Marya: A Life

I actually read Marya: A Life ages ago.  My own life is currently conspiring against me in order to keep me away from books, blogs and any form of relaxation in general.  So apologies, but good things come to those who wait and, as Blonde shows us, Joyce Carol Oates is so very very good.  Okay, if I’m honest this book isn’t as good as Blonde but that’s essentially a matter of expectations and the fact that this one isn’t about Marilyn Monroe; one of my favourite film stars ever.  I’ll stop there or I’ll just witter on about how much I love Blonde for another 500-odd words and achieve nothing.

Again, Marya: A Life is a great book.  It’ s a relatively simple story, each chapter is a separate incident in Marya’s life that tells of her relationships.  Abandoned by their mother after their father dies, Marya and her two brother are brought up by their aunt and uncle who expect gratitude for every act of kindness.  Marya’s family and friends can’t understand her need to escape her past when she is young.  Leaving the little town she grows up in means she loses her fiancé, she is attacked by her male friends to bring her back down to their level, her aunt sees it as a rejection.  But what I love about Marya when she is young is that she does escape.  She doesn’t let other people’s opinions drag her down.  She does what she wants and it works for her and she gets out.  Naturally, it is only years after she leaves that she feels the inclination to go back, to question the stories she has been told about her mother’s death. 

I’m going to go back to feminism now.  I bloody love feminism and Marya’s such a feminist character, but more than that- she’s a really complicated one.  She is undoubtedly an accomplished woman; she is intelligent and she is successful at a time when women were encouraged to stay in the kitchen rather than go into the wide world.  But the thing is, her success is always shaped by men.  Her academic career is moulded by Maximillian Fein, her professional one by Eric Nichols.  In both these relationships she is the other woman and while she appears to remain on the fringes of her life, they fill hers and they change it.  It’s so fascinating to see her change as she experiences sexual relationships because she moves away from her early defiance.  It may be love, it may be aging, Oates never makes it clear.

It’s hard to pin down exactly why this book is so good.  It kind of defies any attempt to try.  I like it because Marya is strong, but she is also easily led.  It is terribly sad in places, but it’s also the story of a woman overcoming her awful past.  It’s a bundle of contradictions that are so wonderfully balanced that it’s a joy to read.  In short, it’s everything that I love about Joyce Carol Oates. 

Next up is La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas.