- Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Plume (Jan 28 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0452274133
- ISBN-13: 978-0452274136
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.5 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,834,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The 22 intensely imagined, haunting stories in Oates's (American Appetites ) 19th anthology of reprinted short fiction mine her familiar territory?gothic, supernatural atmospheres, doppelgangers, icily estranged couples locked in mortal psychological combat. Oates's genius is to open with the seemingly mundane, then gradually escalate to a pitch of horrific revelation. Outstanding is "American Abroad," in which an art historian is honored in a foreign city by a host whom terrorists have targeted, while she herself is bizarrely, psychologically targeted by the host's daughter. Some stories successfully cover entire lives: in "The Passion of Rydcie Mather," schoolbus driver Rydcie (for Eurydice, who visited Hades) ragingly defies the God who "forced" her into heroic action to save a drowning girl; her revenge is appropriately apocalyptic. "The Mark of Satan" features an innocently voluptuous door-to-door evangelist and her small daughter preaching like toy dolls to a gritty ex-con who drugs them and plots their rape before accidentally causing his own bloody mutilation. Bodily disintegration is a menace to Oates characters, who variously endure tumors, palsies, strokes, a brain fissure, child abuse. Her baroque imagination, her ability to convey the depths of violence and evil lying just below a thin veneer of civilization, gives her stories a chilling dimension.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This marvelous collection examines the usually hidden but often destructive underside of relationships. In "The Revenge of the Foot, 1970," a young college student is hopelessly in love with her married professor lover. A lonely middle-aged woman will do anything to gain the love of her stepdaughter in "The Girl Who Was To Die." And "American Abroad" is the poignant tale of a dignified woman art historian on a lecture tour of Europe who is delighted by an enthusiastic young woman's offer to show her Amsterdam's museums, only to be mortified by the extent of her disappointment when the would-be guide doesn't keep the date. These tightly drawn, insightful, and compulsively readable stories by the enormously talented and prolific Oates (Zombie, LJ 8/95) belong in all fiction collections. Highly recommended.?Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Goose Girl....this comment contains a spoiler alert.,
By Bill Mobley "Hi Jiff! (My favorite Eddie Murp... (Atlanta, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Will You Always Love Me And Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)
I've read many short stories, including all of the ones in this book, but rarely has a story effected me as "The Goose Girl" did. I really don't know when Ms.Oates wrote this story, but it shows an insightful understanding of what people in the modern world are really like (especially those from the disco 70's up to present day).One writer (whose name I can't remember) sums this story up perfectly: "A mother is an accomplice, along with her son,in the humiliation of a celebrated beauty." But the implications here run so much deeper than that.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Master Stories from a Master Storyteller,
By
This review is from: Will You Always Love Me And Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)
Joyce Carol Oates has really outdone herself with this collection. These stories are wonderful and are Oates at the top of her game. Each story is so well crafted and hauting, she gives you little slices of American life, each one revealing a different aspect of that life. She usually focuses on some seamliness, something dark, something sinister, but manages to keep the stories enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this collection. Oates fans will not be disappointed and for those who are not familiar with her work, it is the perfect introduction.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Will You Always Love Me (Hardcover)
This is a superb collection from one of the greatest short-story writers. Stories like 'Handclasp' and 'Mark of Satan' are certainly on par with the best of Oates' more famous stories: 'In the region of Ice' or 'Heat'.
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