<P> Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart is a 1990 novel by American novelist Joyce Carol Oates . The title is taken from "In the Desert", a poem by Stephen Crane . Oates's novel was nominated for best work of fiction in the 1990 National Book Awards . </P> <P> In Hammond, New York, in the early 1950s, a young girl named Iris Courtney and her black friend Jinx Fairchild are united by a murder that they commit in self - defense . From this central moment, this novel weaves out the stories of two families that intercross across divisions of race and class . </P> <P> Entertainment Weekly gave it an A, calling Oates "a storyteller with few peers". </P>

Because it bitter and because it my heart