The New York Times dislikes Joyce Carol Oates’ latest novel: “At 582 pages, Ms. Oates’s 36th work of fiction begins to sink under its own dolorous weight. Though clearly meant to have an epic sweep, The Gravedigger’s Daughter feels like a four-hour film that should have been cut by 90 minutes.”

Perhaps mindful of the criticism, Ms. Oates, speaking at Book Passage in Corte Madera, said that one cannot judge the historical merit of a book by the reviews it receives during its own time. Some books go down in history and others are quickly forgotten, regardless of whether they generate favorable reviews when first published. Oates said that the reasons a novel may transcend its own time are profoundly mysterious. So a novelist needs to keep trying, learn from her mistakes, and hope.

Like much of Oates’ work, The Gravedigger’s Daughter is replete with violence. The book is about the troubled life of Rebecca Schwart, a (yes) gravedigger’s daughter. Rebecca was born in 1936 on a ship carrying German refugees to New York. Violence follows her everywhere as she makes her way through the New World, eventually forcing her to adopt a new identity in an effort to escape brutality.

“This is a very special novel for me,” Oates told the large audience at Book Passage. The novel was inspired by Oates’ grandmother, even though Oates only knew a few facts about her early life. She was a “quintessential, loving grandmother” who had no history, no persona beyond the fact that she was grandmother. In that role she exuded magnanimity. Oates said that her grandmother’s benevolent being sunk deep into Oates’ unconscious and has stayed with her to this day. Oates defined her task in writing The Gravedigger’s Daughter as imagining what her grandmother’s life was really like, seeing her and other refugees in all their fullness and complexity.

The task of a reader, said Oates, is to experience an “enlargement of sympathy,” to feel what it’s like to wear another person’s shoes.

We shall never know whether The Gravedigger’s Daughter is merely “dolorous” (I had to look it up) or a gift to the ages that will enlarge the sympathies of readers in future generations. No matter. We have, in Joyce Carol Oates, a living, great writer who makes herself available to questions from bloggers and whose prolific work has enriched our own time.