THE FALLS
by Oates, Joyce Carol
- Used
- as new
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- As New/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0060722282
- ISBN 13
- 9780060722289
- Seller
-
Los Angeles, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
A stunning, major achievement from Joyce Carol Oates, "one of the great artistic forces of our time" (The Nation). A haunting story of the powerful spell Niagara Falls casts upon two generations of a family, leading to tragedy, love, loss, and, ultimately, redemption.A man climbs over the railings and plunges into Niagara Falls. A newlywed, he has left behind his wife, Ariah Erskine, in the honeymoon suite the morning after their wedding. "The Widow Bride of The Falls," as Ariah comes to be known, begins a relentless, seven-day vigil in the mist, waiting for his body to be found. At her side throughout, confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby is unexpectedly transfixed by the strange, otherworldly gaze of this plain, strange woman, falling in love with her though they barely exchange a word. What follows is their passionate love affair, marriage, and children -- a seemingly perfect existence.But the tragedy by which their life together began shadows them, damaging their idyll with distrust, greed, and even murder. What unfurls is a drama of parents and their children; of secrets and sins; of lawsuits, murder, and, eventually, redemption. As Ariah's children learn that their past is enmeshed with a hushed-up scandal involving radioactive waste, they must confront not only their personal history but America's murky past: the despoiling of the landscape, and the corruption and greed of the massive industrial expansion of the 1950s and 1960s.Set against the mythic-historic backdrop of Niagara Falls, Joyce Carol Oates explores the American family in crisis, but also America itself in the mid-twentieth century. As in We Were the Mulvaneys, a "darkly engrossing novel" (Washington Post Book World), she examines what happens when the richly interwoven relationships of parents and their children are challenged by circumstances outside the family.The Falls is a love story gone wrong and righted, and it alone places Joyce Carol Oates definitively in the company of the great American novelists.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Joe Staats, Bookseller (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 10982
- Title
- THE FALLS
- Author
- Oates, Joyce Carol
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- New As New
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition, First Printing 1st Printing
- ISBN 10
- 0060722282
- ISBN 13
- 9780060722289
- Publisher
- Ecco/Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.
- Place of Publication
- New York, N. Y., U.S.A.
- Date Published
- 2004
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9&f
- Keywords
- FICTION
- Product_type
- 2
Terms of Sale
Joe Staats, Bookseller
About the Seller
Joe Staats, Bookseller
About Joe Staats, Bookseller
We specialize in collectible, contemporary signed first editions. First edition means the first printing. (Later printings of the first edition are typically not printed on acid-free paper, and should be avoided by collectors.) Signatures are obtained by us in person. Inscribed books sold by us may contain a line, a phrase, or a sketch that the author has chosen to add. Our signed books are not dedicated to anybody in particular (not to your grandmother, your Aunt Gladys, your ex-lover or your former cellmate), except in the rare case of a presentation copy from an author to a noteworthy person. All our books are hardcover, unless the book is an Advance Reading Copy, Uncorrected Proof, or PBO. You can expect that the books we send you will be as described, and in a physical condition worthy of the author’s having signed them. We do not sell remainder-marked books, signed or otherwise
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...