The Falls is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates published in 2004 by Ecco/HarperCollins. The work is the winner of the 2005 Prix Femina étranger and a recipient of the International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award for 2006.
Contents Honeymoon. The Gatekeeper's Testimony : 12 June 1950 The Bride The Fossil-Seeker The Widow-Bride of The Falls: The Search The Widow-Bride of The Falls: The Vigil The Proposal ; 7 July 1950 Marriage. They Were Married First-Born The Little Family ; Before And After The Underworld "Zarjo" The Fall 1 June 1962 Family. Baltic The Woman in Black Pilgrims Hostages Our Lady of the Falls The Voices Epilogue In Memoriam : Dirk Burnaby, 21 September 1978.
Plot Newlyweds Ariah and Gilbert Erskine are in Niagara Falls for their honeymoon. After Gilbert kills himself by leaping into the rushing waters, Ariah spends seven days beside the falls, waiting for his body to be found. Dirk Burnaby, a young attorney and a pillar of the community, is struck by the young woman and tries to comfort her. The two eventually marry and, despite some volatility due to Ariah's emotional trauma, manage to sustain their marriage and build a family. Dirk embarks on a lawsuit over the toxic waste dumped into Love Canal, damaging his reputation, and then suffers a suspicious death. The book then follows their three children, Royall, Juliet, and Chandler. Reviewers have compared it to her other family epics such as We Were the Mulvaneys.
Reception A work designed to “overwhelm, to awe” its readers, Niagara Falls serves as a metaphor to advance Oates’s “force-of-nature aesthetic.”Rafferty, 2004 New York Times literary critic Terrence Rafferty compared her writing to American novelist Theodore Dreiser, “both in her slovenliness and in her power.”Rafferty, 2004: “So read "The Falls" swiftly and don't look too closely, or too long. Then move on. Oates will.”
Characterizing The Falls as “a good read but scarcely a great novel,” critic Maya Jaggi at The Guardian compared the novel unfavorably to Oates’s short fiction.Jaggi, 2004
Reviewer Jane Ciabattari at The Washington Post wrote:
Critic Sharan McBride at the Houston Chronicle considered The Falls “mainstream” compared to Oates’s often “violent and obsessive characters” she creates for her Gothic and Horror fiction. Though the author’s style is “jarring”, McBride assured readers, “The Falls is hard to put down.”
Footnotes
Sources Ciabattari, Jane. 2004. Taking the Plunge. The Washington Post, September 11, 2004.https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2004/09/12/taking-the-plunge/0ea8a081-2b8a-4c91-a6c8-f6a09357cc42/ Accessed 10 April 2025. Jaggi Maya. 2004. On the Edge. The Guardian, October 14, 2004. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/oct/16/featuresreviews.guardianreview16 Accessed 10 April 2025. McBride, Sharan. 2004. The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates. Houston Chronicle, October 24, 2004. https://www.chron.com/life/article/The-Falls-by-Joyce-Carol-Oates-1579182.php Accessed 10 April 2025. Oates, Joyce Carol. 2004. The Falls. Ecco/HarperCollins, New York. . Rafferty, Terrance. 2004. The Falls: Force of Nature. New York Times, September 19, 2004.https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/books/review/the-falls-force-of-nature.html Accessed 10 April 2025.