From the rear cover
Which should prevail: loyalty to family or loyalty to the truth?
Is telling the truth ever a mistake, and is lying for one's family ever justified? Can one do the right thing but bitterly regret it?
My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age twelve, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes, Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently "informs" on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her long estrangement.
Arresting and poignant, My Life as a Rat traces a life cast away from family--and from parents, siblings, and the Church--that forces Violet to discover her own identity, to break the powerful spell of family, and to emerge from her long banishment as a "rat" into a transformed life.Details
- Title My Life as a Rat
- Author Joyce Carol Oates
- Binding Hardcover
- Pages 416
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Ecco Press
- ISBN 9780062899835 / 006289983X
- Weight 1.3 lbs (0.59 kg)
- Dimensions 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 in (23.11 x 15.24 x 3.05 cm)
-
Themes
- Topical: Family
- Library of Congress subjects Brothers and sisters, Murder
- Dewey Decimal Code 813.54
Media reviews
Citations
- Booklist, 05/01/2019, Page 66
- Kirkus Reviews, 04/15/2019, Page 0
- Library Journal Prepub Alert, 01/01/2019, Page 53
- Publishers Weekly, 04/29/2019, Page 0
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