Die junge Kelly Kelleher trifft auf einer Party einen einflußreichen, charismatischen Politiker, "der Senator". Abends brechen beide gemeinsam auf, um die Nacht miteinander zu verbringen. Der Senator ist angetrunken. Er verliert die Kontrolle über seinen Wagen, das Fahrzeug stürzt in sumpfiges Gewässer. Nur der Mann kann sich retten. Die Parallelen zu Edward Kennedys Unfall in Chappaquiddick, 1969, sind unübersehbar. Joyce Carol Oates richtet aber ihr Hauptinteresse nicht auf den berühmten Politiker, sondern auf das Opfer, das damals in der Öffentlichkeit wenig Beachtung fand.The Pulitzer Prize-nominated novel from the author of the New York Times bestselling novel We Were the Mulvaneys
Its power of evocation is remarkable. The New Yorkerÿ
In the midst of a long summer on Grayling Island, Maine, twenty-six-year-old Kelly Kelleher longs for something interesting to happen to her something that will make her finally feel some of what she imagines other people must feel when they watch the fireworks explode off the beach. So when Kelly meets The Senator at an exclusive party and he asks her to go back to a hotel room on the main island with him, she says yes. Even though the senator is old enough to be her father, even though he has perhaps been drinking too heavily to get behind the wheel, the danger of saying yes is an inevitable and even exciting part of the adventure Kelly is finally going to have.
However, as The Senator s car whips around the island s roads and eventually crashes through a guardrail, it becomes clear to Kelly and the reader that this man embodies a wholly different and more sinister type of danger, one much larger and harder to contain than the horrible events that unfold as Kelly is left in the sinking car. Black Water is a chilling meditation on power, trust, and violation and a timeless classic from one of America s foremost storytellers.
