Man Crazy
Man Crazy is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, published in 1997, that tells the story of a young girl's descent into self-harm, sexual abuse, cult brainwashing, and subsequent rescue.
Plot summary
Man Crazy is told from the point of view of a young woman, Ingrid Boone, writing to her therapist about her life. At the beginning of the novel Ingrid's father, Luke Boone, a hot tempered Vietnam veteran, is absent and on the run after killing a man over a drug deal. Ingrid and her beautiful mother, Chloe Boone, drift from place to place as Chloe carries out a series of relationships with different men. Chloe's attention is directed to her lovers and to alcohol more than to her daughter.
In adolescence, Ingrid begins to self-harm, compulsively scratching her face and body to the point of inflicting sores. She also turns to promiscuity and drug abuse. She doesn't have any real friends and is known as "Doll Girl" as she openly gives herself to much of the school's male population.
Despite her troubles, Ingrid is a good student and wins a prize for a poem, which she is asked to read at a school assembly. Her anxiety and low self-esteem cause her to appear in front of the school with her face bloody from scratching and reading, not her own, but another poet's work.
After leaving home, Ingrid gets involved with Enoch Skaggs, a brutal, charismatic leader of the motorcycle gang/cult, Satan's Children. Her nickname becomes "Dog Girl" because of her blind devotion to the cruel Skaggs. She undergoes one dehumanizing act after another: gang rape, physical mutilation, being locked in a cellar for days, and watching a sacrificial killing. In a last-minute escape, Ingrid is rescued when there is a showdown between the biker gang and the police.
Ingrid undergoes counseling, including the telling of her story, and a suggestion is given of a relationship with her doctor.[1][2]
Literary criticism
Brigitte Frase of the San Francisco Chronicle called the novel well-constructed but seemingly constructed from psychological profiles of dysfunctional families, traumatized war veterans, and cult leaders and followers.[2] A. O. Scott of the New York Review of Books felt that the violence seemed gratuitous because of the "absence of a persuasive context" and that Skaggs's hold over Ingrid was insufficiently explained. Scott called the prose "fluid but impersonally competent".[1]
References
- ^ a b Scott, A. O. (1997-09-21). "Angel of Darkness". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
- ^ a b Frase, Brigitte (1997-09-28). "Twisted Family Ruins Unhappy Girl in Oates' 'Man Crazy'". SFGate. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
- v
- t
- e
- A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967)
- Expensive People (1968)
- Them (1969)
- Wonderland (1971)
- Bellefleur (1980)
- A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982)
- Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984)
- My Heart Laid Bare (1998)
- The Accursed (2013)
- With Shuddering Fall (1964)
- Do with Me What You Will (1973)
- The Assassins: A Book of Hours (1975)
- Childwold (1976)
- Son of the Morning (1978)
- Cybele (1979)
- Unholy Loves (1979)
- Angel of Light (1981)
- Solstice (1985)
- Marya: A Life (1986)
- You Must Remember This (1987)
- American Appetites (1989)
- Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990)
- Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1993)
- What I Lived For (1994)
- Zombie (1995)
- We Were the Mulvaneys (1996)
- Man Crazy (1997)
- Broke Heart Blues (1999)
- Blonde (2000)
- Middle Age: A Romance (2001)
- I'll Take You There (2002)
- The Tattooed Girl (2003)
- The Falls (2004)
- Missing Mom (2005)
- Black Girl / White Girl (2006)
- The Gravedigger's Daughter (2007)
- My Sister, My Love (2008)
- Little Bird of Heaven (2009)
- Mudwoman (2012)
- The Sacrifice (2015)
- Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. (2020)
- Black Water (1992)
- First Love: A Gothic Tale (1996)
- Beasts (2001)
- The Corn Maiden: A Love Story (2005)
- A Fair Maiden (2010)
- By the North Gate (1963)
- Upon the Sweeping Flood and Other Stories (1966)
- The Wheel of Love and Other Stories (1970)
- Marriages and Infidelities (1972)
- The Goddess and Other Women (1974)
- The Poisoned Kiss and Other Stories from the Portuguese (1975)
- Crossing the Border (1976)
- Night-Side (1977)
- All the Good People I've Left Behind (1979)
- The Assignation (1988)
- Demon and Other Tales (1996)
- I Am No One You Know: Stories (2004)
- High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories, 1966–2006 (2006)
- The Museum of Dr. Moses: Tales of Mystery and Suspense (2007)
- Wild Nights! (2008)
- Dear Husband (2009)
- The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares (2011)
- The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror (2016)
- "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (1963)
- "Stalking" (1972)
- "The Temple" (1996)
- Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (2002)
- Small Avalanches and Other Stories (2003)
- Freaky Green Eyes (2003)
- Sexy (2005)
- After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away (2006)