Little Bird of Heaven

I am a huge Joyce Carol Oates fan, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed all of her books;sometimes I think Oates engages in what I call "character over-development", but not this time. In "Little Bird of Heaven", she delves just deep enough into each major character that you feel like you know them as close as you would a sibling or good friend, in a way that makes you feel strongly for the character and even make you pity someone you never would have pitied unless you were in their shoes. Also, I lived in a small town for about ten years and Oates has an eerie and uncanny knack for encompassing the small town mentality (where everyone knows everyone and their business) as well as giving the reader a vivid visual of the streets, houses, factories and shops, people, etc. of a town that has fallen on rough times and how the entire place seems to be affected and defined by the murder-scandal that occurred. We have all been told a million times in our lives that there are "two sides to every story" and truer words have never been spoken when it comes to describing the characters and their depictions/thoughts of events in this book; it truly makes you ponder things a lot more deeply when you can see vastly varying viewpoints about a solitary occurrence. I recommend this book to all Oates fans as well as those who are not.

"Little Bird of Heaven" is vintage Joyce Carol Oates, so much so, in fact, that fans of her writing will immediately recognize the novel's setting and tone. Krista Diehl, the young girl whose father Eddie is suspected of the brutal murder of his mistress, is beginning to realize just how dangerous the world can be for a girl fast approaching sexual maturity. She is both repelled and fascinated by the boys and men with whom she is beginning to come into contact, and what her father is accused of having done leads her to the conclusion that men are dangerous beings. When her father one day emotionally grabs her by the wrist, her first thought is "Always you are astonished. Their size, their height. Their strength. That they could hurt you so easily without meaning to." Zoe Kruller was somewhat of a minor celebrity in little Sparta, New York. She was the best thing that her bluegrass band had going for it and any performance of theirs at the local park was guaranteed to attract the attention of a large number of male admirers, men who found it difficult to resist Zoe's charms. To Krista, however, Zoe was the woman who served her ice cream at the local dairy and always remembered her name. She was Krista's friend. That she was also her father's mistress and that he would be accused of her bloody murder would change Krista's life forever. Also changed forever by Zoe's murder would be her son Aaron, a boy whose own father is believed to be the most logical suspect in the murder if Eddie Diehl can prove that he is not the killer. Aaron, already on somewhat of a downward spiral of his own, is as certain that his father is not guilty of the crime as Krista is sure that her own father did not do it. Krista's determination to find the truth about her father and his relationship with Zoe Kruller leads her to become as obsessed with Aaron Kruller as her father had been obsessed with the boy's mother. Oates tells her story from two distinct points-of-view. The first half of the book is filtered through the eyes of Krista Diehl who is really too young to understand everything that she discovers about the murder. This part of the book focuses on the gradual disintegration of the Diehl family which results from everything that happens to them following the murder. Aaron Kruller narrates the second half of the book and, since he is older than Krista, he fills in some of the blanks of Krista's version of the events before and after his mother's murder. Inevitably, these two young people have so much in common that their paths cannot help but cross - in a way that neither of them could have imagined and from which each are lucky to come out whole. "Little Bird of Paradise" is a novel about self-discovery, pain, loss and how children so often have to pay for the sins of their parents. It is well written, as is almost always the case in a Joyce Carol Oates novel, but it is sometimes not easy to read because one feels, almost from the start, that i

I have never been a huge fan of this Joyce Carol Oates. I have only read a few of her previous books and they were just okay for me. LITTLE BIRD OF HEAVEN is by far her best book based on what I have previously read. This book is told in three sections, and each is filled with incredible characters and descriptions. It is almost poetic the way Oates describes small town life and desperate people. One of the things Oates does so well in the first two sections is how she writes a very subtle sexual undercurrent into the story, which is then brought forth full force in the third section. What is particularly wonderful about this book is the way the characters seem so real. So much of what Oates describes about these characters brings them to life. I knew girls like Krista. I found her to be the most interesting and disturbing character, based on her profound need to be loved. I am glad I did not give up on reading Oates' books. I would have missed a gem if I had.

OK I admit it. I read everything by Joyce Carol Oates. That being said this is once again a marvel written by a writer who continues to outdo herself. In terms of nuanced phrasing, intriguing plot, subtlety of language, never revealing too much, and pulling the reader along in a magnetic aura of a dream, Oates is a master. If you have read nothing else of hers, you can start here and learn to love her artistry in a genre she has taken as her own territory. If you have liked or loved or even hated other books of hers (because admit it, she is versatile and varied) read this one. She is the real thing.