My life as a rat / Joyce Carol Oates.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780062899835
- ISBN: 006289983X
- Physical Description: 402 pages ; 24 cm.
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2019]
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Exile (Punishment) > Fiction. Family life > Fiction. Murder > Fiction. |
Available copies
- 2 of 2 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Prince Rupert Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 2 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prince Rupert Library | Oate (Text) | 33294002056851 | Adult Fiction - Second Floor | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
Exiled from her family and church after testifying in a murder trial involving her older brother, Violet reflects on the choices she was forced to make. - Baker & Taylor
Exiled from her family and church since the age of 12 for testifying honestly about a racist murder, a young woman reflects on the wrenching choice she was forced to make between her family and the truth. 40,000 first printing. - HARPERCOLL
“A painful truth of family life: the most tender emotions can change in an instant. You think your parents love you but is it you they love, or the child who is theirs?” --Joyce Carol Oates, My Life as a Rat
Which should prevail: loyalty to family or loyalty to the truth? Is telling the truth ever a mistake and is lying for one’s family ever justified? Can one do the right thing, but bitterly regret it?
My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age twelve, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African-American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently “informs” on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement.
Arresting and poignant, My Life as a Rat traces a life of banishment from a family—banishment from parents, siblings, and the Church—that forces Violet to discover her own identity, to break the powerful spell of family, and to emerge from her long exile as a “rat” into a transformed life.
- HARPERCOLL
'A painful truth of family life: the most tender emotions can change in an instant. You think your parents love you but is it you they love, or the child who is theirs?' --Joyce Carol Oates, My Life as a Rat
Which should prevail: loyalty to family or loyalty to the truth? Is telling the truth ever a mistake and is lying for one's family ever justified? Can one do the right thing, but bitterly regret it?
My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age twelve, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African-American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently 'informs' on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement.
Arresting and poignant, My Life as a Rat traces a life of banishment from a family'banishment from parents, siblings, and the Church'that forces Violet to discover her own identity, to break the powerful spell of family, and to emerge from her long exile as a 'rat' into a transformed life.