We were the MulvaneysbyJoyce Carol Oates

We were the Mulvaneys (1996) is Joyce Carol Oates's 26th novel. It was chosen as part of Oprah's Book Club in 2001.  The novel returns to familiar Oates territory: the dysfunctional family.

The book is about unraveling of the Mulvaneys, a family living in the small, rural town of Mt. Ephraim, New York, during the later part of the 20th century, are the perfect family: four kids, the owners of a successful roofing business, and a high social status.  The fall starts in the wake of a daughter's rape. Though plot may seem, as critic Anita Urquhart remarked, "the stuff of a bad television movie.", Oates's penchant for the dark side and profound grasp of the grotesque breathe life into this modern American tragedy.

The book was made into a Lifetime Television movie in 2002 with Blythe Danner, which was nominated for three Emmys.

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Product Description
Moving away from the dark tone of her more recent masterpieces, Joyce Carol Oates turns the tale of a family struggling to cope with its fall from grace into a deeply moving and unforgettable account of the vigor of hope and the power of love to prevail over suffering.

The Mulvaneys of High Point Farm in Mt. Ephraim, New York, are a large and fortunate clan, blessed with good looks, abundant charisma, and boundless promise. But over the twenty-five year span of this ambitious novel, the Mulvaneys will slide, almost imperceptibly at first, from the pinnacle of happiness, transformed by the vagaries of fate into a scattered collection of lost and lonely souls.

It is the youngest son, Judd, now an adult, who attempts to piece together the fragments of the Mulvaneys' former glory, seeking to uncover and understand the secret violation that occasioned the family's tragic downfall. Each of the Mulvaneys endures some form of exile -- physical or spiritual -- but in the end they find a way to bridge the chasms that have opened up among them, reuniting in the spirit of love and healing.

Profoundly cathartic, Oates' acclaimed novel unfolds as if, in the darkness of the human spirit, she has come upon a source of light at its core. Rarely has a writer made such a startling and inspiring statement about the value of hope and compassion.

"What keeps us coming back to Oates Country is her uncanny gift of making the page a window, with something happening on the othe