Black Water

By Joyce Carol Oates

The Pulitzer Prize-nominated novel from the author of the New York Times bestselling novel We Were the Mulvaneys

“Its power of evocation is remarkable.” —The New Yorker 

In the midst of a long summer on Grayling Island, Maine, twenty-six-year-old Kelly Kelleher longs for something interesting to happen to her—something that will make her finally feel some of what she imagines other people must feel when they watch the fireworks explode off the beach. So when Kelly meets The Senator at an exclusive party and he asks her to go back to a hotel room on the main island with him, she says yes. Even though the senator is old enough to be her father, even though he has perhaps been drinking too heavily to get behind the wheel, the danger of saying yes is an inevitable and even exciting part of the adventure Kelly is finally going to have.

However, as The Senator’s car whips around the island’s roads and eventually crashes through a guardrail, it becomes clear to Kelly and the reader that this man embodies a wholly different and more sinister type of danger, one much larger and harder to contain than the horrible events that unfold as Kelly is left in the sinking car. Black Water is a chilling meditation on power, trust, and violation and a timeless classic from one of America’s foremost storytellers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: May 4, 1993
• ISBN: 9780593182758

Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is a novelist, critic, playwright, poet and author of short stories and one of America’s most respected literary figures. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Princeton University and a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction.

Reviews for Black Water

[amerynth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Joyce Carol Oates' novella "Black Water" is her take on Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddck scandal -- where he managed to save himself, but not the young woman who was a passenger in his car when he drunkenly drove his car into the water.Here, the young woman is Kelly Kelleher, whose flashbacks contrast her idealism and naivety with her horrific drowning -- all the while hoping her Senator is trying to save her. The story is certainly familiar, but told in an interesting way.

[tess_w · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Black Water takes place in 2-3 minutes after a car driven by a senator and his secretary careen off the road and plunges underwater. The senator escapes, but his secretary does not. The entire book are her thoughts before she drowns. It reminds me of the Ted Kennedy incident in Chappaquiddick in 1969. A lot of the book was the making of gurgling sounds and hisses and coughs. Not my type of book! Read this for my RL book club. Most of the girls didn't like it either, but one did say she thought it showed the bare ideas of the soul???!!!! I had the audio companion to this book and it was dreadful, also.

[tess_schoolmarm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Black Water takes place in 2-3 minutes after a car driven by a senator and his secretary careen off the road and plunges underwater. The senator escapes, but his secretary does not. The entire book are her thoughts before she drowns. It reminds me of the Ted Kennedy incident in Chappaquiddick in 1969. A lot of the book was the making of gurgling sounds and hisses and coughs. Not my type of book! Read this for my RL book club. Most of the girls didn't like it either, but one did say she thought it showed the bare ideas of the soul???!!!! I had the audio companion to this book and it was dreadful, also.

[sanddancer_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is a fictionalised account of the Chappaquiddick incident, where a young woman dies in the car crashed by Ted Kennedy. The Kennedy character is only ever referred to as “The Senator” but there are other clues to his identity such as mentions of a brother, the thread of assassination and that he is known by a diminutive form of his full name. Some of the details of the event have been changed in the book (the time period is later, the location and girl’s name changed) perhaps to avoid being sued, but it unmistakable as that event.The story is told from the point of view of the woman as she drowns. As the black water of the title comes into the car, we are privy to her thoughts about the events that led up to the accident and what she thinks is happening to her. It is often difficult to write about real life events, but here the author has created a simple but powerful book.I would not say that I enjoyed reading it because I found it harrowing, but I certainly admired and appreciated the writing and it has left a lasting impression on me.

[flydodofly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Economical, to the point writing which gives readers just as much detail as they can possibly handle. And difficult to handle it is, this unfortunate story of a girl, representing so many. Masterfully written, it gives you the chills and stays with you for a while. What ifs, and why mes and once again, what if... Tragically, there are no variable endings, only the most horrific one.

[eviexeris · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Might be Oates' best novel, she works best at this length.

[whisper1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Using the Ted Kennedy disaster of his real life abandonment of a young girl who drowed because of his recklessness, Joyce Carol Oates vividly weaves the tale from the point of view of the drowning character. As the black water rises and fills her lungs, the reader can almost gasp her last breath, taste the brackish, dark, murky madness as "the senator" flees leaving the helpless victim inside the ever rising water filled car.

[ellouise_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a breath taking book from the point of view of the girl - Kelly Kelleher - and her death in a wild ride with a senator

[thetwods · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A brief novel, a fictionalized take on the infamous Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick incident, Black Water is told entirely during the few minutes a drowning girl has to live. We know how it has to end, but the language is so intense it heightens the suspense. Beyond the basic plot, it's interesting to be inside the scene of wealth, particularly how much of a fuss the party and its preparations become for those hoping to impress and be impressed. Call it Drowning in Gatsby's World.

[brentd-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Wow, I'm really surprised that people liked this book. I (along with the rest of my class) was forced to read is my freshman year of college, and I thought it was the worst book I've ever read (an opinion supported by everyone I remember talking to from my class. My memory of it is so negative, that I tagged it with "Bad Book", and the stupid, overly repeated sentence "The black water filled her mouth and she died" has been painfully burned into my memory. It certainly could be better than I remember, but I'm not sure I want to subject myself to it again...

[brianinbuffalo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Those who remember Ted Kennedy's real-life struggles will find Oates' book riveting.

[corgidog2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Chappaquidick, Mary Jo Kopechne, Senator Ted Kennedy, from the drowning person's point of view. Quick read. Interesting method, as always, with Oates.

[junipersun · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you weren't an adult in 1969 you might not recognize that these events are a lightly veiled portrayal of Senator Ted Kennedy & Chappaquiddick.Literary art: each chapter repeats events with minor but progressive changes, leading us from the meeting of The Senator with "Kelly" to the accident and her death. Kelly's thoughts are the main focus, but we are also given brief chapters with point of view from her acquaintances.You have to be in the mood to read something different; this is not a straightforward novel.

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When this book was first published in 1992, I was aware of it but afraid to read it. I thought a fictionalized retelling of the Chappaquiddick incident, including a detailed description of the heroine's agonizing death by drowning, would be too much for me. But now I have read this short novel--it took less than a day-- and I found it to be very well done. The story has been moved from 1969 to the early 1990s. Kelly (the Mary Jo Kopechne stand in) meets the prominent figure known only as The Senator at an upper-crust Fourth of July party. Amazed that she has attracted the great man's attention, she agrees to get into his car with him, even though she knows he's been drinking all day. When the inevitable happens, Kelly doesn't realize, although the reader does, that the Senator will betray her in a misguided effort to keep his presidential hopes alive. Oates skillfully moves the narrative between Kelly's past, the party she has just left, and her horrifying wait the in the Senator's submerged vehicle. This sad but artful story is highly recommended, if you are in the mood for this type of thing.

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In July of 1969, a car drove off a bridge into the tidal waters of Chappaquiddick in Massachusetts--taking the life of Mary Jo Kopechne and with it the presidential aspirations of Senator Ted Kennedy. A blurb on the back of Black Water from the Los Angeles Times calls the book "the ballad of Chappaquiddick" and even though the internal chronology places this after 1990, in Maine not Massachusetts, the young woman involved is named "Kelly Kelleher" and the driver involved is only called "the Senator" this is obviously a roman à clef based on that incident. So you have a tragic event with lots of resonance for Americans and by a celebrated author who has won the National Book Award and been a Pulitzer Prize Finalist. So this book should be amazing--but I don't feel it is. I think this is just an author who is a mismatch for me stylistically. I had tried before this her We Were the Mulvaneys and found myself underwhelmed. This particular book left me decidedly unmoved and even feeling some distaste. I think a lot of that is because I could see the seams of her modernist techniques too well. There are chapters of less than 100 words, staccato sentences, sentences without punctuation, ones with unending lists, run-ons, constant looping back to moments during the accident between narrating events earlier in the day and in Kelly's life, and repeated phrases such as "Am I going to die? Like this?" and "And the black water filled her lungs." I recently read a book by Salman Rushdie using such modernist techniques and was charmed--it just worked. Here the literary techniques seemed stagey, and given the real life tragedy depicted within living memory that made this come across to me as exploitative and cheesy. Still, this might make a good introduction to Oates, to see if you might like her style. It's very short, only 154 pages and with a stripped down enough style you could read it in a couple of hours.

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a re=imagining of the Chappaquiddick Incident in which a probably drunk Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car into a river, drowning his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. According to the Wikipedia article, Senator Kennedy failed to call for help for nine hours after the accident and there is evidence that Mary Jo died of suffocation rather than drowning.In this short novella the senator is only identified as ‘The Senator’, however his life details are quite clear, including the assassination of his brother Bobby. Mary Jo Kopechne is given the fictional name, Kelly Kelleher.The story plays out from Kelly’s viewpoint as she is dying. She recalls her life, her growing beyond her parents, her decision to attend the swank party where she meets her political idol, The Senator. And finally her fatal decision to leave with him. Beautifully written. Haunting and haunted. This is one I won’t forget for a long time.

[lynsey2-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Based on the true story of Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Koepechne, also known as the Chappaquiddick incident. A short quick, creative read. Even though one knows the outcome you still can't help but wish for a different ending.

[deldevries · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Historical context makes this story interesting. Short story length would have gotten the point across however.

[glade1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is a beautifully written, haunting, fictionalization of the Chappaquiddick Incident. Kelly Kelleher meets The Senator at a July 4 party and accepts a ride with him that ends in tragedy. The entire novella is written as the disjointed, often repetitive stream of thoughts that flow through Kelly's mind as she dies. Each chapter repeats some information, often word-for-word, and adds new elements to create a clearer picture of Kelly and her life, particularly her experience on the day of the accident. Oates uses sparse punctuation and repetition to give flow and urgency to Kelly's internal story:And how unexpectedly sweet he'd been to her. Kelly Kelleher. So radiant and assured there on the beach, wearing her new glamorously dark sunglasses the lenses scientifically treated to eliminate ultraviolet rays, and she knew she looked good, she was not a beautiful girl but sometimes you know, it's your time and you know, no happiness quite like that happiness.She was bargaining yes all right she would trade her right leg, even both her legs if they thought it necessary, the emergency rescue team, yes amputate, all right please go ahead, please just do it she would sign the release later, she promised not to sue.Gripping and wrenching, this story that we want to end differently even though we know from the start where we will finish. It is the telling that made me keep reading, the beautiful language and its relentless flow. This book is one that I will think of as "real literature," and not just popular fiction. Highly recommended.

[sarahwagner503 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fascination book focused on the unfolding of a single event, with multiple time shifts.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story of Kelly Kelleher, a girl who takes a ride with Senator. Thre is an accident and death by water. It is a novella, thank goodness. It was like reliving a nightmare over and over. I hope I don't remember this one. The point of view is Kelly herself as she is trapped in the car in the black water, left to drown.

[robindawson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To be honest, I think I was a bit biased against Oates because she has been so very prolific, so when this was chosen by my book club I wasn't too happy.....but this book impressed me. Blackwater is a vivid re-imagining of Chappaquiddick – told from the perspective of Kelly Kelleher (aka Mary Kopekne). The story starts dramatically with the car hitting the bridge and going into the black water. Her thoughts in the last minutes of her life range widely and rapidly and we learn about the party that night, meeting ‘the Senator”, their exchange and decision to drive for the ferry. Technically, I think Oates gave herself quite a challenge, particularly as we all know how the story is going to end, but she is able to sustain an atmosphere of urgency and panic, and the language swirls and circles like the rising waters. I was engaged and involved to the grim end.

[amydross · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Oates writes in vivid, breathless prose that pushes the story forward but never digs very deep. The book as a whole seems more interested in fleeting impressions and sensations than the details of character or experience.

[sunfi_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wow, what an interesting read. I found myself rationalizing whether or not the end would turn out the way that I knew it would. I enjoyed the writers style, it took a couple chapters to get used to it and then I was hooked.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oates Novella is a chilling fictionalization of the Chappaquiddick incident where senator Ted Kennedy drove into the water and the woman he was with drown while he escaped. The main character, Kelly, flashes back and forth between her drive with the senator and her past during the story. Kelly is tragically insecure and lacks confidence and that's one of the factors that leads to her demise. The story is well-written and truly disturbing when you think about what's actually happening and how it mirrors the real life event.

[arubabookwoman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The summer of 1969--man walks on the moon, Hurricane Camille hits the Gulf Coast, and---Chappaquiddick. Those events have always been connected in my mind.Blackwater recreates Mary Jo Kopechne's (here Kelly Kelleher) final minutes after the Senator abandons her to drown in the submerged car. This short book is repetitive and horrifying as it contrasts the idealistic and naive Kelly's carefree final day with her desparate final minutes. How long will she persist in to her hero-worship of the Senator, and her belief that he is coming to save her? My one complaint--Kelly and the Senator were not new characters--I simply saw Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne.

[castironskillet · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Quick read, not one of Oates' best but engaging nonetheless. I read it within an hour and although the story is a familiar one Oates makes it fresh by telling it in a stream on consciousness style and jumping around in time.