Word: rayed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Part of the problem may be that Reardon, attempting to be original, has eschewed using the vengeful, violent Jean--who in her viciousness somewhat resembles the protagonist of Bastard, Ruth Anne Boatwright--as the narrator, instead picking her ineffectual brother Ray. This could have been an interesting switch in points of view, and the structure of the novel, as a series of flashbacks illuminating the present-day situation, could have worked...
Unfortunately, the patches of annoying or simply bad writing mar the novel considerably. For example, Ray continually has "conversations" with inanimate objects, ghosts (such as Billy's) and animals. These are included, in some cases, for no discernible reason, such as this "exchange" with Jean's stuffed animal, the poodle Bojo: "'Scared, Bojo?' I ask him. `No,' he answers, staring straight forward." The author also leaves the reader in unnecessary suspense about what happened during the crucial "perfect summer, awful summer," includes characters with dubious importance to the plot and tells the reader too much about them. This is Ray...
Reardon is sometimes intentionally humorous, as when she is describing, through the voice of Ray, the martial arts exercises that he would do with his best friend Randy Keilman as a child: "I can see us out on his back porch when we were younger, practicing slow, deep breathing through our noses. According to his martial arts comics, a true warrior always breathed through his nose...". But ultimately, Ray's narrative voice is unconvincing more than it is funny, like a poor imitation of Bastard. Perhaps it's all the "likes" she uses:"...where I can see a couple...
...abnormal and nightmarish environment in which Ray has grown up, it is perhaps almost the logical thing to do to fall in love with one's younger sister, although Ray is aware of how the outside world sees this relationship: "The more I'm seeing this through someone else's eyes, the dirtier it seems." Ray and Jean's incestuous passion impairs them from having satisfactory long-term relationships outside the family. Jean avoids them altogether, living alone and restricting herself to one-night stands. Ray's relationship with Sally, his girlfriend of six years, is a fragile thing, falling...
Although it is quite obvious why Jean and Ray are having this affair--from childhood they have relied on each other in order to survive the abuse they have gone through, "holding on to each other" as Ray puts it--it is still difficult to see it as a triumphal moment when they finally run off together after a dramatic scene as they are leaving Billy's funeral. Their story is a great love affair, but it is also an incestuous escape from the outside world, which with few exceptions had chosen not to help the Johnson children...