Another trip into the bleak imagination of Oates. By now I’m used to it, having read a number of her books, especially short story collections. They don’t have an easy or immediate appeal and thus are somewhat difficult to recommend, but for me there’s something attractive about them.
The bleakness is some of the appeal, definitely, Oates is gifted enough of a stylist to make it look good. She understands the degrees with which it should be gradually unveiled. She uses all the fifty shades of dark and unleashes a sort of quiet devastation and brutality upon her characters that only a master sadist would. And like a master sadist she seems to be an expert at knowing just where and how to twist the knife to the maximum effect. Most of this is owning to her profound psychological grasp of the psyche and the nature of relationship dynamics. Specifically male/female dynamics which are the theme of this collection. So by now you should have gathered this isn’t a fun and happy read and it isn’t going to have any love stories or any stories for this matter than don’t end in tragedy. But even if you might guess at their terrible destinations, these journeys into the darkness still make for an interesting read. The thing is, though, this collection being ever so timely, it’s very much from the recent bandwagon of a very specific kind of feminism, the strikingly dividing kind that essentially categorizes all men as brutes and violators and all women as some type of their victims. Oates is smarter and subtler than most of these writers so her takes are less polarizingly drum beating, but it’s still there, very potent, very pervasive and, frankly, much too one noted of an approach from such a talented author. And it does get tiresome. There are some excellent deviations from the look at all the ways this woman gets screwed over by men, which is a theme most perfectly epitomized in the final and longest of the stories here. Not sure of the titles, since the advance reading version the publisher provided tended to omit the, but #2 and 3 were great, the Marilyn auction one was excellent. Might be more I’m not thinking of. All in all, if you’re a fan of Oates’ writing as I am, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Or if you’re looking for that kind of male/female dichotomy in fiction it would work too. For me, it doesn’t so much, too simple, too reductive, too black and white. But if I must read about it, it should be Oates or someone of her caliber. Plus no one does bleak like she can. It’s her signature color. Thanks Netgalley.
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