You Must Remember This, A Novel [Hardcover]

Joyce Carol Oates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 10, 1987

Set in the 1950s, this family saga explodes the myth of the cosiness and "fun" of that decade. It also explores incest. Joyce Carol Oates is the author of "A Garden of Earthly Delights" and "Expensive People" and she has also written poetry and critical essays.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Prolific writer Oates demonstrates awesome talent in her new novel, a family saga, set against the backdrop of conservatism that marked America in the 1950s. Through the actions of Lyle Stevick and his family, Oates creates a vivid portrait of bewildered, inarticulate people pushed against the narrow boundaries of their era by their emotions. Lyle is a man of small failures and smaller successes, a dealer in used furniture whose marriage is a continual reminder of one moment's misspent passion. He regards his brother Felix, a boxer, with cynicism born of envy. Lyle loves his children, but clearly does not know them. He is blind to his daughter Enid's affair with the virile Felix. Oates is not easy on her characters. She moves them through McCarthyism, backyard fallout shelters and illegal abortions, slapping them with harsh reflections of their weaknesses. Fully developed, they are described in language that is both elegant and gritty. The scenes between Enid and Felix add a pulsing, sensate eroticism. Infused with narrative energy, this is one of Oates's strongest books in many seasons. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

"An American masterpiece . . . Oates' sprawling novel is the definitive history of an era."--James Atlas, Vanity Fair "A fierce vision of America during the 1950s . . . in powerful, meticulous prose."--New York Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 436 pages
• Publisher: E. P. Dutton / A William Abrahams Book; 1st trade ed edition (August 10, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525245456
• ISBN-13: 978-0525245452
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,549,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The 1950's Is The Real Main Character, August 27, 2005

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Must Remember This (Paperback)

Oates, my favorite writer, refuses to give in to those who would have us think the 1950's were a placid, contented decade of plenty for everyone. In truth they were fraught with perils, economic and social, and under the surface of post-war calm, the decade boiled with tensions that underlay the fears of the American psyche. In these pages, behind the tale of an incestuous love story of a teenaged niece and her half-uncle, a boxer who might merit a title shot, is the Red Scare, the fear of the bomb, the social intolerance of McCarthyism, and the terror of the consequences of straying from the norms the American culture had set.

My favorite scene in this book, and also its most frustrating, is when the father of the family at the heart of this energetic, moody novel, is taken into custody and ruthlessly interrogated by governmental agents, after he is reported for possible "Red sympathies". The cause of this detention? The man had opened an atlas at his store to show an ignorant, argumentative "true blue red-blooded patriotic American" that China, against which the US was at war in Korea at that time, was geographically larger than the United States.

In the '50's, that could be all it took to ruin someone's life.

You Must Remember This IS also the tale of a secret sexual affair between a teenage girl and her own father's half-brother. It begins with one of the most compelling and addicting ten pages in literature, as the girl undertakes a suicide attempt in her family's presence, in the dead of night. This action funnels any worthy reader in for at least the next hundred pages, at which point it becomes too late to turn back: Oates has already woven her spell.

You Must Remember This does not set out to be all things to all readers, but in its tale of tragic love, political intimidation and nuclear fears infiltrating the country's subconscious, it is very nearly that.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AN AMERICAN TREASURE, December 14, 2003

By 

Guy De Federicis (east of here) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: You Must Remember This (Hardcover)

I ate these words up. Joyce Carol Oate's mastery of language is at the height of it's power in "You Must Remember This". I had to stop and seep in some of her truly inspirational prose, told in such a purposeful, matter-of-fact style, just to remind myself what a gifted writer can accomplish. A sometimes grey-clouded and bountifully absorbing novel depicting the human sexual condition under the colorless factory-lined skies of her native Western New York. I can't recall another book bringing the characters to such full-fledged living form as Ms. Oates does here. From what magic does she compose the radiating brilliance, sensitivity and brutishness, innocence and shrewdness of the character Felix, an ex-boxer who spends his life gallantly seeking the happiness deprived of in childhood. It would seem only a Boxing expert could delve into the mind striking constant chords of revelation and truths and opening the reader's mind to the insights and points of view of boxing. Or the character of Enid, a troubled, too deeply sensitive high-schooler whose mysterious mind and advanced maturity may reflect Ms. Oate's own childhood genius. These pages turn as fast as a high charged suspense novel, it's low-key slowly climaxing appreciation of the human condition result in an intimate bond with the characters and human nature itself. I feared the last handful of pages, so concerned was I that something tragic would happen to these tender, fragile charaters. As a Wesstern New York native I was delighted to read the countless descriptions, some bold others suggestive of this part of New York State where factory-lined horizons, still-water lakes and gaseous colors in the sky can be beautiful. I must say I found the title and conclusion of the book a bit vague but I trust Ms. Oates discetion and understanding that I will be remembering this for quite some time.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars finally, something with depth, May 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: You Must Remember This (Paperback)

I was amazed at how good this book was...I have been reading so many books that are just so FORGETTABLE (Vinegar Hill...what was that about...I can't remember...), or worse, just plain trashy (Divine Secrets of Ya Ya Sisterhood...please....). This one was in a totally different league. If you want to read something by someone who can really write, choose this. Forget all about Oprah.