The last time Georgene Fulmer saw her sister, Marguerite, on the morning of April 11, 1991, it was through a mirror. And it is also through reflections, memories, and evanescent traces that G. analyzes, 22 years after she vanished on the road to the art school where she practiced sculpture, the disappearance of the woman in whose shadow she grew up. In a fragmentary structure that blurs factual and temporal tracks, Joyce Carol Oates skillfully juggles the codes of suspense to draw kaleidoscopic portraits of a woman who exists only in memories, fantasies, and artistic interpretations—dissected with the care of an essayist by Georgene’s troubled thoughts. Despite some stylistic acrobatics—common to the prolific American writer—the story unfolds like an exciting thriller, never losing sight of the relationships and family and social elements that determine the trajectory of people and the way in which their ego and vision of the world are consolidated. Fascinating.
To see in video