The Gravedigger's Daughter
Black Girl / White Girl |
The Gravedigger's Daughter is a 2007 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It is her 36th published novel. The novel was based on the life of Oates's grandmother, whose father, a gravedigger settled in rural America, injured his wife, threatened his daughter, and then committed suicide.[1] Oates explained that she decided to write about her family only after her parents died (in 2000 and 2003), adding that her "family history was filled with pockets of silence. I had to do a lot of imagining."[2]
The novel was completed in the early 2000s but its publication was repeatedly bumped in favor of releasing new Oates novels "her American publisher believed were more 'controversial', such as
Plot summary
Rebecca Tignor is mistaken for another woman named Hazel Jones one afternoon in the woods nearby Chatauqua Falls, New York in the fall of 1959. Over 20 years later, Rebecca finds out that the man who approached her is a serial killer.
In a secondary plot, Rebecca's parents escape from the
References
- ^ a b Freeman, John. "Joyce Carol Oates, up close and personal", The Times, 2007-08-11. Retrieved on 2008-10-28.
- ^ Crown, Sarah. "The grandmother of invention", The Guardian, 2007-09-10. Retrieved on 2008-10-28.
- ^ "Off the Page: Joyce Carol Oates", The Washington Post, 2006-05-09. Retrieved on 2008-10-29.
- ^ Reese, Jennifer. "Joyce Carol Oates gets personal", Entertainment Weekly, 2007-07-13.
- ^ "Blogger".