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The Gravedigger's Daughter
 

The Gravedigger's Daughter

by Joyce Carol Oates


In 1936 the Schwarts, an immigrant family desperate to escape Nazi Germany, settle in a small town in upstate New York, where the father, a former high school teacher, is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. After local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty result in unspeakable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca, begins her... (read more)

Top tags: fiction,  joyce carol oates,  national book critics circle nominee,  not read yet,  poverty (all tags)

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Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

Ida_Ming_Tao
  • Rated 4 stars

“The first third of the book is dense with ideas. Oppression and fear combined with true poverty and culture shock paints a bleak portrait, but in a way that's not in the writing but in the subject matter - you're given a lifetime of what otherwise happy, educated people went through when fleeing the war - how some were spared while others had to live in fear of being outcasts. The plague of isolation and guilt at having survived their families is intricate and dense. The point of the story...”

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Didn’t Like It

Stefanie G
  • Rated 1 stars

“This was by far the worst Oates book; no point to the story and the reader on the audio book is awful.”

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Community:
  • Rated 3.5 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 0 stars
  

Newest Comments

  • mojomama

    mojomama said:

    “I have a hard time understanding why Joyce Carol Oates' stories get published. This is not the first one of hers I've tried to read. The writing is awful, the story is boring and the characters are people I couldn't care less about. Reading what I did of this book was very unenjoyable. It felt more like an assignment or even a punishment. Do yourself a favour and skip this one.”

    posted Wednesday, May 7 2008
  • Pat N

    pat n said:

    “Like other JCO stories, it takes awhile to get into it, but the characterizations are exquisite and descriptions of the finer points of "upstate" NY lots of fun.”

    posted Sunday, March 23 2008
  • BARBARA G

    barbara g said:

    “JCO has done it again. She has written another literary masterpiece. The story of a girl who grew up in a stone hut on the cemetary grounds where her immigrant father was caretaker and how she navigates through her life. This is a saga and as with all books of this nature it has its 'bumps' but the read is well worth it. It's a testiment to the human spirit and courage to survive.”

    posted Saturday, March 15 2008
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