AFTER THE WRECK, I PICKED MYSELF UP, SPREAD MY WINGS, AND FLEW AWAY by Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates, After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away (HarperTempest; 2006).

Available on Recorded Books (6 CDs, 6.75 hours) © 2006. Also available on Kindle and Nook.

(NOVEL)

Reviewed by Wilda Morris

                Jenna Abbott feels safe and comfortable “in the blue,” a drug-induced condition where she can forget about the accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge. In the blue, she can fly with the snow geese or be a little girl again with Mommy or Daddy reading to her. In the blue, Jenna can ignore the fact that the voices above her bed never include her mother and evade the idea that her own actions might have been responsible for her mother losing control of the car.

                In this coming-of-age novel, Jenna goes through adolescence in the shadow of the accident which took her mother’s life and almost took hers.

                As her physical wounds heal, though, and the pain medication is reduced, she has to begin dealing with realities. The first time she speaks again is when her dad finally comes to visit. Jenna is not happy to see the man who caused her mother so much heartache, and who wants her to come live with him in his fine home, with his new family. Jenna does not even want to meet this new family, let alone live with them.

                Jenna goes to live with Aunt Caroline and Uncle Dwight and two younger cousins. She withdraws from the family as much as possible, and refuses to even try to make friends at school. She is paranoid of crossing bridges, even small foot bridges. As long as Jenna is broken, she says and does things that hurt the ones who love her and try to help her. She doesn’t like Dr. Freer, the counselor to whom she is taken, and refuses to continue in therapy.

                Jenna finally befriends and is befriended by two upper-class students: Trina and Crow. They each have the same design tattooed on their wrists, and seem to be running with the wrong crowd. One will lead Jenna in the wrong direction; the other will help her learn to live again. I won’t give the story away by saying which is which.

                Joyce Carol Oates, the author of this “young adult” novel, is among the most highly regarded writers in the US today. She has published at least 56 novels and 30 collections of short stories, as well as eight volumes of poetry. In addition, she has published many essays and plays, and other writings on non-fiction topics. She won the National Book Award on 1970 for them, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times.  In 1996, Oates was honored with the PEN/Malamud Award for “a lifetime of literary achievement.”

                The Recorded Books version, read by Jennifer Ikeda, kept me awake during a long trip. Although the book is classified as a Young Adult Novel, it is interesting to older adults, too. Oates has a good understanding of adolescent psychology.