Instruct: Classify a given review into positive or negative sentiment.
Query: Good Idea, not so good a book

Because It Is Bitter and Because it is My Heart was a book with a good idea and theme, but I found it not well written or thought out. Oates defines all characters as either good or bad, and most are bad. In the first section of the book, Oates jumps around too much and there are few clues as to when the events were happening. The book portrayed the fifties as an awful time in America and that people were almost all bad and that there was no justice. If Oates would have stuck to the theme instead of going off on other little side themes, it had the potential to be a good book. I would not recommend it, unless you are an advanced reader.