{"product_id":"my-life-as-a-rat-a-novel-isbn-9780062899842","title":"My Life as a Rat: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“A painful truth of family life: the most tender emotions can change in an instant.  You think your parents love you but is it \u003cem\u003eyou \u003c\/em\u003ethey love, or the child who is \u003cem\u003etheirs?\u003c\/em\u003e”  --Joyce Carol Oates, \u003cem\u003eMy Life as a Rat\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhich should prevail: loyalty to family or loyalty to the truth? Is telling the truth ever a mistake and is lying for one’s family ever justified?  Can one do the right thing, but bitterly regret it?  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMy Life as a Rat \u003c\/em\u003efollows Violet Rue Kerrigan, a young woman who looks back upon her life in exile from her family following her testimony, at age twelve, concerning what she knew to be the racist murder of an African-American boy by her older brothers. In a succession of vividly recalled episodes Violet contemplates the circumstances of her life as the initially beloved youngest child of seven Kerrigan children who inadvertently “informs” on her brothers, setting into motion their arrests and convictions and her own long estrangement. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArresting and poignant, \u003cem\u003eMy Life as a Rat \u003c\/em\u003etraces a life of banishment from a family—banishment from parents, siblings, and the Church—that forces Violet to discover her own identity, to break the powerful spell of family, and to emerge from her long exile as a “rat” into a transformed life. \u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Oates’s novel adroitly touches on race, loyalty, misogyny, and class inequality while also telling a moving story with a winning narrator. This book should please her fans and win her new ones.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Oates explores the long echoes of violence born of sexism and racism in one young woman’s life in this deft psychological thriller.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A beautiful and frightening novel, even with its gaps and liberties taken, it leaves readers with a sorrow and a cautious hope for Violet’s survival.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookreporter.com\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This is a gripping coming-of-age story, at turns horrifying, heartbreaking, poignant and buoying. Now in her late 70s, she is at the height of her powers, and America has never needed her piercing observations more than it does now.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eToronto Star\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ecco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888992055525,"sku":"NP9780062899842","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062899842.jpg?v=1730230260","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/my-life-as-a-rat-a-novel-isbn-9780062899842","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}