Paperback(Reprint)
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Finally returned to print in a beautiful trade paperback edition, a haunting gothic tale that illuminates the fortunes and misfortunes of a 19th-century immigrant family of confidence artists—a story of morality, duplicity, and retribution that explores the depths of human manipulation and vulnerability
“Oates . . . rarely falters throughout this epic. . . . An American tragedy.”—People
“My Heart Laid Bare shows Oates at her most playful, extravagant and inventive.”—The San Francisco Chronicle
The patriarch of the Licht family, Abraham has raised a brood of talented con artists, children molded in his image, and experts in The Game, his calling and philosophy of life. Traveling from one small town to the next across the continent, from the Northeast to the frontier West, they skillfully swindle unsuspecting victims, playing on their greed, lust, pride, and small-mindedness. Despite their success, Abraham cannot banish a past that haunts him: the ghost of his ancestor Sarah Licht, a former con woman who met with a gruesome fate.
As Abraham moves his family from town to town, involving them in more and more complex and impressive schemes, he finds himself caught between the specter of Sarah and the growing terrors of his present. As his carefully crafted lies and schemes begin to fracture and disintegrate before his eyes, Abraham discovers that the bond of family is as tenuous and treacherous as the tricks he perpetrates upon unsuspecting strangers.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780062269256 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 04/07/2015 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 624 |
| Sales rank: | 1,150,526 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Hometown:
Princeton, New JerseyDate of Birth:
June 16, 1938Place of Birth:
Lockport, New YorkEducation:
B.A., Syracuse University, 1960; M.A., University of Wisconsin, 1961Table of Contents
| Prologue: The Princess Who Died in Old Muirkirk | 1 |
| Part I | |
| "Midnight Sun" | 9 |
| "The Lass of Aviemore" | 26 |
| "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" | 46 |
| In Old Muirkirk | 64 |
| "In Adam's Fall" | 73 |
| The Pilgrim | 80 |
| The Forbidden | 83 |
| The Catechism of Abraham Licht | 99 |
| "The Mark of Cain" | 101 |
| The Mute | 108 |
| The Grieving Father | 110 |
| The Fate of "Christopher Schoenlicht" | 127 |
| "Little Moses" | 135 |
| "Gaily Through Life I Wander" | 150 |
| "Nigger!" | 166 |
| Secret Music | 169 |
| The Desperate Man | 172 |
| The English Reformer in America | 176 |
| The Condemned Man | 181 |
| TheGuilty Lovers | 186 |
| The Ingrate Son | 187 |
Interviews
On Monday, June 15th, barnesandnoble.com welcomed Joyce Carol Oates to discuss MY HEART LAID BARE.
Moderator: Good evening, Joyce Carol Oates. We are so pleased you could join us to discuss your new novel, MY HEART LAID BARE. Is this your first online interview?
Joyce Carol Oates: Yes. I am very happy to be doing it.
Sherrie from Brooklyn: I have read many of your horror novels. MY HEART LAID BARE is a historical novel -- a real departure for you. What precipitated this change? Did you like this new form?
Joyce Carol Oates: I very much liked the new form. I found it challenging and an opportunity to do some very exciting research, particularly on classic confidence games in American history. I don't, however, think of it as a departure but thematically and stylistically related to my other long novels, which are BELLEFLEUR, A BLOODSMOOR ROMANCE, and MYSTERIES OF WINTERTHURN. There are elements of horror and "gothic" in all these novels.
Stephanie from Pittsburgh, PA: I understand this novel is set in 19th-century America. Why did you choose this era for a novel of con artists and crime?
Joyce Carol Oates: The novel begins in the 1880s and ends in the 1930s, and much of the confidence crimes took place in 1920s. It was a wide-open, rip-roaring era when it was often very difficult to distinguish criminals from businessman. I think of the Licht family as very enterprising, quintessential Americans living by their wits, rebellious and sometimes transgressing the law. I think of America as a kind of frontier society filled with adventures until about the 1930s, when the economy collapsed and we lost our confidence as a nation.
Scott from Princeton, NJ: I have read a few chapters of the book and love it so far! What exactly is the Game?
Joyce Carol Oates: The Game is a strategy of manipulating other people -- as dealing with others -- as if they were your enemy. The criminal naturally deals with others as if they were enemies, but in the novel the younger Licht children repudiate this philosophy. The Game is a Darwinian principal transformed into practice. The 1890s was a time in which social Darwinism was eagerly embraced. A kind of capitalist cannibalism.
Pepsi Freund from Yaphank: What is your concept of God, and do you believe there is a God? And how has this belief, if you have it, charged or changed your point of view in terms of your characters and their interactions?
Joyce Carol Oates: The question is very complex and would involve a long time to answer. I think of God as fundamentally a concept in the human brain about which, by tradition, many clusters of meanings have accrued. Many of my characters do believe in God, or at least their concept of God, and a few have had vivid emotional and mystical experiences.
Reagan from Boyton Beach, FL: I noticed that in your book MY HEART LAID BARE, you pose questions to the reader every other line or so. I haven't read your other books, so I don't know if this is a stylistic trademark of yours, but why do do this? Thanks.
Joyce Carol Oates: This is actually the characters in the novel posing questions to themselves. It is Abraham Licht questioning what he is doing. He is always plotting, so he asks these questions of himself. He is a person who is not happy unless he is involved in the plot. In that way, Licht is like me, who as a writer is most happy when I am creating plots.
Jose from New York City: You are extremely prolific. Do you keep a tight writing schedule? Are you working on more than one project -- whether it be play, novel, poetry -- at a time?
Joyce Carol Oates: I focus very intensely on one project at a time. When I write a novel, I basically immerse myself. I try to work every day, but some days I work more productively than others. On days that I do not sit down and write, I am thinking about what I will write -- and these days are sometimes more important. Writing depends upon intense daydreaming. You have to plot things out in your imagination before you can write them. I try to envision what I write as a kind of movie in my head.
Bryce Warren from Independence, KY: You are my favorite author of all time! Some day the critics will esteem you as a permanent classic. Why did MY HEART LAID BARE take so long to get published? Will the next gothic novel come out sooner? Is Merchant/Ivory still planning on filming SOLSTICE? What advice do you have for writers whose style is "different" and not understood by many (as far as taking the punches and finding readership and publishers)? Thanks for your time. And thank you for all of your wonderful books. Of all the authors I've read, your voice speaks the loudest to me.
Joyce Carol Oates: I originally wrote MY HEART LAID BARE in the middle 1980s. Then I set it aside about two years ago, [and then] I rewrote it. I think I wanted it to get deeper and more profound over a period of time. I kept doing research and adding notes to the draft that I had, and I am very happy that I did that. The next gothic novel is THE CROSSWICKS HORROR and will probably come out within five years. Again, I have a draft I intend to completely rewrite. The last I have heard, plans are to film SOLSTICE in Europe, but I am no longer involved actively. My general advice to writers is to remain true to your own vision.
Paul from New York City: Does Abraham Licht resemble any great criminals of history, or did you conjure him up entirely from your imagination? Great character, by the way!
Joyce Carol Oates: Basically he is a work of imagination. Some of his philosophical ideas are my own. He is like a mastermind novelist creating any number of scenarios.
Cynthia Burns from Washington, D.C.: The significance of the title MY HEART LAID BARE, I think, lies in your opening quote by Edgar Allan Poe. And Licht's quest for immortality is the basis of the Game, I assume. Am I on the right trail here? Why did you include this quote?
Joyce Carol Oates: That's correct. MY HEART LAID BARE is the title of his posthumous journal. He is trying for a kind of immortality, but actually it will be in his children.It is a beautiful quote. I have always been fascinated by it. Edgar Allan Poe never wrote from the heart or in a realistic mode. Everything Poe wrote in fiction was in the gothic mode, so he never did what he suggests in the epigraph.
Tracey from Athens, GA: I like how you kept me guessing at the beginning of this novel -- who are these characters, and how do they relate to each other? Was this intention to keep a cloud of mystery going so you could lay out the Game?
Joyce Carol Oates: Yes, it was. Once you get to about chapter four, it all becomes very clear. I think of life itself as mysterious, and we have to keep pushing onward to see what is staring us in the face.
Chelsea Hall from Miami, Florida: Why did you write this book? What is it about? What made you become a writer? Do you have any sisters and brothers? Please do not write back to me so advanced -- I am only 11.
Joyce Carol Oates: I have one sister and one brother and I became a writer because I love to tell stories.
Clint Witchalls from Brixton, London: I really enjoyed your short story "A Woman Is Born to Bleed." Where did you get the idea for the story?
Joyce Carol Oates: It is part of a novel called MAN CRAZY, and this story is a section about the experience of the young girl, Ingrid. The idea for Ingrid's character and her life came partly from experience and partly from my knowledge of the era.
Clark Wilson from Pine Mountain, Georgia: What is the most important advice you would give to a young, beginning writer?
Joyce Carol Oates: To read very widely and to listen to many people. To be as invisible as possible so that you can experience life.
Danilo from Massasoit Community College: I would like to know, what do the numbers in Arnold Friend's car from the short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" mean?
Joyce Carol Oates: It has an occult significance. Obviously you are not a satanist, or you would know.
Jennifer from Jacksonville, FL: This is not really related to MY HEART LAID BARE but to "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been." I have loved that story from the moment I first read it (1,000 or so reads ago)! I am puzzled though. Arnold Friend is An Old Fiend with a few letters omitted, right? And also, if that is true, then am I wrong in seeing an awful lot of Jesus imagery in that story? Are you leaving the story up to individual interpretation?
Joyce Carol Oates: The story is suffused with religious imagery, and it takes place on Sunday. There is imagery both of redemption and damnation. The essential thing is that the young girl's life on earth as she has known it is ending, and she must prepare herself for departure.Most writers try to guide individual interpretation by selection of imagery, if not outright statements. Most works of fiction do have meanings in the author's imagination, but we try not to impose them on our readers. As Emily Dickinson said, "Tell the truth but tell it slant."
Liam Ryan from Massasoit Community College: Does A. Friend represent the devil?
Joyce Carol Oates: Well, certainly there is demonic imagery in him, but I don't necessarily intend him to be the devil.
Anthony Risser from rissera@yahoo.com: Given the diversity of your interests and some of your earlier works on boxing, do you see that there is any "story" to tell (in some larger or more basically human symbolic sense) in the epic of Michael Jordan and his teammates over the past decade? He seems like someone for whom Homer could tell a fine story. I think you would be the contemporary writer to formulate and tell that story. What do you think?
Joyce Carol Oates: That is a fascinating question. That is really interesting. I don't know that much about Michael Jordan, so it will fall to maybe you, Anthony Risser, to tell his epic story.
Students at Mass. Community College from comp. class: Although we look forward to reading and enjoying MY HEART LAID BARE soon, we are currently discussing "Where Are You Going..." Can we please ask a question about that story? If would be very valuable to the understanding of the author and the continuation of literary studies.... What influence can students find in the literary work "Where Are You Going..." that reflects the dedication to Dylan?
Joyce Carol Oates: The story was written at a time when a song by Bob Dylan called "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" was popular. This song is a surreal childlike ballad with ominous overtones. It seems to be presaging death.
David from Minneapolis: Human personality doesn't seem to be evolving very quickly from one century to the next. Will our violent tendencies ultimately destroy the entire planet?
Joyce Carol Oates: It is impossible to foresee the future. What we know from history is that there has been continuous warfare throughout the world. We would hope that the world's leaders could guide man's destiny more successfully than they have in the past.
Yasmina Kasmi Bakkali from France (Toulouse): Hello, I was looking forward to writing you, indeed. My name is Yasmina, living in France, and I am reading a Ph.D. in stylistics and narratology about your short stories "The Poisoned Kiss" and "The Assignation." I am studying the themes of ambiguity and doubles, comprising the polyphonic phenomenon, so the question is about the note you've written in the preface of "The Poisoned Kiss," claiming that it is a translation of Fernandes Di Briao. I think that it is a supercherie -- you've tried to deceive the reader, thrusting him into two worlds imaginary/reality, since you've created a double author, an impolite author, Fernandes Di Briao, and the real one, yourself. Could you tell me which literary background influenced you (if there was any influence) in the making of this note? I would be glad, if possible, to keep in touch with you for further information. Yours sincerely, Yasmina Kasmi Bakkali (phias@infonie.fr). P.S. Reading your short stories was really an important experience for me. Merci encore!
Joyce Carol Oates: Fernandes was the symbol of my own imagination at that time in my life; he was like a magician or a ventriloquist. He seemed to be translating into stories ideas in my mind that had no form. I was surprised to discover how different he was from me in our personal lives. Though we have much in common, ultimately we are very different. This was to me the profound and deeply mysterious experience which I have never quite understood. It took place over 20 years ago. Maybe your insights will illuminate the mystery for me.
Matt from New York City: I know you won a Stoker Award for best horror fiction. Is "horror" a term you wouldn't want associated with your work?
Joyce Carol Oates: Oh, not at all. I love horror fiction. And I have been reading it since the age of 12. My first horror writers were Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stroker. To me the horror genre or gothic is a realm of pure imagination unrestrained by the so-called laws of reality or probability.
Peter from Williamsburg, VA: Who are some of your greatest literary influences? Any favorite contemporary authors? Thanks for all the novels. Keep writing!
Joyce Carol Oates: Certainly Emily Dickinson in a spiritual sense. Walt Whitman, James Joyce, Anton Chekhov, Emily Brontë, Dostoevsky, and Kafka. I can't name contemporaries because so many of them are my friends, and I don't want to omit anyone.
Emily from Alexandria, VA: Do your books reflect your own fears, horrors, dark experiences? How do you conjure up your horror tales?
Joyce Carol Oates: Some of the experiences in my writing are based on emotional experiences of my own but not literal. I think of myself as a voice of my time and place.
Scott from New York City: Do you write under a pseudonym for mystery books? Is so, what is it, and why do you use it?
Joyce Carol Oates: My pseudonym is Rosamond Smith. I use it because it is a different voice for me, and the Rosamond Smith novels are suspense-horror mysteries which have a more cinematic quality to them than my other books.
Melanie from San Francisco: I just read the San Francisco Chronicle review of your book, and it said that MY HEART LAID BARE is "a book that could well appeal to readers outside the usual coterie of Oates fans." Do you agree? Was this your intention? Do you read your reviews?
Joyce Carol Oates: I read some reviews, yes. I haven't read this one. I had hoped it would reach a wide readership because it is basically a novel with many stories in it -- it has a broad historical canvas.
Sarah from Yarmouth, ME: Someone told me that you are coming out with a children's book next fall. Is this true? What age group is it for? What inspired you to write a kid's book?
Joyce Carol Oates: It is for children up to about age seven. It is called COME MEET MUFFIN! (Muffin is a very lovable cat.) I was inspired to write about my own cat and a little girl who finds this lost kitten by the side of the road and brings him home. And this is what actually happened to my own cat, Muffin. This book has beautiful paintings by an artist named Mark Graham.
Moderator: Thank you for joining us this evening, Joyce Carol Oates. It has been a pleasure chatting with you, and we hope you will join us again with your next book. Before you go, any closing comments to your online readers?
Joyce Carol Oates: Thank you enormously for these wonderful questions. They have been provocative and very rewarding!