Solstice

3.5 rounded up because I love Oates in general. It's the story that isn't a story. This is what mismatched people do to each other. A narcissistic artist attaches her claws to a masochistic English teacher. It's the friendship from hell. They may be in love with each other sexually, but they are both too repressed to express it. I don't know if I wanted them to beat each other up or just f*ck already and get it over with. Pick one or both. Just do something.

This is the most annoying Oates' book I've read to date. Her prose is always beautiful, her characters well-rounded, but her stories usually flow naturally. This one did not. That may have been because the characters needed psychiatric care, not their messed up friendship.

The title show more of the book is taken from a painting done by the artist's dead husband. It has nothing to do with the actual Solstice.

Happy Winter Solstice (one day late)! I can smell summer on the breeze and reading on the porch already! show less

I first read this book in 1986 and have read it twice more since then. Joyce Carol Oates is the first contemporary American author I remember impressing me enough to linger with me long after I'd read her work. "Solstice," like other works by Joyce Carol Oates, does not paint a pretty picture. Great fiction is often about complex, sad, scary, bitter relationships. Happy relationships are better left to the Harlequins of this world. Sometimes when you're in a weird, complex mood you want weird, complex reading...catharsis and all that...

"Solstice" lingers like someone's presence after she's left the room. If you look at some reviews written about this book, there is mention of everything from stormy psyches to lesbian subtext. Whatever show more the motivation behind Monica and Sheila's relationship, fascination and even some kind of subtle hatred works into it. Monica is transfixed by Sheila and Sheila seems to need Monica as some kind of dumping ground. They'd probably just as soon want to walk away from each other with a clean break, but they can't. As Shelia says, "we'll be for friends for a long, long time...unless one of us dies." Probably a normal thing to say, but still sort of creepy.

They behave more like people in love than friends; what they have is not exactly chemistry, but it has drawing power. I always thought this novel was more about hatred than love, but sometimes hatred is love in confusion. show less

So, I must be honest: I really only read this because it takes place in the town I live in and Solstice is actually the name of my favorite Urban Decay eyeshadow.
This was also the FIRST Oates Book I actually completed. I read half of Bellefleur and set it to the side for another day. I shall pick it up soon as it has the gothic tone that I crave so much.
This was a very well written case study of two memorable women and how their friendship blurs the lines into a relationship.
Not much action takes place and the story line is a bit mundane, so if you are desiring any action or drama- you probably won't enjoy this too much.
But if you like character studies, and getting into the psych of human interactions, then this book is perfect for show more you.
Warning: The ending left me majorly unsettled and felt really rushed.
3 solid stars, for the writing kept me interested and flipping pages!
It was well worth the ride! show less

So, I must be honest: I really only read this because it takes place in the town I live in and Solstice is actually the name of my favorite Urban Decay eyeshadow.
This was also the FIRST Oates Book I actually completed. I read half of Bellefleur and set it to the side for another day. I shall pick it up soon as it has the gothic tone that I crave so much.
This was a very well written case study of two memorable women and how their friendship blurs the lines into a relationship.
Not much action takes place and the story line is a bit mundane, so if you are desiring any action or drama- you probably won't enjoy this too much.
But if you like character studies, and getting into the psych of human interactions, then this book is perfect for show more you.
Warning: The ending left me majorly unsettled and felt really rushed.
3 solid stars, for the writing kept me interested and flipping pages!
It was well worth the ride! show less

Romantic obsession in a friendship, and contemporary art, in semi-rural Pennsylvania.

Short, concise, and somewhat opaque. I liked the way in which the style of the novel reflected the artistic manner of the character Shelia Trask.

This book really gets inside you, the way JC Oates always does. Like she knows all the demons you've wrestled, the strange encounters, the dysfunctional relationships you've formed. Because she's had them too. Maybe? She gets to the crux of those seemingly intangible, weirdest of experiences and puts it down magically on paper in this book. Loved it.

What an odd book this was. Interesting, and yet so hard to decipher. It's a very dark treatment of friendship and its perils, but what's the point? Or is there a point? A lot of the action goes on in Monica's mind or in her internal reactions to external events, rather than having a plot dealing with a lot of external occurrences.