Joyce Carol Oates
HarperCollins
Otago Daily Times, March 3rd 2014
Joyce Carol Oates’ latest novel, Carthage, is a combination of mystery story, psychological study and commentary on the human condition that is sure to be a must for her many fans.
On the night of July 9th 2005, 19-year-old Cressida Mayfield disappears in the dense wilderness of Adirondack mountains in upstate New York. Although searchers find no sign of her, most people believe that she has been the victim of foul play, and the main suspect is Corporal Brett Kincaid, the ex-fiancée of Cressida’s older sister Juliet. Kincaid, an Iraqi war veteran, was seriously wounded on the battlefield and has returned to Carthage a changed man. Physically disabled and suffering from brain injury and post-traumatic shock that has left him partially amnesiac, emotionally unstable, and haunted by memories of wartime atrocities, he eventually confesses to Cressida murder although he can remember neither the details of her death nor what he did with her body.
In March 2012, a young intern takes part in a tour of Florida’s Orion Maximum Security Correctional Facility for Men that culminates in a visit to the execution chamber. When she volunteers to enter the Death Chamber and lie on the table where the lethal injection is administered, she is suddenly overcome by memories of a past buried deep in her subconscious and realises that she must return home to face the consequences of her actions.
What follows is an exploration of the complexities of memory, identity, guilt, punishment, and forgiveness. It is also a condemnation of the effects of war on the individuals who fight it, all delivered with Oates’ distinctive and challenging style.
Although presented by an omniscient, third person narrator for whom the characters are identified not as individuals but by their role (The Father, The Intern, The Guilty One), the style alternates between the traditionally descriptive external perspective and internal, stream of consciousness dialogue that jumps from subject to subject in disjointed and fragmented paragraphs and parenthetical asides. Although this can be challenging to follow, and it is often hard to be sure if the voice belongs to the narrator or the character, it structurally reflects many of the themes of the novel such as the selective, nature of memory, and the way we piece together our identity from these fragments.
Despite being unconvinced by the extent to which some of the characters transformed, or speed with which the story resolved, Carthage was a fascinating read I found it hard to put down.
https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/commentary-human-condition-must-read
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