Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Never never tell, Maddy-Monkey, they warned me, it's Death if you tell any of Them but now after so many years I am going to..." (more)
Key Phrases: Legs Sadovsky, Red Bank, Maddy Wirtz (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Oates depicts a gang of five adolescent girls growing up amidst violence and frustration in upstate New York during the 1950s.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

$21. F Oates, one of America's most distinguished and prolific writers, has triumphed again with this deftly crafted, highly imaginative novel about a girl gang called Foxfire and its leader, Legs Sadovsky. Legs is many things: a female Robin Hood, a Marxist revolutionary, a highly intelligent naif, an incredibly bold, indestructible heroine. Legs, who is wise beyond her years, dominates Foxfire with her superiority. But Legs is not a writer; that responsibility she delegates to Maddy Wirtz, who becomes the official chronicler of Foxfire's history. Later in life, in search of elusive truth, Maddy returns to her notebooks and relives her Foxfire days of the 1950s, a decade she and her female contemporaries (of all ages) experienced through violence, fear, and oppression. The forces that gave rise to Foxfire and the bonds that kept it together raise many interesting questions about gender, social status, and sexuality. As in any Oates novel, these multiple themes intertwine to create a richly textured piece. Highly recommended.
- Janet Wilson Reit, Univ. of Vermont Lib., Burlington
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Plume (August 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452272319
• ISBN-13: 978-0452272316
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #176,173 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WOW. WAY different than the film version., May 12, 2002

By	Miss D. AwesomePants "Amazon Junkie" (Hoboken, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (Hardcover)

I knew that the film (Starring Angelina Jolie and Jenny Shimizu... yum!) version was based LOOSELY on this book - but i didn't realize HOW loosely! The book is 1,000,000 times better than the movie. The characters are more real (not 5 very attractive girls being a little "naughty"), the acts of rebellion more extreme, the setting (small blue collar town in New York State, 1950's) more appropriate... and it's just all more compelling. The novel really helps you get into the mindset of the sisterhood of the gang - and is more racey. Everything was toned down for the film, and loses a lot of the intensity.

Even if you didn't like the film - you should check out this book. It exhibits some female rebellion in a time/place where women could hardly expect the respect that FOXFIRE demands.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Foxfire Forever!, December 14, 1999

By	Archimago (USA) - See all my reviews

Oates' novel begins with a furious pace and never lets up. The prose mirrors the feeling and the action of the novel -- fast-paced, raw and vibrant. Legs Sadovsky is one of the most memorable characters I have encountered in a long time -- a complex character that needs another book! I read this book in one sitting because I just couldn't stop reading. I had to find our what happened to Foxfire and Legs and why these girls ended up separating. The way Oates develops the chracterization of the gang, as if it were a character itself, is fantastic. We watch the gang go from petty vandalism to violence and prostitution, and the whole way we can understand why they have made the choices they do. I felt for these characters and never once thought they went too far, even their final act which seals their fate.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars loved it, July 26, 2004

By	K. Huff (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

When I read Foxfire four years ago, I became a Joyce Carol Oates fanatic. That didn't change when I read it again just recently. Its appeal is the girl gang idea- about the power struggles that each of the five girls as they move through adolescence. Legs Sadowsky is a troubled young girl who brings four others together in ways they never thought possible. Oates has a marvelous way with words, in which you are horrified yet at the same time fascinated by all that happens. Legs makes for a marvelous, beautiful character in that way. The girls are brutal to one another, and harsh to an outside world, which has, in a way, rejected them. In the end, the girls have to make decisions about growing up that affect each other and, inevitably, the outside world. Its a sexy, sad, and thought-provoking book that I couldn't put down.