A Garden of Earthly Delights
By Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is undeniably a wonderful storyteller. Here she tells the story of Clara Walpole, born to migrant workers during the depression. As a child, Clara moved with her family from place to place as migrant families do. It was a tough life, especially during the depression, when seasonal farm work was even harder to find.
With little formal education, Clara learned life’s lessons. She learned about sex and sexuality and the woman’s role in satisfying men’s needs and desires and whims as she moved from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood. She would never know the tender, loving side of sex and sexuality and often expressed her sexuality in casual, sometimes manipulative ways.
Clara became pregnant in her young teens, had relationships with men much older than her, and raised her bastard son as the child of another, a rich and powerful already-married man. She never felt comfortable and accepted in her new rich world, but she adapted to the money end of it with apparent ease. Although her life took twists and turns as all lives do, I did not see the ending coming.
Although this is one of Joyce Carol Oates’ first novels, true to form she is a great storyteller. Although I have no specific complaints about this book, it was not one of my favorites, at least this version. Originally written in 1967, the author admits to rewriting 75% of this book in 2003. That is a lot of rewriting! I wonder how the story went originally.
As I See It 