Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

Hard-hitting, page-turning and celebratory of friendship in unlikely circumstances, Joyce Carol Oates' sure touch with small town life hits home in her first young adult novel. Matt Donaghy is the class joker, and Ursula Riggs is the misfit loner. Neither knows the other. But when Matt is suddenly arrested on a charge of threatening to blow up the school and massacre the students, Ursula is the only one who sees through the hysteria and hypocrisy, and corroborates Matt's story. The case is dropped, but Matt's old friends avoid him, and his teachers treat him with kid gloves. Even Ursula, apparently his only friend during the crisis, can't meet his eye. But Ursula can't remain aloof when she catches Matt contemplating suicide - and a strange friendship is born.

"The relationship between Ursula and Matt grows, credibly and compellingly, against a convincing high school backdrop. Readers will relate to the pressures these two experience, both at school and from their parents, and be gratified by their ability to emerge the wiser." Publisher's Weekly Praise for Joyce Carol Oates' writing: "Miss Oates is one of our most audaciously talented writers. Her gift is so large, her fluency in different genres - poems, short stories, novels, essays - so great, that at times she seems to challenge the ability of readers to keep up with her." Erica Jong "One of the greatest writers of our time." John Gardner.

Reviews

Born in upstate New York in 1938, Joyce Carol Oates has twice been nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature. She has won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Pen / Faulkner Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the author of a number of distinguished books in several genres, all published within the past twenty-five years, and is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Princeton University.