Great American Novel - grotesque American family

An exceptional epic of American life -- deeply resonant with the times. I noted a reader comment elsewhere, questioning the appropriateness (in the context of BLM) of a plot in which a wealthy white man and former Mayor falls victim to police brutality, attempting to thwart a racist attack on another. But make no mistake, this is no tale of white heroism or a simple appropriation of the violence done to people of colour. The reader is initially placed in the (slightly uncomfortable) position of wanting to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice--but the way in which white privilege affords certain avenues to 'justice' (even when futile) is increasingly disturbing.

"Whitey", as the slain mayor is aptly called, is the symbol of a certain American way of life --a civic-minded, well respected, WASP, family man with a business. As the novel develops, it exposes a family desperately trying to keep in tact their idealised version of "Whitey". There are exquisite descriptions of grief, anger and anxiety -- but also, more distinctively, of a shared desperation enacted with the oblivious viciousness of entitlement. Whitey is not just the beloved patriarch but a cipher for a class and race privilege that is sustained by racism, snobbery, greed and self delusion. All of this surfaces as the most grotesque characters unravel.

The pleasure in this exceptional writing and brilliant reading is mitigated just a tiny bit by the fact that the characters are so unlikable. Either they are self-serving, racist, deceitful manipulators or they are slightly pathetic enablers. Anyway, Joyce Carol Oates is unrelenting in her dissection of a family that in clever ways embodies the predicament of America itself.

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