Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang

Madeleine "Maddy" Wirtz, also known as "Monkey" and "Killer,"explores memories of her teens as she reminisces about January 1, 1953 through June 1956 - the time of Foxfire. It's been many years since those fateful months in 1956, Maddy's now fifty years old, but it's almost like yesterday that she was initiated as one of the original members of Foxfire along with Lana, Goldie and Rita. Legs also joined, but she was the leader. She did the initiating, she picked the girls that would join, she was first-in-command. Maddy was Foxfire's original chronicler. She recorded all of Foxfire's secrets, their rules, their adventures, missions, triumphs. She also recorded the bad times, the injustice and the insults. Thirty-some-odd years later, Maddy now reflects on Foxfire's history and tells their story from the first victory to the final plotted task.

An excerpt - the first paragraph of the book:
Never never tell, Maddy-Monkey, they warned me, it's Death if you tell any of Them but now after so many years I am going to tell, for who's to stop me?

This was the first book that I have read by Joyce Carol Oates and I am not sure that I will be reading any others. Although I enjoyed the book (which I read because I love the movie of the same name - starring Angelina Jolie - Legs, Hedy Burress - Maddy, Jenny Lewis - Rita, Jenny Shimizu - Goldie, Sarah Rosenberg - Violet), it just took so long to read. I had started reading this book a few years ago, but for some reason, I had saved my page, but never finished it. I reread this from the beginning this week and it actually took a full week to read. Seriously, I usually read books straight through or I can read them in a few days, but Foxfire was different. I was interested in the story, but I think that I enjoy books with more dialogue. The characters were reintroduced quite often (i.e. Maddy Wirtz, sometimes called "Monkey" and "Killer"), the story was told by Maddy but the point of view in the writing was confusing (i.e. Yeah we were surprised, nobody more than Maddy... page 217 - if speaking as a member of the group "we" then it should be "I" or "me"), and sentences often ran on to create a long paragraph with a lot of missing punctuation. I can understand that the character might not have good grammar, but it made reading the book difficult.

Looking past the flaws and focusing on the storyline and characters, I might read this book again, but next time I will have been forewarned of its awkward writing style.


A-Z Challenge
completed - *Oates, Joyce Carol - Foxfire*
currently reading - *I Heart You, You Haunt Me - Schroeder*