Little Bird of Heaven: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates - Emotional Literary Fiction for Book Clubs & Relaxing Reading

I am a huge Joyce Carol Oates fan. Every time I read another of her books I am amazed at how she can keep producing such quality stories. She has the ability to get the reader in the mind of characters so that you feel you know and understand these people better than yourself. She does the same for the locale of the story. So much detail, but as you are reading you do not feel overwhelmed. You feel as if you're absorbing everything as an eye witness..You not only know the characters but their environment as well. It's an uncanny ability, I tell you.This story is told by Krista, the young daughter of a man whom the police consider "a person of interest" in a murder case and whom the town labels as guilty. It's Oates' gift that the story is not stunted or limited by this viewpoint. How does it happen that we understand and commiserate with every character: the murdered woman (by no means a saint), her son (dark and brooding and seething at a young age), her estranged husband (at home in the grease of his auto repair shop), Krista's father (simultaneously a family man and an adulterer), Krista's mom (hurt and full of moraloutrage), Krista's older bother (who shares his mom's disgust and shame), and Krista herself (loving her dad the more he is maligned) ? How does it happen? It's part of Oates' genius as a writer.This novel will make you want to know "the story behind the story" whenever you hear of a murder on the news, something very few are privy to.. What does happen to the families, especially the children? How do they cope? Crime shows usually end with the case solved and the perp in jail and society feeling vindicated. Little Bird of Heaven shows moral failures and their insidious influence in a whole different light, exploring the crime's repercussions long after its commission. A great read!