Book Review: "Carthage" by Joyce Carol Oates

My most recent read by Joyce Carol Oates before this was My Life as a Rat and honestly, I could not help but compare that to her novel The Book of American Martyrs when it comes to the morality argument and how our perception of what is good and right are challenged. This is probably also true for this novel entitled Carthage in which we must also have to face that perhaps, not knowing the whole story means that we will judge things at face value. It is only after that will we be taught the entirety of the story. Let's take a look...

In the summer of 2005, in the small, insular town of Carthage, New York, nineteen-year-old Cressida Mayfield vanishes without a trace. A fiercely intelligent but socially awkward young woman, Cressida has always felt like an outsider, overshadowed by her beautiful and beloved older sister, Juliet. Her disappearance sends shockwaves through the town, and suspicion quickly falls on Juliet’s former fiancé, Brett Kincaid, a decorated Iraq War veteran struggling with severe physical and psychological trauma. This start point makes the reader feel a certain way about the characters. We automatically feel bad for Cressida and perhaps a sort of contempt for Juliet. However, we still don't know the entire story and so, because its a Joyce Carol Oates novel, we are setting ourselves up for being shown something entirely different.

Once the town’s golden boy, Brett returned from Iraq a broken man, suffering from PTSD and disfiguring injuries. His engagement to Juliet ended, and he became a shadow of his former self. On the night of Cressida’s disappearance, Brett was the last person seen with her, intoxicated and confused. His history of violence exacerbated by war-induced trauma, leads the town to believe he is responsible for her presumed murder. With no body found, only bloodstains and circumstantial evidence, the case against him is largely built on suspicion and prejudice. It is fascinating because this is the moral argument that also seems to happen in a similar way to The Book of American Martyrs. I won't say exactly how because you may not have read one or both of the books yet.

In the wake of Cressida’s disappearance, Carthage becomes consumed by grief, speculation, and a desperate need for resolution. The Mayfield family is torn apart, with Juliet and her parents, Zeno and Arlette, struggling to cope in different ways. Zeno, a respected local figure, is devastated by the idea that his daughter may have been murdered. The town, eager to find closure, turns against Brett, painting him as a monster rather than a man in need of help. Now, once we start to see the parents - we get more of a clear picture of the family life of Cressida. I'm not saying that there was some ground for her to become the person she was at the beginning of the book. She was pretty much the one in the background and so, it becomes easier to see why certain things happened the way they did. I'm purposefully being vague to keep the story's spoilers under wraps.

Under intense pressure from law enforcement and the community, Brett confesses to Cressida’s murder despite having no clear memory of what happened. His confession, extracted from a traumatised and unstable mind, lacks credibility, but it is enough to convict him. He is sentenced to prison, becoming both a scapegoat and a tragic symbol of a system that is more interested in swift justice than truth. Surprisingly this is actually the beginning of the story, not the end. There is so much more that happens and so much more we discover about Cressida and her life. We also discover some shocking details about what has happened.

All in all, I thought this book was absolutely fascinating and has some deep propensity to become one of my favourite novels by Joyce Carol Oates. Her dealing with moral issues that cut deep into American communities is something really special and if you have not read this work already, I really need you to. I absolutely loved it, consuming it in only a few days. It is quite long but it is very much worth it.