Gravedigger's Daughter

December 15, 2007
Reader Bernadette Dunne captures the mesmerizing pace of Oates's prose in an almost hypnotic rhythm as the novel unwinds in past and present time. The daughter of a family that escaped Nazi Germany only to land in America in a situation well beneath their previous status, Rebecca tells a story of violence, betrayal, secrets, forced silences, and misperceptions. She will suffer the deflected and intentional slurs directed at her father and his new profession, carrying her shame into her unfortunate marriage, her escape, and her uncertainty about her true identity as she attempts to secure a chameleon's invisibility throughout her life. A harsh and demanding book but recommended for libraries whose clientele favor serious fiction.Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, NY

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