Them Author:Joyce Carol Oates THEM is is a beautifully written book that touches on some disturbing, yet very common subjects. Set in the period between the Depression and the 1960s, the story plays out in a gritty, impoverished neighborhood in Detroit, taking place over several generations. Beginning from the point of view of fifteen-year-old "Loretta", whose impu... more »lsive one-night-stand with a local boy ends up with somebody dead, the story shifts viewpoints over the years until we are inside the heads of her children as they grow up on the streets of Detroit to become who they will be: fascinating, heartbreaking, complex, sometimes ugly, sometimes tender and perceptive people. Excellently written. A wonderful book that won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1970.« less