In her 35th novel, “My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike,” Joyce Carol Oates creates a fictionalized, riveting account of a horrific crime similar to the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, telling the story through the eyes of Skyler Rampike, a 19-year-old man still haunted by the murder of his sister Bliss, a 6-year-old champion figure skater a decade before.
In an eerie coincidence, the novel has been published just as new DNA evidence has come out that Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy says clears JonBenet’s parents and brother of the murder.
Oates has moved the Ramsey murder to the fictional suburban town of Fair Hills, N.J. Since his sister’s murder, Skyler has been in and out of mental hospitals and reform schools. He writes about his horrid parents, the manipulative and insane Betsy and the philandering business executive Bix. Betsy creates Bliss, the tiny skating sensation, a bright little girl tortured by fame and killed in the basement of the family mansion. Skyler is the neglected older brother, wracked by guilt that he could not protect her.
Oates’ new novel came from her fascination with the idea of a child coming from a notorious family. “I had the idea to write a novel about a young person that would be in a family that had become infamous,” said Oates in an interview from her publisher’s office in New York City.
“It seemed so obvious to me that we now live in a tabloid culture in which celebrity is both celebrated and mocked. I originally had the idea to write about a young person who would be the child of a person like O.J. Simpson. Then I changed the subject.
“I was very interested in the Ramsey murder because it was an unsolved murder. With O.J. Simpson, even though he was acquitted, it doesn’t seem like an unsolved murder. With the Ramsey murder, it is likely that it will never be solved.”
Skyler mourns his sister, and with black humor and numerous footnotes (admitting that he’s an unreliable narrator) he recounts his twisted family’s history, his sister’s unsolved murder and his own slim hopes for redemption. Oates’ frenetic novel shows a brilliant writer at the top of her game.
“Without humor, you almost couldn’t do a novel like this one,” said Oates. “Skyler’s footnotes are something you’d put in naturally if you were writing a text and you’d say, ‘Ooh, it wasn’t like that,’ or ‘That sounds very hostile.’ ”
“My Sister, My Love” is also a harsh satire of status-obsessed American culture and the pill-popping nature of upper-class suburbia. Skyler and his sister are on antidepressants from a young age, as is their mother.
“Right now, we are in a highly pharmaceutical society,” said Oates. “I am very struck by the degree to which drugs are prescribed. Literally in my own community in Princeton, N.J., there is probably not anyone who isn’t taking some sort of drug.
“There are many antidepressants, and children are taking drugs at very young ages for attention deficit disorder and any variety of ‘ailments’ that maybe 20 or 50 years ago would just seem to be moods. Sometimes, there are boys that are bad boys or girls that are shy, but everything today is given a pharmacological imprint.”
Oates writes of the chilling world of child celebrity that Bliss is forced into by her mother. “It was a very shocking world,” said Oates. “There is the recurring footage of JonBenet Ramsey wearing a cowboy hat and singing. Her mother trained her to be a little monkey. Bliss for me was a stressed child. She wouldn’t have had any of this strange child sexuality unless her mother had trained her.”
Through her own early success as a writer, Oates said she felt some kinship with Bliss. “In some ways, I identify with her because I have been writing since I was very young,” said Oates. “There is the feeling that you try very hard to make people look at you, respect you and love you. I had parents who were very kind, so it wasn’t that intense. Most children are to some extent performing for their parents, wanting their parents to love them, to be so proud. If a child has a parent who withholds love, they will try harder and harder.”
After Bliss is murdered, the Internet rumor mill never rules Skyler out as a suspect. He spends 10 years in tabloid hell, where he is chased by reporters, while his friends’ parents and even his teachers give up information.
“We are surrounded by people in this tabloid culture,” said Oates, “who are solicitous of you and kind, but are just going to write about you in the National Enquirer. Being from an infamous family, your name is damned, no matter where you go. Skyler’s name is notorious and he can’t escape it.”
Oates found herself emotionally connected to the fictional Skyler. “I am also very sympathetic to him,” she said. “It is not that I am notorious, but my name has certain associations.”
During her 40 years of literary fame, Oates has also been deceived by some friends. In one case, someone gave intimate information to a biographer.
“There have been things written about me in a biography,” said Oates, “that though they were not necessarily malicious, a friend had said something anonymously. I felt betrayed by this person, a person who had probably had dinner at my house.”
Dylan Foley is a freelance writer from Brooklyn, N.Y.
