Oates, Joyce Carol

Because It Is Bitter and Because It Is My Heart

ISBN: 0525248609
New York, NY: Dutton/ Penguin Group, 1990. First Edition. Hardcover. "Joyce Carol Oates is in full fire here. The motifs and themes of this rich, intricately textured realistic novel belong to the American experience of the 1950s and 1960s. But the vision of life that animates them is so clear and unflinching that the past comes to us with the force of revelation. Once again, to read a new Oates novel is to enter a new world. In a small city in upstate New York, in the decade before the upsurge of the civil rights movement, when racial prejudice seemed inflexible and habitual, we are introduced to two families struggling to advance themselves- the Courtneys, who are white, and the Fairchilds, who are black." (from front flap) A dramatic, topical novel by Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938), the much-honored & almost-superhumanly prolific American author. The intertwined sagas of the Courtney & Fairchild familes with "...a strange, virtually subterranean link" (front flap) are explored & dissected in the inimitably deep & passionate Oates style. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket (presumably first-issue with $19.95 price printed at front flap), first edition, "First Printing, April, 1990" as stated on copyright page & as indicated by number sequence thereon. A collectible classic in the vast Oates oeuvre in its rarest contemporary form. Book in very fine condition with only a touch of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; tiny bumps at upper corners of a few page leaves; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Dust jacket very fine with only a hint of rubbing & a few faint scratches to front, back covers & spine; a bit of wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same & flaps. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #5975]

Price: $40.00