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    The Tattooed Girl: A Novel
    The Tattooed Girl: A Novel
    The Tattooed Girl: A Novel
    Ebook343 pages5 hours

    The Tattooed Girl: A Novel

    By Joyce Carol Oates

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    About this ebook

    Joshua Seigl, a celebrated but reclusive author, is forced for reasons of failing health to surrender his much-prized bachelor's independence. Advertising for an assistant, he unwittingly embarks upon the most dangerous adventure of his privileged life.

    Alma Busch, a sensuous, physically attractive young woman with bizarre tattoos covering much of her body, stirs in Seigl a complex of emotions: pity? desire? responsibility? guilt? Unaware of her painful past and her troubled personality, Seigl hires her as his assistant. As the novel alternates between Seigl's and Alma's points of view, the naïve altruism of the one and the virulent anti-Semitism of the other clash in a tragedy of thwarted erotic desire.

    With her masterful balance of dark suspense and surprising tenderness, Joyce Carol Oates probes the contemporary tragedy of ethnic hatred and challenges our accepted limits of desire. The Tattooed Girl may be her most controversial novel.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061755262
    The Tattooed Girl: A Novel
    Author

    Joyce Carol Oates

    Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the 2019 Jerusalem Prize, and has been several times nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys; Blonde, which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the New York Times bestseller The Falls, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

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    Reviews for The Tattooed Girl

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      I enjoyed it, even though it was a bit odd! Surprise ending, just didn't feel connected to story? Still an interesting read.
    • 2/5
      I find this book kind of hard to review. Of three Joyce Carol Oates books I've read, all have had characters which I disliked intensely. This book was no exception except for the fact that I did want to finish reading it to see what would happen. You might say I was engaged in the characters even though I would have preferred not to have been.This is the story of a young woman, Alma Busch, who either had a tattoo (presumably) or had a severe blemish on one of her cheeks. She was hired by Joshua Siegl, a 38-year-old single successful writer, to be his assistant at home because of his increasing difficulty remaining safe and independent at home alone due to an unidentified, progressive neurological disease. Basically, Mr. Siegl "rescued" Alma from the devastating "employment" by her lover Demitri. Demetri is a snake! While employed in a cafe, he coddles up to Mr. Siegl, but behind Mr. Siegl's back, he makes unending derogatory remarks about Jews. I know this is part of the character of this ignoramus, but page after page of reading this kind of talk left me feeling rather bleak and offended. Mr. Siegl annnoyed me as well. He was the "oldest" 38-year-old I have ever read about. Despite his physical disability, he seemed to have the character of a very old man.Alma herself was a simpleton. It wasn't just that she lacked intelligence, it was the way she reacted to situations that greatly distressed me.Oates' writing always has a "dark" side. I know this. However, I could not find it in my heart to "like" this book. Maybe Oates' writing just means to do exactly this - push me into psychological places I'd rather not be.The ending of this story was interesting as it was not what I had expected. However, I'd rather forego recommending this book and try to find another book by Joyce Carol Oates that I might like a bit better to suggest to others.
    • 5/5
      Now I know why Joyce Carol Oates is such a fanatistic writer. The way she develops the characters in this book is nothing short of amazing. Throughout the book, you feel the suspense of a person who is misreable with herself and takes that out on a man because someone told her that he needed to be hated because he was a Jew. A typical case of blaming someone else for their own misery - having no real reason as compared to the Nazi's and the German peoples misery of the time being diverted to the Jews. An incredible analogy but as the characters develop, the very subject of hate becomes the subject of overwhelming love. The ending is inevitable and sad. But the pieces all fit together. I loved this book. It was deep and important and Oates deserves accolades for this.
    • 3/5
      This was the first book I've read by Oates.I was impressed by her characters; they had substance. They grew in a wholly believable way, conflict driving change. I was drawn to the characters because they were interesting. The book deals with anti-semitism and child abuse.Both subjects are used to lend credence to the characters actions and not thankfully as a battering ram to drive home these injustices. I enjoyed reading it and I will be checking out her huge back catalog of novels.
    • 4/5
      In this novel, Oates explores the forging of identities despite history, preconceived notions and class obstacles. Oates has an unparalleled ability to develop her characters through pure, raw emotion. Their voices resonate strongly through their anger, fear, compassion, ignorance, and love, creating complex relationships which are constantly evolving. There is hope throughout the book that love and openness will triumph over prejudice and hatred. The brutal ending, however, brings the reader back into the harsh reality, where folly and darkness show that humans still have a long way to go before fostering a culture of acceptance.
    • 4/5
      Well written, disturbing story of two unlikely lives that blend--a middle-aged loner of a writer and an abused redneck woman. Compelling with lots of surprises.
    • 4/5
      True to form, Oates has constructed a dark tale of love and betrayal with the constant themes of classism and antisemitism. The problem with this novel is that while Oates' construction of sentences is poetic and compelling, her construction of the narrative is slow-moving at best. I found that by the time I'd reached the climax of the book I was too used to the slow pace for any of the downward spiral - which takes pace rather fast - to make sense. And while the characters of Seigl and Alma are beautifully crafted, the changes that Alma undergoes are such a quick pivot that the ending feels rushed.
    • 3/5
      I was a bit disappointed with this book. The premise is excellent and the plot also is extremely interesting. The book tells of cycles of abuse, and how our reactions are governed by the opinions of those around us. Unfortunately the characters were not in any way believably developed, and switch from homicidal to gentle and caring (and back again) within a space of pages. The only consistent character is Seigl, and in my opinion he was the only believable character in the entire book. There is just not enough basis for the characters' complete personality changes. It has the feeling of a first draft.

    Book preview

    The Tattooed Girl - Joyce Carol Oates

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