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The Falls
The Falls
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
It is 1950 and, after a disastrous honeymoon night, Ariah Erskine's young husband throws himself into the roaring waters of Niagara Falls. Ariah, "the Widow Bride of the Falls," begins a relentless seven-day vigil in the mist, waiting for his body to be found. At her side is confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby, who is une...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780060722296
ISBN-10: 0060722290
Publication Date: 8/1/2005
Pages: 512
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 106

3.6 stars, based on 106 ratings
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Falls on + 49 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I know that Joyce Carol Oates is considered one of the greatest writers of our time, but her focus on the mundane details of peoples lives make her books very hard to finish.
reviewed The Falls on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Slow first few pages - and then you can't put it down
reviewed The Falls on + 121 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Widowed on her wedding night when her new husband, a young minister and latent homosexual, throws himself into the falls, Ariah Littrell, the plain, awkward daughter of a minister, henceforth considers herself damned. Her bleak future becomes miraculously bright when Dirk Burnaby, a handsome, wealthy bon vivant with an altruistic heart, falls in love with the media-dubbed Widow-Bride. Their rapturous happiness is shadowed only by Ariah's illogical conviction over the years that Dirk will leave her and their three children someday. Her unreasonable fear becomes self-fulfilling when her increasingly unstable behavior, combined with Dirk's obsessed but chaste involvement with Nina Olshaker, a young mother who enlists his help in alerting the city fathers to the pestilential conditions in the area later to be known as Love Canal, opens a chasm in their marriage. His gentle heart inspired by a need for justice, Dirk takes on the powerful, corrupt politicians, his former peers and pals, in a disastrous lawsuit that ruins him socially and financially and results in his death.
PIZZELLEBFS avatar reviewed The Falls on + 331 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Widowed on her wedding night when her new husband, a young minister and latent homosexual, throws himself into the falls, Ariah Littrell, the plain, awkward daughter of a minister, henceforth considers herself damned. Her bleak future becomes miraculously bright when Dirk Burnaby, a handsome, wealthy bon vivant with an altruistic heart, falls in love with the media-dubbed Widow-Bride. Their rapturous happiness is shadowed only by Ariah's illogical conviction over the years that Dirk will leave her and their three children someday. Her unreasonable fear becomes self-fulfilling when her increasingly unstable behavior, combined with Dirk's obsessed but chaste involvement with Nina Olshaker, a young mother who enlists his help in alerting the city fathers to the pestilential conditions in the area later to be known as Love Canal, opens a chasm in their marriage. His gentle heart inspired by a need for justice, Dirk takes on the powerful, corrupt politicians, his former peers and pals, in a disastrous lawsuit that ruins him socially and financially and results in his death. Oates adroitly addresses the material of this "first" class action lawsuit and makes the story fresh and immediate. "In the end, all drama is about family," a character muses, and while the narrative occasionally lapses into melodrama in elucidating this theme, Oates spins a haunting story in which nature and humans are equally rapacious and self-destructive.
reviewed The Falls on + 70 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Interesting historical background regarding Niagra Falls as well as characters of three or more generations. Oates writes beautifully, descriptions are like prose...a joy to read. The reader identifies with the reasoning, choices made by characters. Well done. Susan
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reviewed The Falls on + 20 more book reviews
If you like Joyce Carol Oates, you'll like this one. I found it a little bizarre for my taste.

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