Joyce Oates The Gravedigger's Daughter

The Gravedigger's Daughter

Joyce Oates

Ecco (HarperCollins) , May 29 2007, $26.95

ISBN: 0061236829

In 1959 in Chautauqua Falls, New York, a stranger tries to abduct Rebecca Tignor nee Schwart. Stunned especially since her kidnapper insists she is a Hazel Jones, Rebecca reflects on the violence of her life. Her parents and two older brothers barely escaped the Nazi final solution. When she was thirteen, her father killed her mother and almost murdered Rebecca, before finally killing himself in a murder suicide. She married a violent man, traveling beer salesman Niles Tignor.

When she got away from her captor she comes home only to be beaten by her husband. Rebecca knows she must leave before Niles kills her and their nine year old child Niley. She becomes Hazel Jones and Niley becomes Zacharias. Hazel and Zach move all over New York until she meets kindhearted wealthy Chet Gallagher, but although she loves him she still hides her roots even from him.

This is an entertaining look at the life of a woman who always has chose flight over fight. She was raised in fear, married in fear, and became a nomad out of fear, and now with Zach has a chance to live outside of fear if she takes the risk with Chet that he is as kind as she thinks. The "Beyond" ending seems odd and the basic theme is one that Joyce Oates has used often, but fans of the author will not mind a bit as no one better gets inside the psyche of a person who believes that relationships especially with males means being used, abused and you lose.

Harriet Klausner