American Appetites (novel, 1989)
Talk Fans of Joyce Carol Oates
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1Fullmoonblue
Copied and revised from my 'Club Read' journal...
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I reread Oates' novel American Appetites (1989) yesterday.
I picked it up because, on a quick flip, I was tickled to realize that a significant part of the storyline relates to a shady Egyptian boyfriend, Fermi Sabri, who's suspected of abducting and/or killing his American girlfriend. I never really noticed that the first time I read this, several years ago. And so, since the representation of Arab and Muslim characters in literature interests me nowadays, I decided to reread this book.
(By the way, can anybody think of any other Oates story that features an Arab or Muslim character...?)
Anyway. The words that kept coming to mind as I read were 'impulsive' and 'displacement'. Those also seem, to me, like the kind of descriptors Oates might have been going for in terms of the 'American appetite' overall. There's a thoughtless, almost careless impulsiveness to the way that characters make significant personal decisions (to begin an affair, for instance). Most of Oates' main characters here are, as in many of her books, among the intellectual and economic elite. The men work think-tanky jobs; the women maintain themselves and their homes and write cookbooks. The cushion of money and social capital makes their lives seem almost buffet-like... and yet most of them seem bored and dissatisfied. So they impulsively sample whatever seems exciting (or is 'supposed' to be exciting) and/or obsess over whether others are doing the same, typically in a very passive aggressive way.
Connected to the impulsiveness and suspicion and passive aggression are the male characters' constant displacement of their emotions: fears, neediness, anger. I felt like displacements really drove the plot. It also seemed like, when things fell apart, the (white, well-off) male characters tended to focus their suspicions on either 1) the dark outsider (the Egyptian Fermi Sabri), or 2) the infidelities of their women.
Along those lines, because he's Not Really Guilty, and unwilling or unable to defend himself by admitting personal responsibility or vulnerability, the (white wealthy male) main character Ian loses control of his life and gets sucked into a media circus. For a while, he has no handle on the way he's portrayed to others. As a figure of suspicion, he can't 'represent himself' anymore, either socially or in court. In fact, in an interesting twist that I noticed on this second reading, he winds up effectively taking the place of Fermi Sabri by the end (both in the courtroom and in a relationship). It's another displacement, and one that Ian barely survives... by the end, it's not clear if he even wants to.
Random thoughts. Not sure where I'm going...
Anybody else read this one?
How did it strike you?
---
I reread Oates' novel American Appetites (1989) yesterday.
I picked it up because, on a quick flip, I was tickled to realize that a significant part of the storyline relates to a shady Egyptian boyfriend, Fermi Sabri, who's suspected of abducting and/or killing his American girlfriend. I never really noticed that the first time I read this, several years ago. And so, since the representation of Arab and Muslim characters in literature interests me nowadays, I decided to reread this book.
(By the way, can anybody think of any other Oates story that features an Arab or Muslim character...?)
Anyway. The words that kept coming to mind as I read were 'impulsive' and 'displacement'. Those also seem, to me, like the kind of descriptors Oates might have been going for in terms of the 'American appetite' overall. There's a thoughtless, almost careless impulsiveness to the way that characters make significant personal decisions (to begin an affair, for instance). Most of Oates' main characters here are, as in many of her books, among the intellectual and economic elite. The men work think-tanky jobs; the women maintain themselves and their homes and write cookbooks. The cushion of money and social capital makes their lives seem almost buffet-like... and yet most of them seem bored and dissatisfied. So they impulsively sample whatever seems exciting (or is 'supposed' to be exciting) and/or obsess over whether others are doing the same, typically in a very passive aggressive way.
Connected to the impulsiveness and suspicion and passive aggression are the male characters' constant displacement of their emotions: fears, neediness, anger. I felt like displacements really drove the plot. It also seemed like, when things fell apart, the (white, well-off) male characters tended to focus their suspicions on either 1) the dark outsider (the Egyptian Fermi Sabri), or 2) the infidelities of their women.
Along those lines, because he's Not Really Guilty, and unwilling or unable to defend himself by admitting personal responsibility or vulnerability, the (white wealthy male) main character Ian loses control of his life and gets sucked into a media circus. For a while, he has no handle on the way he's portrayed to others. As a figure of suspicion, he can't 'represent himself' anymore, either socially or in court. In fact, in an interesting twist that I noticed on this second reading, he winds up effectively taking the place of Fermi Sabri by the end (both in the courtroom and in a relationship). It's another displacement, and one that Ian barely survives... by the end, it's not clear if he even wants to.
Random thoughts. Not sure where I'm going...
Anybody else read this one?
How did it strike you?
