The Falls
by Joyce Carol Oates
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Niagara Falls in the 1950s is the setting for Joyce Carol Oates's novel. It begins with a shocking event: the suicide of a man married for less than a day, who leaps into the falls and is swept away by the rushing torrent. As his grieving widow, Ariah Littrell, keeps a vigil during the search for his body, she encounters a wealthy local man who, unexpectedly, falls deeply in love with her. Their history together, and the way the night of the suicide reverberates in their lives and in those of their children, provides the framework for Oates's investigation of America in the second half of the 20th century, culminating in the tragedy of Love Canal and the subsequent class-action suit in the early 1980s. A New York Times Notable Book for 2004.
Editions of The Falls
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Paperback |
Publisher Harpercollins |
Date 2005 |
Price $1.00 |
 Fine |
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Hardcover |
Publisher Harpercollins |
Date 2004 |
Price $1.00 |
Very Good |
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Compact Disc |
Publisher Harperaudio |
Date 2004 |
Price $6.23 |
New |
 |
ISBN |
Binding/Format Compact Disc |
Publisher Chivers Audio Books |
Date 2004 |
Price None Available |
Media Reviews
"Oates painstakingly examines the impulse toward self-destruction--and the ways we find to heal ourselves....This big, enthralling novel recaptures [Oates's] gift for Dreiserian realism....It's her best ever--and a masterpiece."
First Line
At the time unknown, unnamed, the individual who was to throw himself into the Horseshoe Falls appeared to the gatekeeper of the Goat Island Suspension Bridge at approximately 6:15 A.M. He would be the first pedestrian of the day.
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