Audiobook Review: Daddy Love by Joyce Carol Oates

Title:  Daddy Love

Author:  Joyce Carol Oates

Narrator:  Christine Williams

Unabridged Length:  6 hrs.

Here is a summary of the book from the HighBridge Audio website:

Dinah Whitcomb seemingly has everything—a loving and successful husband, and a smart, precocious young son named Robbie—until one day, their worlds are shattered when Dinah is attacked and Robbie is abducted from a mall parking lot. As Dinah recovers from her wounds, she struggles to come to terms with her new reality and to keep her marriage afloat. Though it seems hopeless, she retains a flicker of hope that her son is still alive.

The kidnapper, a part-time preacher named Chester Cash, calls himself Daddy Love: he has abducted, tortured, and raped several young boys, indoctrinating them into becoming both his lover and his “son.” He renames Robbie “Gideon,” slowly brainwashing him into believing that he is Daddy Love’s real son. Any time the boy resists or rebels, he faces punishment beyond his wildest nightmares.

As Robbie grows older, he begins to realize that the longer he stays in the home of this demon, the greater the chance that he’ll end up like Daddy Love’s other “sons” who were never heard from again. Somewhere within this tortured young boy lies a spark of rebellion, and soon he sees just what lengths he must go to in order to have any chance at survival.

My Review: 
Oates is obviously a very talented author, but just the couple of books I have listened to have not quite measured up for me.  Although I can't say I loved this novel, I do have to admit that it did still captivate me in a way that had me eager to get back to my car and listen to it.  I think Williams narration helped my appreciation of this book.

The beginning of this book was very confusing for me.  It seemed to repeat the opening scene continuously, maybe giving a different perspective or giving just a little bit more information each time.  I think almost the entire first disc was spent repeating that scene and I started to wonder if that was going to be the entire book.  Luckily, it wasn't, and once it moved on my annoyance passed quickly.

When Robbie is kidnapped the book alternates perspectives between Robbie, Dinah, and even the kidnapper, Chester Cash.  Sometimes I have problems keeping books like this straight, especially in the audio form, but that was not the case with this one.  Williams did a great job of narrating the different parts and I was able to follow along easily. 

I think Oates did a great job of depicting the situation as we followed the boy and his kidnapper for years afterward.  We a get a glimpse into Robbie's head as he yearns for a normal life, wanting to have friends and participate in school activities, rather than being hidden away.  And on the flip side of the coin we see what life is like for the parents that are left behind with a huge whole in their lives.

Although the book started out rocky for me, it did pick up allowing me to enjoy the story.  Although the storyline is ripped from the headlines, Oates goes a bit further by relating the feelings of all involved.  She really is a talented author and this makes me want to go get her latest novel.  With themes of love, trust, and deceit, you may also enjoy this book.  I do recommend this book for those that are interested in this type of storyline and also think it would make an interesting book club discussion.

My Rating:  3/5

Disclosure:  This book was provided to me by the publisher through the Audio Jukebox program in exchange for an honest review.

Audiobook Review: The Gravedigger's Daughter

The following is a summary from Harper Collins of The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates:

In 1936 the Schwarts, an immigrant family desperate to escape Nazi Germany, settle in a small town in upstate New York, where the father, a former high school teacher, is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. After local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty result in unspeakable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca, begins her astonishing pilgrimage into America, an odyssey of erotic risk and imaginative daring, ingenious self-invention, and, in the end, a bittersweet—but very "American"—triumph. "You are born here, they will not hurt you"—so the gravedigger has predicted for his daughter, which will turn out to be true.

In The Gravedigger's Daughter, Oates has created a masterpiece of domestic yet mythic realism, at once emotionally engaging and intellectually provocative: an intimately observed testimony to the resilience of the individual to set beside such predecessors as The Falls, Blonde, and We Were the Mulvaneys.

My Review:

This was the first audiobook that I have listened to and I found myself wanting to drive my car so I could hear what was going to happen next. I did enjoy the book, but found myself confused by her writing quite often. In this novel the author quite frequently jumps around from different time periods and it was very distracting. I have read other novels that used this method and found that it may have even enhanced the books, but not with this one.

This is an epic novel that takes you through the life of Rebecca Schwarts. It starts in a small town in New York when Rebecca's father, Jacob Schwarts finds a job as a caretaker for a cemetary. Since he is the caretaker he is provided housing, which consisted of a tiny cottage near the cemetary that did not provide enough privacy for a family of five. Life in the Schwarts home becomes very tense as Jacob becomes very distrustful of the activities that his family members are involved in. Rebecca's older brothers cannot handle their father's abusive attitude any longer and flee from the little cottage, leaving Rebecca to fend for herself. Shortly after her brothers leave, Jacob Schwarts finally snaps forcing Rebecca to leave the life that she has known.

As she continues her life elsewhere, without her family, Rebecca falls in love and marries a man who turns out to be as abusive as her father was. One evening after her husband has beaten both her and her son, she decides to take her only son and start a new life without her husband. I appreciate the strength that was created in the character by being able to start a new life and identity over with her child to protect them both.

The rest of the novel takes you through Rebecca's adult life under a new identity. She instills in her son a passion for playing the piano and watches him develop into a very famous piano player. You can see her pride in her son and knowing that everything that she had to give up in life to create her new identity was all worth it for him.

The end of the book was actually bittersweet as Rebecca reaches out to a long, lost family member. She has spent her whole life avoiding any family that she may have left so her identity would not be revealed. I did enjoy the story as a whole, but it may not be for everyone. Especially if there are little ears close by, this audiobook contains a fair amount of profanity.

Rating: 3/5