I'll Take You There

Finally a Joyce Carol Oates novel that hooked me from page one and kept me hanging on to the bitter end. I'LL TAKE YOU THERE is a pretty real look at college life in the early sixties, especially how it was for an extremely brainy, sensitive girl from a poor farming family there on scholarship. The setting is Syracuse, where Oates herself did her undergraduate years and began writing her first published stories. The narrator calls herself 'Anellia,' though she tells us it is not her real name, but part of an attempt to reinvent herself, to distance herself from her unhappy childhood. We learn she was the youngest of four, and the only girl of an impoverished farm family in upstate New York. Her mother died when she was a baby, and her show more father was rarely home. Raised by an unaffectionate grandmother and ignored by her much older brothers, she hopes joining a sorority will give her the sisters she never had. Nope. She is far too intelligent to fit into the catty pettiness of the sorority, and far too poor to afford it. In her second year she begins a passionate, gritty affair with a black doctoral student in philosophy ten years her senior, a time filled with heartache, uncertainty and ostracism.

If you were a female college student in the sixties, this gripping story will take you back. If you weren't, Joyce Carol Oates will take you there. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir BOOKLOVER show less

JCO's I'll Take You There is set in the early 1960's at a private college in Upstate New York, but it could be set anywhere, at any time in the contemporary era. Like so many of her other books, this is a story with rich character development focusing on people who are broken, struggling with their place in the world, their "otherness", and their inability to conform to socially expected norms.

"Anellia", as she calls herself, is a fish out of water. She's left a working class family embroiled in turmoil and dysfunction to pursue a better life and intellectual development as a scholarship recipient to the University. She's the poor child surrounded by elites with no further ambitions than to find a suitably rich husband - and she's show more promptly exploited for her intelligence, her desire to fit in, and her need to re-create herself.

Anellia fails - and she fails in a big way - but in her failing she learns about accepting herself and develops the ability to recognize and embrace the "outsider" qualities in others. In time, she survives, she thrives, and by the end, she's developing a sense of identity that encompasses her past, present, and future.

I've read several of JCO's books and thought highly of them all. If you're already a fan, this one is certainly worth reading. Whether you were an adult in the early 1960s or hadn't even been born yet, there are many common-points across time about the creation of social groups and the experiences of those who are rejected entry to them. Some things have changed with time, and some things have not, I'll Take You There explores them thoroughly. show less

Joyce Carol Oates böcker är lätta att känna igen, de är fyllda av känslor och djup , Jag ska ta dig dit är inget undantag. Det är ingen tjock bok ändå så är den fylld av ensamhet och smärta , den känns längre.
Det e inte alla som klarar av Joyce Carol Oates texter, då hans böcker är inte alltid helt lättlästa, men jag tycker de är magiska. :

If you were politically aware in the 1960s, and especially if you were at university around that time, then this book will bring back memories. It's worth reading just for JCO's take on that situation of which she was very much a part. In fact, I reckon there's a lot of autobiography in this novel (I've just recently read her memoir written on the death of her husband, but looking back to their early relationship in the time this book is set). It's much more than of historical interest though. The un-named main character has a personal growth experience with which many readers will find empathy. JCO's perspective added significantly to my understanding of self, but could add much more to a reader who is a white female in a mixed-colour show more society. There's a fairly heavy philosophy orientation which is really integral with the story and enriches it a lot.

JCO also makes a strong bid to rescue the semi-colon from demise, single-handedly using up the whole North American quota for one year :-) . I haven't noticed whether this is a feature of her other stories. show less

JCO introduces her readers to a fascinating woman in this novel. She is desperate to fit into almost any place that will have her; she seeks identity, companionship and a sense of belonging that has eluded her all of her life. As is often the case, our greatest strength may also be our greatest detriment. "Annelia's" intellectual pursuits and abilities lead her to seek definition through another character, Vernor, who uses and discards her just as her sorority did. I felt intense compassion for Annelia in her quest for friendship and belonging. Often the most vulnerable among us are those most victimized: which comes first? I found the philosophical quotations and discussions that weave through this book in increasing frequency to be an show more integral part of the exploration of the initiation into adulthood. show less

Here is another beautifully written story by Joyce Carol Oates. She perfectly captures the emotions and obsessions of the young protagonist, so that she is scarily easy to relate to. I see pieces of myself in "Anellia," and reading her experiences, I could empathize with her. Oates is a master in weaving stories!

An unflinching view of the life of an obsessive college student describing her run-in with sorority life and her compulsive love for a black philosophy graduate student. Remarkable prose. Piercing and haunting.