Joyce Oates - Carthage

COPYRIGHT Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Epigraph Prologue Part I: Lost Girl One - The Search Two - Bride-to-Be Three - The Father Four - Descending and Ascending Five Six - The Corporal in the Land of the Dead Seven - The Corporal’s Confession Eight - The Corporal’s Letter Part II: Exile Nine - Execution Chamber Ten - The Betrayal Eleven - The Rescue Twelve - The Guilty One Part III: The Return Thirteen - The Long Wall Fourteen - The Church of the Good Thief Fifteen - The Father Sixteen - The Mother Seventeen - The Sister Epilogue About the Author Novels by Joyce Carol Oates Credits About the Publisher

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

77–85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2014

FIRST EDITION

Copyright © The Ontario Review 2014

Joyce Carol Oates asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

Cover design by Allison Saltzman

Cover photograph © Denis Jr. Tangney/Getty images

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN: 9780007485741

Ebook Edition © January 2014 ISBN: 9780007485765

Version 2014-11-18

DEDICATION Dedication Acknowledgments Epigraph Prologue Part I: Lost Girl One - The Search Two - Bride-to-Be Three - The Father Four - Descending and Ascending Five Six - The Corporal in the Land of the Dead Seven - The Corporal’s Confession Eight - The Corporal’s Letter Part II: Exile Nine - Execution Chamber Ten - The Betrayal Eleven - The Rescue Twelve - The Guilty One Part III: The Return Thirteen - The Long Wall Fourteen - The Church of the Good Thief Fifteen - The Father Sixteen - The Mother Seventeen - The Sister Epilogue About the Author Novels by Joyce Carol Oates Credits About the Publisher

To Charlie Gross

my husband and first reader

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgments Epigraph Prologue Part I: Lost Girl One - The Search Two - Bride-to-Be Three - The Father Four - Descending and Ascending Five Six - The Corporal in the Land of the Dead Seven - The Corporal’s Confession Eight - The Corporal’s Letter Part II: Exile Nine - Execution Chamber Ten - The Betrayal Eleven - The Rescue Twelve - The Guilty One Part III: The Return Thirteen - The Long Wall Fourteen - The Church of the Good Thief Fifteen - The Father Sixteen - The Mother Seventeen - The Sister Epilogue About the Author Novels by Joyce Carol Oates Credits About the Publisher

A shortened version of chapter two appeared in Fighting Words, edited by Roddy Doyle, 2011.

Thanks to former Marine Mariette Kalinowski, Sergeant, USMC (ret.), and to Martin Quinn for reading this manuscript with special care as Hertog Research Fellows at Hunter College, and thanks to Greg Johnson for his continued friendship, sharp eye and ear, and impeccable literary judgment.

EPIGRAPH Epigraph Prologue Part I: Lost Girl One - The Search Two - Bride-to-Be Three - The Father Four - Descending and Ascending Five Six - The Corporal in the Land of the Dead Seven - The Corporal’s Confession Eight - The Corporal’s Letter Part II: Exile Nine - Execution Chamber Ten - The Betrayal Eleven - The Rescue Twelve - The Guilty One Part III: The Return Thirteen - The Long Wall Fourteen - The Church of the Good Thief Fifteen - The Father Sixteen - The Mother Seventeen - The Sister Epilogue About the Author Novels by Joyce Carol Oates Credits About the Publisher

“Go at once, this very minute, stand at the cross-roads, bow down, first kiss the earth which you have defiled and then bow down to all the world and say to all men, ‘I am a murderer!’ Then God will send you life again.”

—SONIA TO RASKOLNIKOV, IN CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

I don’t feel young now. I think I am old in my heart.

—AMERICAN IRAQ WAR VETERAN, 2005

CONTENTS

Cover

Copyright COPYRIGHT Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Epigraph Prologue Part I: Lost Girl One - The Search Two - Bride-to-Be Three - The Father Four - Descending and Ascending Five Six - The Corporal in the Land of the Dead Seven - The Corporal’s Confession Eight - The Corporal’s Letter Part II: Exile Nine - Execution Chamber Ten - The Betrayal Eleven - The Rescue Twelve - The Guilty One Part III: The Return Thirteen - The Long Wall Fourteen - The Church of the Good Thief Fifteen - The Father Sixteen - The Mother Seventeen - The Sister Epilogue About the Author Novels by Joyce Carol Oates Credits About the Publisher Fourth Estate An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JB www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2014 FIRST EDITION Copyright © The Ontario Review 2014 Joyce Carol Oates asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work Cover design by Allison Saltzman Cover photograph © Denis Jr. Tangney/Getty images A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks. Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green Source ISBN: 9780007485741 Ebook Edition © January 2014 ISBN: 9780007485765 Version 2014-11-18

Dedication DEDICATION Dedication Acknowledgments Epigraph Prologue Part I: Lost Girl One - The Search Two - Bride-to-Be Three - The Father Four - Descending and Ascending Five Six - The Corporal in the Land of the Dead Seven - The Corporal’s Confession Eight - The Corporal’s Letter Part II: Exile Nine - Execution Chamber Ten - The Betrayal Eleven - The Rescue Twelve - The Guilty One Part III: The Return Thirteen - The Long Wall Fourteen - The Church of the Good Thief Fifteen - The Father Sixteen - The Mother Seventeen - The Sister Epilogue About the Author Novels by Joyce Carol Oates Credits About the Publisher To Charlie Gross my husband and first reader

Acknowledgments ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgments Epigraph Prologue Part I: Lost Girl One - The Search Two - Bride-to-Be Three - The Father Four - Descending and Ascending Five Six - The Corporal in the Land of the Dead Seven - The Corporal’s Confession Eight - The Corporal’s Letter Part II: Exile Nine - Execution Chamber Ten - The Betrayal Eleven - The Rescue Twelve - The Guilty One Part III: The Return Thirteen - The Long Wall Fourteen - The Church of the Good Thief Fifteen - The Father Sixteen - The Mother Seventeen - The Sister Epilogue About the Author Novels by Joyce Carol Oates Credits About the Publisher A shortened version of chapter two appeared in Fighting Words, edited by Roddy Doyle, 2011. Thanks to former Marine Mariette Kalinowski, Sergeant, USMC (ret.), and to Martin Quinn for reading this manuscript with special care as Hertog Research Fellows at Hunter College, and thanks to Greg Johnson for his continued friendship, sharp eye and ear, and impeccable literary judgment.