Tuesday, August 26, 2025

We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

  


  I found Joyce Carol Oates’s book in a Little Free Library and I was tempted to read it. Her literary voice captivated me from the first page. Her writing is addictive, fun and insightful. It blew my mind away. Now I am excited to search more of her works.

  We Were the Mulvaneys is an outstanding, remarkable, thought-provoking novel about a family of six. Corinne and Michael Mulvaney had four children: three boys and a girl. The family was popular in the rural community; they lived on a farm in upstate New York in the 1960s and 1970s, and Michael had a roofing business. The family had an active social life until something tragic happened on Valentine’s Day in the year 1976.



   It is an immersive read charged with suspense and spiced up by the charm of being an introspective psychological novel; I admire the mastery with which Joyce Carol Oates reveals the variety of subtle and not so subtle features of the human relationships and interactions that unfold.  Her literary skills illuminate with grace and ease the results of prejudices, social misogyny and the intricacies of the human experience. This book is a great choice for those who are motivated to lead book discussions.


 The narrative incorporates various aspects of the social and political arena of the 1970s and 1980s, creating an opportunity for reflection and debate. The author inserts morsels of information related to political and social matters. I was left in awe at these unexpected comments that may help to understand how some aspects of their reality resonate with our present, and how they fit in the social construction of the novel.


   The tragic event that becomes a turning point in the life of this family is the rape of the daughter--Marianne Mulvaney--by somebody in the community. From that point on, everything changes. Their friends are no longer their friends; it is shocking to see that they side with the rapist and his family because “he is rich and has connections.”

 The Mulvaneys were then ostracized. Let me make this clear: they blamed the victim  and questioned her family while they sided with the rapist and his family.


    It is interesting to take a moment to reflect on this. Things have not changed much since she wrote this novel. In November 2024 seventy-seven million people in the United States of America voted for a sexual abuser. They could have chosen the woman who stood up to sexual predators and protected the victims, but they preferred the sexual abuser, while ninety million people did not even bother to vote, enabling the sexual abuser to become president.  Let’s highlight the fact that they enabled a man who bragged openly about sexually assaulting women—the man wo referred to this as “locker talk.” I have no interest in sugarcoating the truth to protect the ego of the members of their cult. (Some people do that; I do not).  

  I appreciate the way Marianne Mulvaney moved forward with her life. She chose to avoid dwelling on the cruelty and hatred of the rapist, and she focused on rebuilding her life.  Unfortunately, her own parents did something selfish and obnoxious to her after the tragedy. I do not want to reveal what they did, but it made no sense to me, and I still do not understand why they did that.

 Corinne Mulvaney, Marianne’s mother, is initially presented as a fascinating, sensitive woman with a free spirit, ready to defy the discriminatory behaviors of the club her husband joined. However, my perception of Corinne changes completely after the sexual assault takes place, when she is ready to comply with her husband’s misogynistic request instead of focusing on supporting Marianne. I will not share what they did because I do not want to include spoilers here. Suffice it to say that this was a turning point in the way I viewed Corinne.

    Michael Mulvaney succumbed to an addiction to alcohol after his daughter was raped, so his behavior became erratic and dangerous. When this happened, Corinne became somewhat subservient to the whims of his violent, authoritarian ways. After this shocking realization, I did not care about her behaviors. I did not see any growth in her as a character.  Joyce Carol Oates tries to instill quirks into the character to make us like her, but the lack of self-respect in her interactions with her husband shows that Corinne could not redeem herself.

   The story finally closes in the year 1993 with a family reunion. It offers a hopeful ending filled with optimism and healing. The promise of a better future is envisioned.

   Marianne’s life after her tragedy was adventurous and interesting. It was absorbing to read how she navigated the challenges. She was determined to move forward with devotion, kindness and perseverance. I think she is the heroine of the story. However, I think Joyce Carol Oates could have explored the effects of sexual trauma further.

   Her brother Patrick did something heroic to defend his sister and restore a sense of justice, and he counted on the support of their youngest brother, Judd. However, Marianne’s best friend was Muffin, the cat who stayed with her throughout every ordeal. He never failed her; he never mansplained her. They were inseparable. He was a silent hero in the story.

 After I finished the novel, I kept thinking about the characters, situations and the social and historical aspects of it. I now look forward to exploring more of Joyce Carol Oates’ oeuvre. She is an exceptional writer.

 

 


 International Dog Day

Today is International Dog Day so it is a good day to remind everybody to treat dogs and all our furry friends with kindness and respect. Always make sure that your dog has an accessible bowl with clean water.

 Be thankful for the love they give you and don’t forget to consider their needs and motivations. Avoid leaving dogs and other pets alone in cars. They are very vulnerable to temperature fluctuations. Also, avoid leaving them alone in planes. Dogs and other pets are not luggage. They are living beings They suffer in those enclosed spaces and they can even die.

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Rewilding Our Hearts: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence by Marc Bekoff

 


 "If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it…You are what you do, not what you say. What you do makes me cry at night…Please make your actions reflect your words.”

                    -Severn Cullis-Suzuki

  It has been heartbreaking to come across so many dead wild animals on the highway lately. It is sad to watch so many people racing on the highway without empathy for the non-human animals who share the earth with us. The cruelty of such an act is a reflection of the cruelty that exists on so many levels in our society. These dead animals on the highway remind me of how cruel some human beings are to others…

  Seeing these animals in such a state of neglect and abandonment is disheartening, and it prompted me to search for the book Rewilding Our hearts by Marc Bekoff, which I meant to read years ago, and I kept postponing the read until now.

    Even though it was published eleven years ago, Bekoff’s words continue to be relevant, inspiring and edifying.

  Marc Bekoff is a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Boulder, Colorado, and he has been a researcher of animal behavior for decades; Bekoff explains that animals have complex emotions and social lives. Animals grieve and have families, just like we do.

   Many humans like to believe that only humans have emotions and feelings, but this is not true. Besides, our human “uniqueness” does not give us the right to destroy everything we touch. Basic ethical principles should be taught to children in schools.  

   The toxic attitude of believing that humans have the right to destroy everything because they consider themselves more “intelligent” and have a right to do so has become normalized in many people’s minds to the point that debating this has become the starting point of irrational arguments to support irrational behaviors and poor choices that do not align with values of respect and fairness.

   Severn Cullis-Suzuki was only nine years old when she launched the ECO (Environmental Children’s Organization). When she was twelve years old, she and a group of her peers raised funds to attend the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 to urge world leaders to talk less and do more. Here’s her amazing speech:

         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJJGuIZVfLM


   If we take a moment to reflect on the word “eco”, we can awaken our awareness to the fact that both the words “economy” and “ecology” share a common root: “eco” means “home” or “habitat” in Greek. With this in mind, we should fully commit to make sustainable choices that make our home --the earth-- the place where we can coexist respectfully with other beings, where we must treat the water, air and soil with care and respect.

  I can summarize this idea by using a simple quote by Chogyam Trungpa:

 “When human beings lose their connection to nature, then they do not know how to nurture their environment or how to rule the world—which is saying the same thing. Human beings destroy their ecology at the same time that they destroy one another. From that perspective, healing our society goes hand in hand with healing our personal, elemental connection with the phenomenal world.”




  Hope without action is just a word. Hope requires actions that align with ethical choices and behaviors. Marc Bekoff’s book helps us to understand the multiple ways in which we can make this possible.

 

 If you enjoyed this post, you can also visit my writing on the following books:


Second Nature by Jonathan Balcombe


Why Dogs Hump and Bees get Depressed by Marc Bekoff.

 

   Find ways of taking action here:

 

https://www.idausa.org/take-action/

 

 


 

Monday, August 4, 2025

100 Plants to Feed The Birds: Turn Your Home Garden into a Healthy Bird Habitat by Laura Erickson

 


 Learning the names of plants and trees is an exciting adventure. It encourages us to sharpen our observational skills, and we become aware of the diversity of shapes and colors surrounding us. It is also a fun challenge that inspires us to pay more attention to the web of life around us.

  This fantastic book gives us the opportunity to awaken to the diversity of plants and trees around us, but it also helps us understand how everything is interconnected in the web of life. 

 The stunning photography caught my interest when I came across the book at my local library.

  Nothing exists in isolation. If we poison the insects that birds need to exist, we are endangering the birds that visit our gardens. If we plant what they need to sustain their lives without the use of pesticides and herbicides, we are creating a safe home for them. For example, take a look at the vibrant Joe-Pye Weed. 




  Laura Erickson points out that “it hosts a wonderful diversity of both larval and adult insects—essential food to insectivorous birds—and also provides seeds for many small birds such as titmice, goldfinches and juncos.”

  You can see how Laura Erickson adds the green color on the map to make clear in what areas of North America the plant is considered a native one.

 As you know, birds and insects also play an important role in plant pollination, which is  necessary to produce our own food.



 When we do what we can to support the ecosystems around us, we support our mental and physical health as well. We create a balanced environment where we can coexist.

 This book by Laura Erickson is about plants and trees to support wildlife in North America, but I am sure you can find similar books about the kind of plants that thrive in the continent and area where you live, so do your own research and find the book that suits your needs.

   I have been delighted to see monarch butterflies where I live almost every day for the last four weeks, but I wonder if they will survive their migration considering the challenges posed by climate change. As I write this post, I struggle with the poor quality of air in my area. It feels oppressive. I continue to do everything I need to do but the atmosphere feels different. This is something that deserves attention. 

 The air we breathe is something that we cannot ignore.

 What is the trump regime response to the situation?

 The response of the trump regime is to make this problem worse. There are regulations in place to protect the quality of the air by curbing greenhouse gas emissions, but the trump regime is getting rid of these regulations. How is this acceptable? In other words, the trump regime will worsen the current issue instead of addressing it. It makes no sense.

     Another aspect of the issue I want to bring up today is the silent spread of unsustainable data centers across the United States of America. The spread of data centers is driven by the use of artificial intelligence. I live in one of the places where they are planning to build one. This will have disastrous consequences for our communities.

 I have been actively researching the matter.

 The data center will worsen the quality of the air we breathe even more. The trump regime has no interest in fostering renewable sources of energy to power the data centers. This means that harmful pollutants will be released into the air because of the addition of data centers powered by fossil fuels.

 Data centers require massive amounts of energy and water to function. This will increase the cost of our utility bills; our communities will have to pay more to have access to clean water. The data centers, on the other hand, will get the privilege of receiving discounts on their electricity use. We, the taxpayers, will deal with the additional cost.

 Data centers do not provide a significant number of jobs and they will affect our quality of life and make the cost of living more expensive.

 Communities are already suffering due to the impact of these data centers. This technology is a tool used by wealthy CEOs to make profits at the expense of our communities. Our air, water and health will suffer and we will have to pay more for our water and electricity; this is what the trump regime planned for us.

  On day two in office trump announced a 500-billion-dollar AI initiative and promised to use his executive powers to hasten AI development.

 In 2024 ChatGPT used over 500,000 Kilowatts of electricity per day, which is the approximate amount of electricity necessary to cover the needs of 180,000 U.S. households. The electricity needs of AI could rise 150-fold in a single decade.

  I am sharing some links here from reliable sources, and I encourage you to learn about this and to educate others. Contact your local politicians to voice your concerns; write to your local newspaper. Do everything you can to educate your community on the need to stop the silent spread of unsustainable data centers. I use the word “silent” here because data centers are being built without the consent of the communities they impact.

  AI uses massive amounts of energy, so every time you use artificial intelligence for a google search you are contributing to the emission of greenhouse gases. To address this issue, I add the words -AI to my Google search words. If you have any additional ideas, feel free to let me know. I also found some tips here:

https://usercomp.com/news/1430909/google-search-ai-disabling-for-energy-savings

 

 I am sharing the links on the impact of data centers here:

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl1ctf1_JxE

https://www.npr.org/2025/07/17/nx-s1-5469933/virginia-data-centers-residents-saying-no#:~:text=Concerns%20about%20power%20and%20land,person%20for%20how%20to%20organize.

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2025/04/09/artificial-intelligence-water-climate/

 

https://apnews.com/article/data-centers-artificial-intelligence-technology-amazon-google-56b84cbb94942039754282afb076a87b

 

If you enjoyed this blog post, feel free to read my posts on the following books:

Birding to Change the World by Trish O'Kane

 

The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris