--Having finished her book Solstice, I think I will take a break from her stuff. It was interesting to read about the sort of toxic friendship between two women, Monica and Sheila. Didn't change my life, but sometimes that's okay. Wasn't sure how I felt about the ending.
--I have also read her short story collections: Where are you going, where have you been? and Crossing the Borders. Where had some interesting stories including the title story which is still as creepy as when I first read it in college. Borders had also some good stuff with the borders between Canada and the USA, metaphorically and physically. I also liked some of the locations she was featuring in the stories, like Michigan, New York State, and Canada. However, there were a few stories that were very, very strange and I didn't know how I felt about them.
--I gave to my student Megan Sawyer, one of my many Megans, Wonderland and Them. I think I decided that they were too depressing even for me to read and thick, so I wouldn't ever get to them. Looking over the descriptions I stand by that claim. Her darkness is hard enough in short stories, but even worse in longer stories.
--And she's just too prolific to really invest in as an author. And now, they've published her journals. Though she is interesting and am interesting what academic stuff she knew about, I think I'll wait on that for a very long time. Maybe after I read the journals of Sylvia Plath. And have recovered from them and read something happy in between.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
1) I vividly remember a New Yorker cartoon from the 70s or 80s that showed a person holding up a protest sign which read:
"Stop Joyce Carol Oates before she writes again!"
2) What is left of JCO's (or Margaret Atwood's for that matter) work if you take out the toxic relationships between women?
1) The protest sign is still true.
2) Not much. Except general gothicness and strangeness? Like weirdo images that cling to your brain for awhile. Think Wilderness Tips, or Cat's Eye, or the JCO's stories that aren't about women.
Post a Comment