Books by Joyce Carol Oates
language
English
series
review 1: I was attracted to the book by nostalgia for Princeton and curiosity about how Oates would treat the subject since she has been teaching there. I found that when I got into the book, I was put off by the extent to which the supernatural forces drive the plot in a book populated b...
language
English
review 1: 2.5 Does reading 200 pages count? I simply could no longer take Oates run on sentences and quasi-stream of consciousness writing. The plot was interesting... Iraqi war vet comes home seriously wounded. He and his fiance break up. Her younger sister is found murdered... he is the ...
language
English
review 1: Ok so I liked the first story, Evil Eye, but I had to read it again because I thought I missed something. The eye is definitely a talisman, but I didn't understand why she saw the ex wife without an eye but the husband didn't seem to. The thing I took away from the story is tha...
language
English
review 1: La calidad literaria de Oates está, a estas alturas, fuera de toda duda. Su habilidad para atrapar al lector y hacer interesante y ameno lo que no siempre resulta tan asequible y fácil, es incuestionable. Pero esta vez a mí la cosa no me ha acabado de convencer, no por calidad si...
language
English
review 1: Short stories that mingles violence and desire while examining the meaning of loss with her usual take on the dark sides of relationships. Typical Oates. Now in her 70’s she is still, for me, as hard to read as ever. I’ve always been unsettled and still exhilarated by her work...
language
English
review 1: It's hard to come up with much to say about this one that isn't covered by "four novellas of love gone wrong." There's a reason Joyce Carol Oates is known for her short fiction - most of the time it's amazing. This is a great example of a collection that I found riveting and di...
language
English
review 1: Don't expect to feel good at the end of any of these short stories and novella. You won't. They are tragic, emotional, and realistic examples of life and suffering. That's what makes them so frightening because you can see yourself (or a family member/friend) living through the s...
language
English
review 1: Joyce Carol Oates is her best when she’s creepy, in my opinion. The writing here, often somewhat experimental, is striking and all of these stories, especially “The Corn Maiden,” the longest of the bunch about a young girl who kidnaps a girl from her class in order to re-enact th...
language
English
review 1: This book creeped me the heck out. That is probably the intent of the writer, but I didn't care much for this book at all. The first several chapters repeated themselves, which I hated, and then the rest of the book just left me with a vaguely icky feeling, like I needed a shower...
language
English
review 1: When I began listening to this, I did not realize it was going to be a collection of short stories so I was disappointed when I learned it was not going to be completely about Marilyn and Elizabeth. However, like with most collections of short stories, some were wonderful, some ...
language
English
review 1: These stories were not boring for sure. And they even contained some good moments, and occasionally, even unique insights. So what's the problem? They are invariably over-sensationalized. The themes are exaggerated, and the events are often extreme in order to keep the reader eng...
language
English
review 1: Wonderfully written short stories. Lovers of contemporary American short fiction and aspiring writers will love the ones in this book. I used this book for my Creative Writing: Fiction class last year and I really enjoyed examining different authors writing styles. The stories I ...
language
English
review 1: This is a story of sudden loss and the agony that follows. It is also a fact that half of every married couple will we widowed and grieve. No grief is the same as another and yet all are similar. I liked this account because of the way Joyce could so accurately draw her feeling...
language
English
review 1: Merissa scheint die von allen bewunderte erfolgreiche Modellschülerin zu sein. Am Ende des vorletzten Schuljahres erhält sie schon eine Studienplatz-Zusage für eine amerikanische Elite-Universität, sie schreibt stets Bestnoten, führt das Hockeyteam und bekommt natürlich im Schult...
language
English
review 1: Joyce Carol Oates might simply be the best writer of the dark and wet that we have. She doesn't need any compliments from this little reviewer as to her phenomenal writing ability, and those of us who enjoy a dabble in the realm of blood and guts are lucky that she descends the ...
language
English
review 1: Sibling rivalry, alienation, greed, and loneliness play vital roles in these tightly plotted and well executed stories.In the title story, “Corn Maiden,” the evil within children makes a mockery out of the police search for a missing girl. Told in multiple stream-of-consciousness...
language
English
review 1: Another grim offering from Ms. Oates-murderous schoolgirls, sinister twins, lunatic stepdaughters, mad surgeons et al! Once again populated by the unpleasant, the weak, the troubled and the downright nasty, my one criticism is that some of the stories-Hole in the Head being a cla...
language
English
review 1: I loved Two or Three Things I Forgot To Tell You. This is a YA book but I was barely aware of this as JCO sucked me right into the dark, disturbing world she created. Two or Three Things I Forgot To Tell You is JCO at her best. I love the title as well.STRUCTURE: Two of Three Thi...
language
English
review 1: I've heard amazing things about Joyce Carol Oates, so when I read this book, the first book I have ever read by her, I was sorely disappointed. I don't find the book to be written well at all, and I'm really not a critical person when it comes to how a book is written, because I ...
language
English
review 1: (Audiobook) Most depressing story!
review 2: Did not pass my "If it does not improve after 100 pages......" test. Abandoned.
review 2: Did not pass my "If it does not improve after 100 pages......" test. Abandoned.
language
English
review 1: BLERGH. 1. How can anyone write a novel this repetitive yet it becomes a bestseller? Also, nothing happens in this book. Literally. Nothing. Happens.2. The only part worth reading (or in my case, listening to) is the latter half of Part III. If you're still not convinced and deci...
language
English
review 1: Some JCO books I really appreciate, some I find really compelling, but I've come to realize i don't typically enjoy them. They subjects are almost always grim. You are frequently left with nobody you really want to root for.Little Bird of Heaven fits that description. It starts w...
language
English
review 1: I wanted to give this book four stars out of five, and that's the way it was headed. Alas, by far the longest story in this collection, the 100-page novella "The Rescuer" didn't quite agree with me. I found the protagonist's behavior increasingly silly and hard to swallow, and th...