Because it is Bitter, and Because it is My HeartJoyce Carol Oates adds to her extraordinary body of work with this stunning novel of violence and love. At the heart of the story are two people, Iris Courtney, who is white, and handsome Jinx Fairchild, the black basketball player who, in protecting Iris, kills a white man. Iris is the only witness to the crime. The two of them are growing up in the early 1950s in a New York industrial town where racial boundaries keep people apart-or bring them together in explosive scenes of fear or desire. The secret link between Iris and Jinx is not only their attraction to each other, but a murder ... and a bond of passion and guilt is formed between them. How this one irrevocable, tragic act shapes their lives and alters their destinies becomes Joyce Carol Oates' finest, emotion-packed novel-a work the critics are calling a masterpiece, the best work of America's best writer of contemporary realism. |
From inside the book
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Page 5
... Hammond General are having coffee together . The fisherman is being asked questions : stammering as he tells them what he saw , first time in his life he'd seen a human being in the Cassadaga , he can't seem to catch his breath from ...
... Hammond General are having coffee together . The fisherman is being asked questions : stammering as he tells them what he saw , first time in his life he'd seen a human being in the Cassadaga , he can't seem to catch his breath from ...
Page 56
... Hammond , New York : " every soul sharing a single instant of time . " He'd spoken passionately . His pale eyes had ... Hammond , New York , for the past twelve years , since moving to Hammond from his family hometown in the southern ...
... Hammond , New York : " every soul sharing a single instant of time . " He'd spoken passionately . His pale eyes had ... Hammond , New York , for the past twelve years , since moving to Hammond from his family hometown in the southern ...
Page 201
Joyce Carol Oates. The tall lanky forward for the Hammond team , number 3 uniform soaked in sweat , preparing to shoot . . . glancing neither to the right nor the left nor even at the first row of Hammond VIPs where his own mother Minnie ...
Joyce Carol Oates. The tall lanky forward for the Hammond team , number 3 uniform soaked in sweat , preparing to shoot . . . glancing neither to the right nor the left nor even at the first row of Hammond VIPs where his own mother Minnie ...
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Common terms and phrases
ain't Alan Savage arms basketball beautiful black boys blood Byron Savage calls Cassadaga color Courtney's crazy damn daughter dress drinking Duke Courtney eyes face father feels feet fingers floor friends glass going gonna Gowanda Gwendolyn hair Hammond hands happy head hear honey Houdini hurt Iceman inside Iris Courtney Iris says Iris's Jesus Jinx Fairchild Jinx says Jinx's John Elmore JOYCE CAROL OATES kisses kitchen laughs legs Leslie Courtney Little Red Garlock look Lowertown Madelyn Minnie Fairchild Minnie says Momma mother mouth murmurs Negro neighborhood never nigger night Peach Tree Creek Persia Courtney Persia says photographs Pitt Street police river Savage's seems shit Sissy sitting skin smell smile sometimes speak staring Street suddenly Sugar Baby talk telephone tell there's things Verlyn Virgil Starling voice walking watching white girl woman words young