Retinoids: Biology, Chemistry, and Medicine

Book Description

The Second Edition of this comprehensive reference on the retinoids reflects the important advances that have occurred since the publication of the First Edition in 1984. The contributors review current knowledge of new ligands, receptors, mechanisms of cellular action, and molecular mechanisms of control of gene expression by retinoids, and explore the impact of such discoveries on basic science and on clinical applications of retinoids. Coverage includes advances in organic synthesis and analytical chemistry of retinoids and new findings on the role of vitamin A in nutrition, the metabolism of retinol and retinoic acid, the proteins that bind retinoids, the nuclear receptors for retinoic acid, the cell biology of retinoids, and the role of retinoids in vision, embryonic development, and the immune system. A new chapter on toxicology examines the interaction of retinoids with nuclear receptor systems. The book also describes new applications of retinoids in experimental and clinical oncology and in dermatology.

Control of Growth Factors and Prevention of Cancer (ESO Monographs)

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Control of Growth Factors and Prevention of Cancer (ESO Monographs)

Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

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Retinoids in Cutaneous Malignancy (Frontiers in Pharmacology & Therapeutics)

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Retinoids in Cutaneous Malignancy (Frontiers in Pharmacology & Therapeutics)
R. Marks
Manufacturer: Blackwell Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Retinoids in Oncology (Basic and Clinical Oncology, No 4)

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Retinoids in Oncology (Basic and Clinical Oncology, No 4)

Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General & Reference | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

This reference provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments in basic research that are relevant to the application of retinoids for cancer prevention and treatment.;Organized in a quick-referral format by specific disease site, this book: describes the effects of retinoids on squamous differentiation in normal, pre-malignant, and malignant epithelial tissues; addresses the mechanisms by which cultured keratinocytes respond to retinoids; considers the antitumor activity of combination therapy with retinoids and cytokines; reviews the toxicity profiles of the vitamin A molecule and the synthetically derived retinoid compounds and their effects on humans; examines the use of retinoids in the prevention of basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and in the therapy of advanced SCC; and summarizes data on the potential of retinoids to prevent epithelial cancer, to act as adjuvants to current therapies in early stages of the disease and to aid in the management of both solid tumours and hematologic malignancies.;A guide for the many disciplines involved in the preclinical studies and direct care of cancer patients, this book serves as useful reading for clinical, surgical and radiation oncologists; clinical immunologists; dermatologists; obstetricians/gynaecologists; haematologists; otolaryngologists; internists; nutritionists; and pulmonary-disease specialists.

Retinoids in Oncology (Lecture Notes in Physics)

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Retinoids in Oncology (Lecture Notes in Physics)
Laurent Degos
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag Telos
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Retinoids, Differentiation and Disease (Ciba Foundation Symposia)

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Retinoids, Differentiation and Disease (Ciba Foundation Symposia)
CIBA Foundation symposium
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Biochemistry | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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Retinoids: Their Physiological Function and Therapeutic Potential (Advances in Organ Biology)

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Retinoids: Their Physiological Function and Therapeutic Potential (Advances in Organ Biology)

Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Biochemistry | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

Retinoids have received considerable attention in recent years and due cognizance has been given to their versatility as biological response modifiers, as evidenced by the virtually explosive growth of literature in this field in the past few years. This volume has been designed to give a current state-of-the-art picture of retinoids. The perceived potential of retinoids in the treatment of certain disease stated has initiated attempts at identifying and synthesizing new retinoid derivatives with definable and selective effects on aberrant biological phenomena. Appropriately, therefore, we begin with the chemistry of retinoids and their derivatives together with discussions of their biological activity. Major advances have been made in understanding the mechanisms by which retinoids modulate physiological and phenotypic traits of cells. The transduction of retinoid signaling by the mediation of nuclear receptors of the steroid/thyroid receptor superfamily has now been studied extensively and the cloning and defining the characteristics of these receptors has been a focus of discussion in this volume. Retinoids also markedly modulate the transduction of extracellular signals such as those imparted by growth factors and hormones, and thus actively influence and control cellular proliferative patterns. Retinoids can alter epidermal growth factor receptor expression (Kawaguchi et al., 1994), responsiveness to thyroid hormone (Esfandiari et al., 1994; Pallet et al., 1994), inhibit the proliferative responses of hematopoietic progenitor cells to granulocyte colony stimulating factor (Smeland et al., 1994), and modulate secretion on interleukins by leukaemic cells (Balitrand et al., 1994), among other things. This has obvious implications for pharmacological manipulation of deregulated growth (Dickens and Colletta, 1993; Mulshine et al., 1993). Apoptosis is another component in the regulation of growth control. Apoptotic cell death is influenced by several agents and retinoids may function by interfering with apoptotic pathways of regulation of growth control and quite legitimately, therefore, the importance of this aspect of retinoid function has been duly recognized here.

IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention: Volume 4: Retinoids (IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention)

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IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention: Volume 4: Retinoids (IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention)
IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of Cancer Preventive Agents
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Biochemistry | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

The retinoids are a class of compounds structurally related to Vitamin A. In the last 30 years, more than 2,500 retinoids have been synthesized and biologically tested, with the objective of identifying those with an enhanced therapeutic ratio. The majority have been studied for their cancer-preventive activity in experimental models, and some in clinical trials in humans. In March 1999, a working group of international experts met in Lyon to consider the existing evidence on the cancer-preventive activity of nine retinoids judged to have sufficient human and/or animal data to permit evaluation. This handbook details the evidence considered, and summarizes the evaluation made by the working group.

Book Description

When Pushkin first read some of the stories in this collection, he declared himself "amazed." "Here is real gaiety," he wrote, "honest, unconstrained, without mincing, without primness. And in places what poetry! . . . I still haven't recovered."

More than a century and a half later, Nikolai Gogol's stories continue to delight readers the world over. Now a stunning new translation--from an award-winning team of translators--presents these stories in all their inventive, exuberant glory to English-speaking readers. For the first time, the best of Gogol's short fiction is brought together in a single volume: from the colorful Ukrainian tales that led some critics to call him "the Russian Dickens" to the Petersburg stories, with their black humor and wonderfully demented attitude toward the powers that be. All of Gogol's most memorable creations are here: the minor official who misplaces his nose, the downtrodden clerk whose life is changed by the acquisition of a splendid new overcoat, the wily madman who becomes convinced that a dog can tell him everything he needs to know.

These fantastic, comic, utterly Russian characters have dazzled generations of readers and had a profound influence on writers such as Dostoevsky and Nabokov. Now they are brilliantly rendered in the first new translation in twenty-five years--one that is destined to become the definitive edition of Gogol's most important stories.

Customer Reviews:

Bad translation.......2006-11-16

A quick note to counterbalance all of the glowing reviews. Of course, everybody has an opinion, and one can't argue with taste as they say, so let me provide - for your consideration - a representative passage from the first few pages of this translation. From the second page of "St. John's Eve": "I remember like now - the old woman, my late mother, was still alive - how on a long winter's evening, when there was a biting frost outside that walled us up solidly behind the narrow window of our cottage, she used to sit by the comb, pulling the long thread out with her hand, rocking the cradle with her foot, and humming a song that I can hear as if it was (sic) now." I don't speak Russian, and maybe this "I remember like now" expression represents a literal translation of some Russian idiom, but it would have made a lot more sense to translate the phrase into something along the lines of "I remember as if it were yesterday" - a corny expression, but one that at least makes sense in English. If this seems like a petty criticism, take into account that that kind of awkward, bizarre phrasing is repeated in just about every other sentence. The translators are fond of corny, archaic words like "mug" (for face) and "drubbing" that seem like they belong in a British translation from the 30s, not something copyrighted in 1998. I just wanted to give a warning to anyone who was actually expecting this to be a "modern" translation, i.e., a translation into something resembling contemporary English. For the record, "Dead Souls" is one of my favorite novels and "Ivan Ivanovich / Ivan Nikiforovich" one of my favorite short stories, so this isn't about disliking Gogol.

Can read repeatedly without becoming bored........2006-03-18

As well known in the east as the "Wizard of Oz" series is in the west (which was also argueably inspired by a russian tale "The Wizard of the Emerald City", this collection is every bit as enjoyable - especially for children or grandchildren.

The Night Before Christmas is an insighful look at human nature - the desire of each person to have prince/princess and live happily ever after. The stories are full of hope, humor, sadness, and tragedy.

Overall, the stories are masterpieces that can read repeatedly.

Nikolai Gogol, the Jonathan Swift of Russian Satire and the Charles Dickens of Russian Literature.......2005-08-08

Nikolai Gogol was one of the greatest writers of the golden age of Russian Literature. As friend of the Great Aleksandr Sergeeyivich Pushkin, the Shakespeare of Russian Literature, he helped Pushkin realize his genius and at the same time wrote some of the most famous and entertaining short stories of all the Great Russian writers such as "The Diary of a Madman" (before it was a cliche' kind of expression and well before Ozzy's 1981 classic) which is the story of a disilusioned clerk or something. Gogol always had sympathy for the little guy, who was stuck in a dead end job, and the guy who had no voice like the main character in probably Gogols most famous short story "The Overcoat" which I have just finished reading, and I may say without any sort of hesitation that that lovely little tale will go with me in my treasured memories for the rest of my life (May that life be filled with such lovely literature as that of 19th century Russian!)

This volume, while it doesn't have "Tarsas Bulba" redeems itself with some of the greatest stories ever told.

Nikolai Vasilyivich Gogol
1809-1852

Sheer Genius (and a good translation).......2004-01-01

This is the kind of writing that makes me questions why movies even exist. The style, the sentences, the humor, the feel is all something unique, unpredictable, and unmistakable. These plots are bizarre, intriguing and it is nearly impossible to guess the endings. All this coming from a translated work is a success for the writer and the translators.

The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman, & the Nose are some examples of Gogol's short story brilliance. These stories are realistic yet surreal, imaginative and impressive. Gogol shows you the roots of what Russian writers continued to excel at later with works like Metamorphosis (Kafka). He calls his stories tales (there are the Ukrainian Tales and the Petersburg Tales), and they most definitely are tales. They are the kind of stories you can tell around the campfire -- they are that unnerving and exhilarating. Yet they are social commentaries as well. These stories work on many levels because they are detailed, feature fantastic characters, and delve into fantasy. All the while you find unexpected twists and occurrences. It's sheer genius.

This book is a fabulous introduction to both Russian literature and the works of this unique genius.

great translations.......2002-05-22

of course wonderful stories, but the translations are excellent. If you're going to read Gogol in English, use Pevear as your guide.

The collected tales and plays of Nikolai Gogol

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The collected tales and plays of Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
Manufacturer: Octagon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Eastern European | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0374931674

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The Collected Tales and Plays of Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JRPS1U

The collected Tales & Plays of Nikolai Gogol

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The collected Tales & Plays of Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K0P4RY

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THE COLLECTED TALES AND PLAYS OF NIKOLAI GOGOL
Nikolai (ed. and introduced Leonard J. Kent) Gogal
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J3O0VI

The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol.(Review): An article from: New Criterion

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The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol.(Review): An article from: New Criterion
Gary Saul Morson
Manufacturer: Foundation for Cultural Review
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Criterion, published by Foundation for Cultural Review on November 1, 1998. The length of the article is 2396 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol.(Review)
Author: Gary Saul Morson
Publication: New Criterion (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 1998
Publisher: Foundation for Cultural Review
Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Page: 65(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Collected Tales
Nikolai Gogol
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1135365970

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Collected tales and plays
Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Eastern European | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: B0006BLTOE

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The Collected Tales and Plays of Nikolai Gogol
Leonard J.-edited, with an introductin and notes by Kent
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000BR4X0A

Taras Bulba and other tales (The Collected stories of the world's greatest writers)

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Marauders
Tara Bulba- Cossack Glory

Taras Bulba and other tales (The Collected stories of the world's greatest writers)
Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol
Manufacturer: Franklin Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Eastern European | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: B0006EG90K

Book Description

Russian literature, so full of enigmas, contains no greater creative mystery than Nikolai Vasil'evich Gogol (1809-1852), who has done for the Russian novel and Russian prose what Pushkin has done for Russian poetry. Before these two men came Russian literature can hardly have been said to exist. It was pompous and effete with pseudo-classicism; foreign influences were strong; in the speech of the upper circles there was an overfondness for German, French, and English words. Between them the two friends, by force of their great genius, cleared away the debris which made for sterility and erected in their stead a new structure out of living Russian words. The spoken word, born of the people, gave soul and wing to literature; only by coming to earth, the native earth, was it enabled to soar. Coming up from Little Russia, the Ukraine, with Cossack blood in his veins, Gogol injected his own healthy virus into an effete body, blew his own virile spirit, the spirit of his race, into its nostrils, and gave the Russian novel its direction to this very day.

Download Description

All three horsemen rode in silence. Old Taras's thoughts were far away: before him passed his youth, his years--the swift-flying years, over which the Cossack always weeps, wishing that his life might be all youth. He wondered whom of his former comrades he should meet at the Setch. He reckoned up how many had already died, how many were still alive.

Customer Reviews:

Marauders.......2003-11-12

The Bulbas were an old Cossack family. Ostap and Andrei, sons of Taras Bulba, attended the Kiev Seminary. Taras leads his sons to the Cossack encampment for them to become warriors. It is sort of their fate. The headman says he has promised the sultan there would be no war. Taras arranges for the election of a new headman. Soon all of southwest Poland is prey to a fear that the Cossacks are coming.

It is wonderful to enter into the minds and intentions of the marauders. The Cossacks had been inflamed to be warlike under reports of other religious groups failing to respect Eastern Orthodoxy.

Andrei runs into the servant of a woman he saw and fell in love with at the Seminary and becomes concerned that she is starving and that the harsh rations of his group are unsuitable fare for her. The sight of peopole starving is awful to Andrei. In the girl's presence, Andrei feels uncouth. He has spent his life in the Seminary and on the steppes.

The Cossacks are beseiging the city. Suddenly an army breaks through and Andrei is lost to Taras and the others. It is reported that Andrei has gone over to the other side under his own free will.

Ostrap Bulba is elected a chief. Part of the Cossack forces follow the Tartars out of the city to retrieve their prisoners, and the rest remain in the vicinity of the city for the same purpose, to retrieve the Cossack prisoners taken by the Poles. Ostap and Taras stay to confront the Poles. They are surprised to encounter Andrei. Taras kills Andrei.

Ostap is taken prisoner and transported to Warsaw. Taras seeks out Yankel to hide him and take him to Warsaw. Through the arrogant will of the Polish aristocracy, the captured Cossacks are tortured, Ostap included. Taras is a witness to the scene.

A Cossack Army 120,000 strong is massed on the border of the Ukraine. Among all the regiments, the crack regiment is led by Taras Bulba. The Russian Orthodox clergy go out to meet the Cossacks. Taras's exploits go well beyond ordinary raids.

The story is colorful and excellent.

Tara Bulba- Cossack Glory.......2003-06-01

I read this book in my youth and loved it then. Revisiting it hasn't diminished the richness of its style or the quality of its impact. I love it still. Taras Bulba captures the wildness of spirit of the Cossacks and their role in the early Russia. It shows the magnificence of the qualities of love, loyalty and bravery. It also shows the opposite side of the human psyche mainly cruelty and despair in the face of overwhelming force.

There are always two values in Russian literature and music a high booming note and a low resonating note. This triumph of Gogol exhibits both in true Russian style. In a way this illuminates the components of Russian character.

It is by no means easy critiquing a work by the great Gogol but to advise readers to sample this great work I feel is a duty and a privilege.

By all means read this book, it goes to the heart of the Cossack and Russian soul. It will answer the basic question about the Russian people's love of motherland which has echoed throughout Russian history.

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Gotta give the devil his due...

We Were The Mulvaneys

Fine, but no 'Brothers K'

A Piercing Story of Family Disintegration

Excellent, But It Has a Few Flaws

We Were the Mulvaneys (Oprah's Book Club)
Joyce Carol Oates
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Oates, Joyce Carol | ( O ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0452282829

Amazon.com

Oprah Book Club® Selection, January 2001: A happy family, the Mulvaneys. After decades of marriage, Mom and Dad are still in love--and the proud parents of a brood of youngsters that includes a star athlete, a class valedictorian, and a popular cheerleader. Home is an idyllic place called High Point Farm. And the bonds of attachment within this all-American clan do seem both deep and unconditional: "Mom paused again, drawing in her breath sharply, her eyes suffused with a special lustre, gazing upon her family one by one, with what crazy unbounded love she gazed upon us, and at such a moment my heart would contract as if this woman who was my mother had slipped her fingers inside my rib cage to contain it, as you might hold a wild, thrashing bird to comfort it."

But as we all know, Eden can't last forever. And in the hands of Joyce Carol Oates, who's chronicled just about every variety of familial dysfunction, you know the fall from grace is going to be a doozy. By the time all is said and done, a rape occurs, a daughter is exiled, much alcohol is consumed, and the farm is lost. Even to recount these events in retrospect is a trial for the Mulvaney offspring, one of whom declares: "When I say this is a hard reckoning I mean it's been like squeezing thick drops of blood from my veins." In the hands of a lesser writer, this could be the stuff of a bad television movie. But this is Oates's 26th novel, and by now she knows her material and her craft to perfection. We Were the Mulvaneys is populated with such richly observed and complex characters that we can't help but care about them, even as we wait for disaster to strike them down. --Anita Urquhart

Customer Reviews:

Gotta give the devil his due..........2007-07-01

I appreciate good writing. I really do. Joyce Carol Oates is, technically, a top-notch author. Her turns of phrases made me go, "Damn! I wish I'd thoguht to say that!" So why did I give it only three stars? While this book was fantastically written, it was a chore to get through. I had to force myself to pick it up and read. The storyline was good, but trying to read it and engage myself with a rather unlikable cast of characters was like trying to jog in quicksand. One hundred and fifty pages easily could have been pruned and the story would still have been there. I understand - this is supposed to be literature - but I don't think reading should ever have to feel like a chore. Ever. Unless you're reading a geology textbook, but that's a story for another day...

We Were The Mulvaneys.......2007-05-27

I had to use this readers companion for a 315 point paper that I had to write for school about We Were the Mulvaneys. I needed something that was more of a critiscim of the book, but this kind of gave you different perspectives on situations in the book. Although it didn't give me too many critiscims, it did help me add more dept to my paper. It is fairly short and easy to read. I do recomend it if you have to do a project or a paper on We Were the Milvaneys.

Fine, but no 'Brothers K'.......2007-05-21

I picked up a copy of this book at a library sale before I knew it was an Oprah book. I tend to avoid the Oprah books because I find them preachy (though I admittedly read and enjoyed several of them before they were Oprah books.) Though this wasn't preachy, it seemed to me a less interesting and far less funny version of David James Duncan's brilliant study of family (in pretty much the same time period) 'The Brothers K.' It wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't really that good. It was often disengaging, which made it tedious. There are far better works to spend 450 pages reading.

A Piercing Story of Family Disintegration.......2007-05-03

This sprawling novel charts the gradual disintegration of a family. The exuberant Mulvaneys are a prominent family in the rural community of Mt. Ephraim, New York. Mike Mulvaney owns a successful roofing company and uses the profits from his business to support the sprawling family homestead, High Point Farm where his beautiful wife, Corinne oversees their four children, high school football star Mike, rational aspiring scientist Patrick, bright, curious 10-year-old Judd and their beloved, dreamy sister Marianne. The farm overflows with a myriad of beloved horses, dogs, cats, goats and children whose boisterous conversations can make mealtimes a free-for-all. But on Valentine's Day, 1976, a tragic event cripples the Mulvaney family, wreaking destruction on the close-knit, loving home. Fifteen-year-old Marianne is raped by the son of a prominent family. This horrific event damages every member of the Mulvaney family as they struggle to understand. Fearful and guilt-ridden, Marianne refuses to testify against the boy, certain that she must have invited the assault. The Mulvaney boys are bewildered and angry, unable to accept that their beautiful, fragile sister can have been mistreated by a classmate. But it is their father, Michael Mulvaney Sr. who is outraged and overwhelmed by the rape of his daughter by the son of a good friend. Angry at Marianne because she refuses to press charges, Mulvaney turns his rage on first on the father of the attacker, then on the friends and business acquaintances who turn away and finally on his own family. Marianne is sent away in disgrace, denied her home and her family even on holidays. Mother Corinne is unable or unwilling to stop the black rages and drunken assaults that Mike Mulvaney commits against her and their sons. Soon, their oldest son has escaped into the military, Patrick has gone away to college, leaving Judd alone with his devastated parents who, unable to overcome their grief and rage over Marianne's rape, allow first their business then their home to drift away. Oates has crafted a magnificent story that chronicles the breakdown of a family that was blessed with everything that made life sweet: success, beauty, health, fine children and a gorgeous home that made them the envy of their fellow townspeople. She unflinchingly portrays the selfish pride that compels the destruction of a once happy family. It is not the violation and suffering of his daughter that propels Mike Mulvaney into the self-destructive behavior; instead, it is the way in which the town refuses to support him against the family of Marianne's attacker. He cares only about the way in which Marianne's assault shows how little true power Mulvaney wields in the town. His injured pride is more important than her pain. An excellent absorbing tale.

Excellent, But It Has a Few Flaws.......2007-03-25

This is a compelling and entertaining novel from Oates, and it is one of her most popular novels. It was not chance that the book was picked for Oprah's Book Club list.

I have read some of her other works. Oates is a gifted writer and most of her works are good. The present book is a family story where the mother seems to be the hero of the story. The family is very similar to the one in Oates's book "The Falls," i.e.: a few boys, one problem girl, and a problem husband. The problems faced by the family are realistic and some outcomes are positive. It is not all negative. In these novels she explores personalities and family dynamics including the interaction between the parents and the children, or the lives, marriages, and the careers of the children.

Oates grew up in New York State. She knows the area and most of the local references are authentic. It is well written and has a lot of rural New York color. The story is set in the Chautauqua Valley, 60 miles south of Lake Ontario.

The story is well written but one has one flaw that challenges the reader. The story is written in a narrative style as told by Judd, the youngest member of the Mulvaney family. Judd tells a narrative of what has happened to the family over the past 20 or 30 years. But Oates uses a double flashback technique which becomes disruptive to the flow of the story. Judd will start to tell about an incident but then just before he gets to the key part a second flashback is inserted, often four or five pages long. That interrupts the flow of the story. The reader tends to speed read through those pages in the secondary flashback in order to get back to the main point. That seems to be the primary flaw in the book. It gives a general feeling of confusion or too much trivia.

Otherwise, the plot is good and the characters are very interesting. Those parts are fine and I read the novel in a day. It is a quick light read.

So, this is a fine 5 star read but perhaps not a classic but it is a highly recommended read.

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We Were the Mulvaneys

Manufacturer: William Abrahams, Plume, Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: B000E7RX5E

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We Were The Mulvaneys
Joyce Carol Oates
Manufacturer: Plume / Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000V2LRH2

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We Were the Mulvaneys
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We Were the Mulvaneys
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We Were the Mulvaneys
Joyce Carol Oates
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We Were the Mulvaneys
Oates Joyce Carol
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We Were the Mulvaneys
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We Were the Mulvaneys (A William Abrahams Book)

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Manufacturer: Plume
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Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HT5FGS

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