The Rise of Life on Earth
1991
First Published
3.64
Average Rating
142
Number of Pages
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the most notable books of 1991, Joyce Carol Oates' The Rise of Life on Earth is a memorable portrait of one of the "insulted and injured" of American society. Set in the underside of working-class Detroit of the '60s and '70s, this short, lyric novel sketches Kathleen Hennessy's violent childhood—shattered by a broken home, child-beating, and murder—and follows her into her early adult years as a hospital health-care worker. Overworked, underpaid, and quietly overzealous, Kathleen falls in love with a young doctor, whose exploitation of her sets the course of the remainder of her life, in which her passivity masks a deep fury and secret resolve to take revenge.
Avg Rating
3.64
Number of Ratings
491
5 STARS
21%
4 STARS
35%
3 STARS
33%
2 STARS
7%
1 STARS
4%
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Author
Joyce Carol Oates
Author · 177 books
Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Prix Femina for The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. Pseudonyms ... Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
