000			02358nam a22002417a 4500
999			_c53473 _d53473
008			190919b2019 ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780008339654
082			_aFiction OAT-J
100			_aOates, Jouce Carol
245			_aMy life as a rat : _ba novel / _cJoyce Carol Oates
260			_aLondon _bHarper Collins Publishers _c2019
300			_a402 p.
365			_aINR _b599.00
500			_aViolet Rue is the baby of the seven Kerrigan children and adores her big brothers. What’s more, she knows that a family protects its own. To go outside the family – to betray the family – is unforgiveable. So when she overhears a conversation not meant for her ears and discovers that her brothers have committed a heinous crime, she is torn between her loyalty to her family and her sense of justice. The decision she takes will change her life for ever. Exploring racism, misogyny, community, family, loyalty, sexuality and identity, this is a dark story with a tense and propulsive atmosphere – Joyce Carol Oates at her very best. Which should prevail: loyalty to family or loyalty to the truth? Is telling the truth ever a mistake and is lying for one’s family ever justified? Can one do the right thing, but bitterly regret it? My Life as a Rat follows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age twelve, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African-American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently “informs” on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement. Arresting and poignant, My Life as a Rat traces a life of banishment from a family—banishment from parents, siblings, and the Church—that forces Violet to discover her own identity, to break the powerful spell of family, and to emerge from her long exile as a “rat” into a transformed life.
650			_aFiction
650			_aFamilies
650			_aMurder
650			_aBetrayal
650			_aSelf-realization in women
650			_aReflection (Philosophy)
650			_aAlienation (Social psychology)
650			_aLife change events