I’m reading “Them” by Joyce Carol Oates and I’m having a hard time with it. I don’t think I will be able to finish it.

She writes beautifully! I appreciate how when the situation becomes crystal clear and you know what is about to happen, she ” fasts forwards” to the next scene.  No sense wasting words on that.

The characters seem so real and believable. And that’s my problem. The book is incredible depressing. Generation after generation caught in povery with an abusive family environment which keeps repeating  itself. People living in a hopeless cycle.

I read and have read sad books. “A History” by Elsa Morante was absolutely tragic. But I can’t bear this one!