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Mar 14, 2017bronteside rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Joyce carol Oates at her best. A Book of American Martyrs has Oate's usual underpinnings of darkness... But it's ending ( spoiler alert) signals hope: Grounded in good research , the voices in this book are dead on. Two men, two widows, two daughters ..the trajectory of their lives seems both intentionally and unintentionally cruel. The protagonists life choices yield bitter fruit. But the bleakness of adult grief has an unexpected outcome as their neglected children face rejection head-on. One behind the mask of a lense -the other in a punishing blood sport. This is an easy but thoughtful read; but at over 700 pages this is not social media easy.