We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates is a novel about the tenuous grasp on happiness of one American family. A young girl is raped by a high school acquaintance in a very small town, and the fallout affects the lives of everyone in her immediate family. It is a snapshot of the darker side of family life in the modern world.
The Mulvaneys are a typical American family living on a small farm in upstate New York. The father is a roofer with his own business; the mother is a quirky, middle-aged woman with a love of antiques. There are four children in this family, three boys and a girl. The eldest child is an athlete who drops out of school in his first semester to join his father in the family business. The second.....
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