Customer Reviews

Garden of Earthly Delights

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Joyce Carol Oates second published novel. It is where she proved her ability to write a powerful epic as she would later do again in novels such as Bellefleur. It follows the life of Clara, a woman born to migrant workers in the midst of the Depression. She is born appropriately in the middle of a violent accident. Here we see the delicacy and terrifying indifference of human life swept up in a sea of natural transformation. Children, parents and friends die in this bleak Darwinian environment. It is part of the course and they must accept it as they move to the next field where labour is required. Clara grows into a defensive and powerful woman bent on carving a safe space for herself in this harsh world. She falls in love with a man named Lowry who is independent and intelligent. Through him Clara establishes a new life for herself. Only after the birth of their son, Swan (Steven), must she make the decision whether to join with a wealthy restricted life with a man named Revere or lead a life of tumultuous romance with Lowry. Through Swan, Clara attempts to realise all the desires for living which were denied to her in her restricted upbringing. However, Swan, intelligent and emotional, has desires of an entirely different sort. This is a compelling novel that knowledgably explores the multifarious stages of life: the tense exploration of childhood, the embittered compromises of adulthood and the difficult choices we must make to survive. It is a beautifully crafted work.

This book combines the best of all things Oatesian. If released as a new work today, it would blast through the awards committees faster than a Philip Roth masterpiece. This reworking of Oates's second novel seamlessly integrates the fire of her yuthful writing, full of her own personal experiences, with the seasoned mastery of her later writing style. This completely rewritten book is ultimately satisfying because there is nothing to overlook due to inexperienced enthusiasm (like many of her early works). If anyone is considering an Oates novel to explore her for the first time, to bring into a summer reading program for youth, or to round out a high school curriculum, this is your book. For anyone who already loves her unique style and phenomenal skill, going back to this early novel will satisfy your cravings like nothing else in the world. This is Oates at her best. Though her murder stories (Zombie and the Rosamond Smith serial killer series) and child abuse novels (First Love, Beasts, and You Must Remember This) provide more of her famous poignant horror, Garden of Earthly Delights carries the weight of John Steinbeck's East of Eden. You can't get better than this for mastery of the classic mid 20th century novel form.

Joyce Carol Oates revised and rewrote The Garden of Earthly Delights; this new version was just published in 2003 under the Modern Library 20th century rediscovered. (This was the author's second novel originally published in 1966.)

The novel follows the life of Clara Walpole, born in a ditch to migrant workers during the Great Depression. She grows up moving from camp to camp, picking when children are allowed to pick, and going to school when required. There are four important men in her life, and no important women.

There's her father. He loves Clara, but not her brothers, and not her mother. Her mother is worn out and dies leaving Clara to take care of her brothers. Her father brings Nancy into the household. He needs to have a woman. Clara learns about incest when her friend Rosalie's father is taken by the KKK. Terror reigns in the camp. The men think that they can do nothing, perhaps because they think it is a just punishment for getting his daughter pregnant, or perhaps because they fear the Klan.

Shortly after that incident, Clara goes into town and meets Lowry, who takes her away with him. Joyce Carol Oates does the unexpected. She makes Lowry a decent sort of chap. Lowry sets Clara up in his home town. He gets her a job, and a place to stay. Lowry tells Clara that she needs to lie; she must tell everyone that she is sixteen years old. Otherwise, she will end up in an orphanage. Of course Clara is in love.

Then there is Revere, both wealthy and married. And finally there is Clara's son, Swan.

Interwoven with these men are four Claras. There is Clara the child, Clara the teenager, Clara the woman, and finally, Clara as worn out as her mother was when she died.

I love reading Joyce Carol Oates. Although she is unique, sometimes she reminds me of Steinbeck, and sometime she reminds me of Stephen King. But, in The Garden of Earthly Delights, she reminds me of Barbara Kingsolver. If you enjoy great writing, and a terrific story, you will enjoy this book.

I highly recommend The Garden of Earthly Delights.

I believe I read this book some years ago, but forgot that I had, as Joyce Carol Oates has rewritten it. It is a wonderful story about migrant farm workers living during the depression, and what one of the characters, Clara, the daughter, does to get away from this miserable existence to a place where she feels she has some power. In essence, this book is the story of a woman who is realized by the company she keeps (the men in her life)...all of them are interesting characters, and bring out both of her worst and best values ...The ending is devastating, profound...and a surprise...Joyce Carol Oates has written a riveting story in her 30s, and has rewritten it so well, and so profoundly that you can't imagine not being part of the people and places she takes you into...

The plot was all right, but I was most impressed by Ms. Oates's lyrical use of language. She has the ability to transform the most mundane actions, feelings, or settings into something that seems really unusual or noteworthy just by describing it a certain way. I love the way the the main character, Clara, sees the world...it is very refreshing and unusual. I can't really tell if the awesome descriptions throughout the book are because of Clara's candid and innocent way of seeing the world, or because of Oates's special way with words. It's nothing big really. Throughout the book, she notes the little things, like how the migrant farm workers don't care how they look while picking fruit, and how they make weird faces as they think things to themselves or how they mumble sorta as they replay conversations that theyve had in their minds. But for me, it's the little things like that that make a book really come alive. This novel is full of really sweet quotes, and the language just really blew me away.

This book has recently been rewritten by Ms. Oates. I am reviewing the original version. I suggest that you begin with this one, and move on to the revision if you like this edition.

A Garden of Earthly Delights looks at life's challenges as seen by an exploited, powerless woman who lacks a religious foundation . . . but has a crude beauty and appeal that are irresistible to men. Through her eyes, we see the importance of being self-confident and focusing on the main chance . . . whatever that might be. In the process, her heart is darkened and her life damaged by the hard choices she has had to make. That darkness and damage seep out of her to contaminate those around her. In the end, a fresh young beauty leaves behind her a morass of rotting vegetation.

The book has three parts. In the first part, we meet Clara Walpole who is the much-loved daughter of her father, Carleton Walpole, who is a rough and tumble migrant farm worker who drags his wife and family behind him like torn cobwebs as he focuses on his own pleasure. The family gradually disintegrates under the pressure of the hard living and Carleton's inability to provide loving support. In the second part, Clara develops relationships with two other men as a teenager after she leaves her family. In the third part, Clara devotes her life to her son, Swan (aka Steven), who must stake a life for himself in Clara's husband's family. Each of these parts is written like a novella, but the three are connected through Clara.

The first part struck me as extremely fine writing of the sort that reminded me of John Steinbeck's novels about migrant farm workers. Unlike Mr. Steinbeck, Ms. Oates has a way of capturing only moments and events that crystallize our understanding of her characters and their lives. To me, reading this part was like occasionally glimpsing through a peephole into someone's life . . . but only at the most revealing moments. Interestingly, Clara often doesn't quite know what's happening since she has had both a deprived childhood and is a child. You as the reader have to interpret what is happening, which makes for a story element that makes the book read a little like detective fiction. This aspect of the book reminded me of William Faulkner's writing about the Snopes. If the book stopped with part one, I would have rated it as five stars and praised the book to the heavens. But I would have wondered what happened next to Clara.

In the second part, we find out how a young teenager builds a life for herself through the aid of Lowry, the man who helps her escape from her family. To me, Lowry is the most interesting character in the book. Ms. Oates reveals his nature very slowly, and he brings many surprises to the story. Although deeply flawed as a person, he tries to do the right things for Clara . . . and ends up leaving her at a very difficult crossroads. From her experiences with him, she learns the duality of love/hate that comes to dominate her life. This part of the book is very fine and I highly recommend it.

In the third part of the book, Ms. Oates seems to fall into clichés. Everything is so foreshadowed that I felt like I could have written out the plot in detail before reading it. There were few surprises, and those were unimportant. I would have enjoyed the book much more if I had skipped this part. I would rate the third part as a two star book if it were a stand-alone. Unless you feel compelled to find out what happens to Clara and her son, I suggest that you consider skipping this part. Perhaps you could read the first 25 pages to see how it sits with you.

As I finished the book, I came away thinking how important it is that those who are deprived of love and care receive attention from everyone else. One of the book's lessons, however, is that such attention must be effective . . . rather than simply well-meaning . . . or it will do more harm than good.

One of the most intense and riveting novels in over a decade on the human condition, this masterpiece will have a memorable and perhaps lasting impact on some of the readers, especially in the times we live in today. Extremely powerful, and metaphorically-speaking, the story caused this reader at times to shield my eyes from the glare emanating from the pages. The subject matter addresses the plight of some of the casualties of the Big Depression, in this case the Walpole family and the cruel hardships that Carleton Walpole, the father, his wife and children, and many other migrant farm workers endured during that era. Oates addresses the consequences of these realities, the aftermath in the years to follow, and introduces us to Clara Walpole, with an in-depth portrayal of this young woman, who rises as a beautiful lily from the ravages of ruined soil and extreme poverty, and the complex men in her life, starting with her father, lover, husband, and her son, Swan. Born in 1938, Joyce Carol Oates, a recognized American literary lioness, may be termed as a 'Child of The Depression', and while deeply moved and fascinated by her complex novel, it occurred to this reader that her book must have involved not only immense research on her part, but also first-hand knowledge of some kind, and personal experiences of her own. This was later acknowledged by her in her concise afterword, as she chose to rewrite this second novel of hers in 2002. Beautifully reasoned with profound insight, "A Garden of Earthly Delights" evokes a harvest of conflicting emotions, and carries a strength and truth of its own that might be intimidating and certainly sobering for some of its readership in this particular day and age. It is simply magnificent and the work of a genius.

Clara, the protagonist of Joyce Carol Oates's breakthrough novel "A garden of earthly delights" is asked at some point of her life why she wants to be different. To which she replies: "I guess I don't want to be different". This comes only after a pause for consideration, since the one who asked the question is a man with whom she wants to be involved. He is rich and she is a single mother - he can help her a lot. Her answer comes after considering `he liked her the way she was'.

This is one of the central points of Oates's ultrarealistic novel about reinvention of one's self in order to achieve a higher status, a better life. It is the first book of the "Wonderland" quartet which also comprises "Expensive people", "them" and "Wonderland". This is the second novel written by this writer to see the light of the day - the second of very many, since she is such a prolific author.

From this novel, the reader can notice that from the beginning Oates has had a distinguished voice. The realism - of characters and situations - dominates the narrative. Clara's moving up, but she is not always conscious of her steps. Not until the middle section of the book, when she has a child, is abandoned by the baby's father and becomes lover of a married man does she realize the materialistic world that surrounds her.

Clara is the main character of the novel, but each of the three sections deals with how she relates to the men from her life. The first one is her father - who loves her more than anyone else in his life. In the middle segment, the protagonist gives everything up to live with the man she loves. And, finally, in the third chapter of her life, how Clara her relationship with her growing son affects her life.

When Clara asks herself if life `is a sequence of accidents and nothing more', the reader know this is an irony from the writer. The narrative is seriously meditated, and, although not all events have a second meaning, most of them are more the mere accidents in the life of the characters. They resonate and acquire a deeper meaning, a sense or a need of changing - not always for the best.

I am a very big Joyce Carol Oates fan, however, I was a little dissapointed in this one. Don't get me wrong it was still a good read and included her trademark detailed description, as well as intricate character development. The problem for me was mainly the ending. It almost seemed like Oates could not think of a way to tie everything up neatly so she relied on an over used cliche to be done with it. If you are an Oates fan you will enjoy it simply to see how she revamped one of her earliest novels, but I would not suggest this one to those who are new to her work.

Unrelieved dreariness and misery. I kept on reading hoping the story would pick up and there would be at least one bright spot or two but there was none. There was no pleasure in reading this book.