the third one gives you of feeling of who really cares at this point. For her best writings look for books published in the eighties and early nineties. Her last five books show a writer running on empty. JCO take a break for a few years and I'm sure your fans will appreciate it as much as you. We'll be awaiting your return eagerly. In the meantime. Relax.

I had checked this book out of the library before and returned it without reading it. I couldn't for the life of me remember why I had done so, because I usually like this author's work. So recently I checked it out again. It didn't take more than a few pages for me to remember why I had given up before. This novel never gets started. The most exciting page is the first one and then Oates begins to ramble. And ramble.

Don't get me wrong, I adore this author. I have inhaled everything else she has ever written. But there is much better to be found in "Oates Country" than this.

I have given this novel two stars for the quality of the writing and phrasing. Very few can craft a sentence better than Oates. However, this novel doesn't move beyond the pretty sentences, for me anyway.

However, thankfully, there are better Oates novels from which to choose. Try out We Were The Mulvaneys, Foxfire or My Heart Laid Bare instead.

As a fan of all things Joyce Carol Oates I was pretty dissapointed. I've read at least 75% of her books and this was the first time I didn't complete one. I put this book down because it was so repetitive and it didn't really go anywhere. The basic story is outline in the first couple pages and then slowly built up over the next hundred, but the charators never become real. I think that the idea behind the narrative was good. The story is told through the point of view of John Reddy Hart's classmates much like the Virgin Suicides, but if you're looking for a good Joyce Carol Oats read pick up Because its Bitter and Because its my Heart, or Invisible People if you can find it.

this is a 369-page novella. the idea of the book is certainly worthy and perhaps profound: that high school is the pinnacle of american lives. but this book goes on and on and on, as if the author was fulfilling a page-length-requirement to the publisher. further, it is sloppy in its detail. a bel-air is a chevy, not a cadillac; dodge never made a castille; oldsmobile hasn't made a 4-door convertible since the 1930's. i stayed with this book through its entire length, hoping that something would happen. nothing does. is that life? for many people, yes. but i detested high school, despite the fact that i was a somebody there. i graduated. oates characters never do. and john ready heart is the dullest of the bunch --- a blur upon the landscape of memory, not only to the other characters, but to the reader, as well. i wanted to know more about dahlia, e.s., verrie, but the focus of this dry and repititious tome is heart (the character,) not human experience. and heart is so bland that we care not what became of him. he lives so fully in his role as an outsider that we are more than willing to leave him in whatever wretched trailer park he may next inhabit. oates is one of the darlings of critics, a vertitable icon of the literary establishment. this book cannot support that stature. john ready heart's story has no heart: it is as forgettable as a wet dream and as inconsequential.

This book concentrates on form and neglects content. Nothing much happens after the first few chapters except the rapid fire introduction of too many moony teenage girls. I wanted more about John Reddy himself and less about mass hysteria and adolescent angst. After teaching high school for 10 years, I couldn't suspend disbelief enough to buy that one boy could induce that much lovesickness among so many different girls.