Jack of Spades by Joyce Carol Oates

[LittleMary226]

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

In this Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde kind of book, we enter the life and thoughts of Andrew J. Rush, a mystery novels author who’s well known as the « gentleman’s Stephen King ». But Andrew has a secret he even keeps from his family: he also writes under a pseudonym, Jack of Spades. These other books are… different–it’s the least we can say–more noir, more violent. It seems that all the energy Andrew puts into being the best husband, the best father, the best citizen, he needs to make up by writing those horrible books, in the middle of the night, as if he was possessed.

Quickly, we start realizing that Jack of Spades is not a simple pseudonym. It seems to be Andrew’s alter ego, even inside in own mind. As we enter into the daily reality of the well-known author, we discover some thoughts that seem to come from another personality, which is at the other end of what we could expect from the good citizen Andrew is. But some events happen – that’s the whole point of the story – which endanger his secrecy. Jack of Spades is getting more and more present in the mind of Andrew, pushing him to do things he would never even think of doing, usually.

While I don’t appreciate the kind of people Andrew is (apart from his obvious pathology, the way he treats and think about his wife and children horripilates me), I do think this is a good book. I never really knew what was coming forward. I could only guess, and most of the time I was far away from the truth. It goes really fast even if we follow the many thoughts and doubts of the main character. Not wonderful, but still great, this is a short and efficient novel for everybody enjoying suspense/mystery/psycho type of books!

[lawyermom]

Spoiler Alert: I want to discuss the significance of one of the characters. What do you think of C.W. Haider? Was she real? Or some other part Andrew Rush's psyche?