Black Water (novella) - Literary Significance and Criticism

Literary Significance and Criticism

The story parallels the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, though Oates intended the book to represent the "almost archetypal experience of a young woman who trusts an older man and whose trust is violated.". Black Water was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in 1992, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. The Rocky Mountain News, The Times, and Entertainment Weekly have all listed Black Water as one of Joyce Carol Oates's best books.

In 1993, the composer John Duffy suggested that Oates adapt Black Water into an opera; seeing it "as a chance to 'rewrite the work'" (she expanded the role of the Senator), Oates began working on the libretto. The opera Black Water had its first workshop in 1995, and premiered at the American Music Theater Festival in April 1997.

In 2007, The New York Times Book Review editor Dwight Garner wrote that Amanda Plummer's "cool, dark telling" of Black Water was "the best book on tape ever recorded".