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| Author | Joyce Carol Oates |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Ecco Press |
Publication date | June 4, 2019 |
| Pages | 416 |
| ISBN | 978-0-06-289983-5 |
My Life as a Rat is a novel by American writer Joyce Carol Oates, published by Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, on June 4, 2019. It follows the life of Violet Rue Kerrigan, who is disowned from her family at the age of 12 after she reveals that her brothers were responsible for the murder of an African American teenager.
Beginning in 1991, My Life as a Rat follows the life of Violet Rue, the seventh and youngest child of the Irish Catholic Kerrigan family in the fictional upstate New York town of South Niagara. After a local African American teenager, Hadrien Johnson, is killed, Violet reveals that two of her older brothers, Jerome, Jr. and Lionel, were involved in his murder. Both brothers are sent to prison for manslaughter.
As a result, Violet is ostracized by her family and sent to live with her mother's sister, Aunt Irma, and her husband, Uncle Iver. There, Violet suffers sexual abuse at the hands of her math teacher, Mr. Sandman, and Uncle Iver. After graduating from high school, she begins working as a maid and enters a toxic relationship with her client, Orlando Metti. During this time she is also enrolled in college courses.
Violet's relationship with Orlando ends, and she runs away, enrolling as a student in a state university. There, she becomes reacquainted with Tyrell Jones, who had also been a student in Mr. Sandman's math class, and is now a graduate student. Violet and Tyrell begin a healthy relationship.
Violet's father dies and she returns to South Niagara, where she hopes to reunite with the surviving members of her family. Lionel, who has been released from prison, attempts to murder Violet, and Violet returns to her life with Tyrell.
An early version of My Life as a Rat was Oates' short story "Curly Red," originally published in Harper's Magazine in 2003. The story was later republished in the 2004 short story collection I Am No One You Know. [1]
When asked about her decision to make the story a novel, Oates said, "I had long meditated upon the life of a girl who had impulsively blurted out the truth under duress, within a few seconds assuring her clannish family will reject her...Over the years I'd accumulated many notes and scenes, and I had always known how Violet's story would develop." [1]
My Life as a Rat was first published in the United States by Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, on June 4, 2019. [2]
Critical reviews of My Life as a Rat were mixed. A critic for Kirus Reviews wrote, "Oates explores the long echoes of violence born of sexism and racism in one young woman's like in this deft psychological thriller." [2] Pamela Miller of the Star Tribune called the novel "a near-masterpiece" and "a gripping coming-of-age story, at turns horrifying, heartbreaking, poignant and buoying." [3]
Julie Scheeres of The New York Times criticized the novel's plot, writing, "After a while, Violet's trajectory seemed predictable, her torturous penance too prolonged. I kept hoping for a Lisbeth Salander moment, when she'd start punching the world back." [4]
Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Them is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the third in her "Wonderland Quartet" following A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967) and Expensive People (1968) and preceding Wonderland (1971). It was published by Vanguard in 1969 and it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1970.
Ecco is a New York–based publishing imprint of HarperCollins. It was founded in 1971 by Daniel Halpern as an independent publishing company; Publishers Weekly described it as "one of America's best-known literary houses." In 1999 Ecco was acquired by HarperCollins, with Halpern remaining at the head. Since 2000, Ecco has published the yearly anthology The Best American Science Writing, edited by Jesse Cohen. In 2011, Ecco created two separate publishing lines, one "curated" by chef-author Anthony Bourdain and the other by novelist Dennis Lehane.
Joan Murray is an American poet, writer, playwright and editor. She is best known for her narrative poems, particularly her book-length novel-in-verse, Queen of the Mist; her collection Looking for the Parade which won the National Poetry Series Open Competition, and her New and Selected Poems volume, Swimming for the Ark, which was chosen as the inaugural volume in White Pine Press's Distinguished Poets Series.
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a frequently anthologized short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story first appeared in the Fall 1966 edition of Epoch magazine. It was inspired by three Tucson, Arizona murders committed by Charles Schmid, which were profiled in Life magazine in an article written by Don Moser on March 4, 1966. Oates said that she dedicated the story to Bob Dylan because she was inspired to write it after listening to his song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". The story was originally named "Death and the Maiden".
Raymond Joseph Smith was an American educator, author, and book editor. He was for more than 30 years the editor of Ontario Review, a literary magazine, and the Ontario Review Press, a literary book publisher. He was married to the American author Joyce Carol Oates.
Blonde is a bestselling 2000 biographical fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates that presents a fictionalized take on the life of American actress Marilyn Monroe.
Small Avalanches and Other Stories is a young adult collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates. It was her second young adult book and, as of January 2007, her only collection of short stories for young adults. It was published in 2003 by HarperTempest, an imprint of HarperCollins.
The Gravedigger's Daughter is a 2007 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It is her 36th published novel. The novel was based on the life of Oates's grandmother, whose father, a gravedigger settled in rural America, injured his wife, threatened his daughter, and then committed suicide. Oates explained that she decided to write about her family only after her parents died, adding that her "family history was filled with pockets of silence. I had to do a lot of imagining."
Wonderland is a 1971 novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the fourth in her "Wonderland Quartet" following A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967), Expensive People (1968), and them (1969). It was a finalist for the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and it has been called one of the author's best books.
After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away is a young adult novel written by Joyce Carol Oates. First published in 2006, it is her fifth novel for teenagers.
I Am No One You Know: Stories is a short story collection by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 2004 by Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. There are 19 stories in this collection.
Freaky Green Eyes (2003) is the third young adult fiction novel written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story follows the life of 15-year-old Francesca "Franky" Pierson as she reflects on the events leading to her mother's mysterious disappearance. Through what she calls Freaky's thoughts, Franky accepts the truth about her mother's disappearance and her father's hand in it.
Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart is a 1990 novel by American novelist Joyce Carol Oates. The title is taken from "In the Desert", a poem by Stephen Crane. Oates's novel was nominated for best work of fiction in the 1990 National Book Awards.
The Accursed is the fifth volume of United States writer Joyce Carol Oates's Gothic series following Bellefleur (1980), A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982), Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984), and My Heart Laid Bare (1998). The novel was published by Ecco on March 5, 2013. It is set in and around Princeton, New Jersey in the early twentieth century, and explores a variety of supernatural themes, tracing their effect upon members of several families who reside in the area. The Accursed contains a number of historical figures used in a fictional context, among them President Woodrow Wilson, and writers Mark Twain, Jack London and Upton Sinclair and his first wife Meta.
Dear Husband is a collection of 14 fictional short stories written by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 2009 by Ecco Press.
The Sacrifice is a 2015 novel by the American writer Joyce Carol Oates. Set in blighted urban New Jersey in the 1980s, it follows a young Black woman, Sybilla, who is discovered in a degraded condition in an abandoned factory after going missing. When she alleges that she was kidnapped, assaulted, and left for dead by a group of white police officers, her cause is taken up by an ambitious and unscrupulous civil rights activist and his lawyer brother, despite evidence of deceit in her story. The events of the novel are based on the real-life Tawana Brawley case, and takes place in a part of New Jersey still suffering from the aftermath of post-war deindustrialization and the 1967 Newark riots.
Night-Side: Eighteen Tales is a collection of 18 works of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates published by Vanguard Press in 1977.
The Poisoned Kiss and Other Stories from the Portuguese is a collection of short stories written by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 1975 by Vanguard Press.
Where Is Here? is a collection containing 34 works of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates originally published in paperback by Harper & Row in 1989 and in hardback by Ecco Press in 1992.