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.
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.
A work designed to âÂÂoverwhelm, to aweâ its readers, Niagara Falls serves as a metaphor to advance OatesâÂÂs âÂÂforce-of-nature aesthetic.â New York Times literary critic Terrence Rafferty compared her writing to American novelist Theodore Dreiser, âÂÂboth in her slovenliness and in her power.âÂÂ
Characterizing The Falls as âÂÂa good read but scarcely a great novel,â critic Maya Jaggi at The Guardian compared the novel unfavorably to OatesâÂÂs short fiction.
Reviewer Jane Ciabattari at The Washington Post wrote:
Critic Sharan McBride at the Houston Chronicle considered The Falls âÂÂmainstreamâ compared to OatesâÂÂs often âÂÂviolent and obsessive charactersâ she creates for her Gothic and Horror fiction. Though the authorâÂÂs style is âÂÂjarringâÂÂ, McBride assured readers, âÂÂThe Falls is hard to put down.âÂÂ