The first part of the title refers to a brutal assault on a working class woman in a park late one night. The second part refers to the woman's daughter (with her at the time of the attack) and her feelings of first love, specifically for the beat cop who ends up taking justice into his own hands.

I sometimes find Oates' extremes in length don't work - some of her novels are bloated and some of her shorter works feel like they could be a lot longer. Such is the case with this one. It's barely 150 pages, and I wanted more - more background, more fully fleshed out characters, and more story. What there was was intriguing, but for instance the mother's abrupt departure seemed out of character. And who was the guy she left with?

3.75 stars

NB: Content/trigger warnings abound, as you can probably imagine. ( )

I was prepared to not like this book because, frankly, the title is bothersome. I thought, surely it’s going to be a disturbing book, controversial is some way or another with a title like that. Now, after reading it, the title is much less bothersome, although the book broke my heart, I didn’t find it disturbing in the way I was expecting. It was equal parts horrible and beautiful. I especially loved the writing style of the book. Everything flowed smoothly and, although there isn’t significant character development for most of the characters, it was enjoyable in its own way. ( )

Poco después de la medianoche, Teena Maguire y su hija, Bethie, de doce años, caminan por un sendero mal iluminado que discurre por un parque casi desierto a esas horas. Regresan a casa tras haber celebrado la festividad del Cuatro de Julio en compañía del novio de Teena y unos amigos. Cuando les quedan apenas cinco minutos para llegar, unos jóvenes las cercan y, tras hostigarlas y agredirlas, arrastran a Teena al interior de una caseta en la que se guardan barcas, la violan y la golpean brutalmente. Bethie, que ha logrado huir de los agresores y ocultarse en un rincón de la caseta, oye aterrada lo que le hacen a su madre.
Gracias al testimonio de las víctimas y a las pruebas forenses, la policía consigue identificar a algunos de los participantes en la violación, todos ellos vecinos de Niagara Falls, la localidad del estado de Nueva York en la que está ambientada la novela. Varias semanas después de la agresión, Teena, aún no recuperada del todo de las graves lesiones sufridas, y Bethie testifican en la audiencia previa al juicio, en la que el abogado principal de los acusados, avezado y carente de escrúpulos, logra que se ponga en duda la versión de las víctimas. Una parte de la población de Niagara Falls y algunos de los medios de comunicación que siguen el caso empiezan a dudar de que Teena haya sufrido una agresión sexual.
John Dromoor, uno de los policías que atendieron en primer lugar a Teena y a Bethie, asiste con estupor y rabia al giro que toma el caso.

Il y a des livres de Joyce Carol Oates qu’on lit en se demandant pourquoi s’infliger ça. Et plusieurs fois, je me suis demandé s’il fallait continuer. C’est monstrueux, c’est l’horreur pure !

Et c’est pourtant un magnifique livre sur la violence crasse, sur l’injustice judiciaire, le besoin de réparation et celui de l’oubli. Un livre qui résonne longtemps ( )

“Rape: A Love Story,” by Joyce Carol Oates is a hard-hitting, emotionally packed novel. The story is told from several viewpoints, but mostly from the viewpoint of Teena Maguire, the rape victim, and her 12 year old daughter, Bethie, who was attacked and present during the rape of her mother.

The story is both sad and heartbreaking. The gory details are all included by Oates. If you are the squeamish type, this book might not be for you. The writing is excellent and the characters are well developed. The story pulls you in from page one as you pull for Teena to overcome the physical and emotional abuse suffered at the hands of her rapists.

My only quibble with the book is the ending. While I do like how justice was served in the end, the final ending did not seem realistic. Teena goes from being severely depressed one day and the next she takes off with a man she just met. That was out of character for the Teena the reader had come to know. Other than that, I highly recommend this book. ( )