In this collection of twenty-one unforgettable stories, Joyce Carol Oates explores the mysterious private lives of men and women with vivid, unsparing precision and sympathy. By turns interlocutor and interpreter, magician and realist, she dissects the psyches of ordinary people and their potential for good and evil with chilling understatement and lasting power.
In "Faithless," two adult sisters recall their mother's disappearance when they were children. In "Ugly," a bitterly angry young woman defines herself as ugly as a way of making herself invulnerable to hurt and in so doing hurts others. In "Lover," a beautiful young woman locked into an obsessive love affair seeks her revenge in a bizarre, violent manner. In "Gunlove," a woman in thrall to a powerful erotic fetishism recounts in brief, deadpan vignettes a history of her relations with firearms.
Intense and provocative, Faithless is a startling look into the heart of contemporary America from the modern master of the short story.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
There are 24 stories in this generous volume and while some inevitably linger longer in the memory than others, there is not a dull spot in its nearly 400 pages. The title story is a haunting tale of the disappearance of a woman as recalled by her two daughters, grown now. The ending is utterly expected but, nevertheless, comes as a shock. "The Vampire" is not at all a horror story, at least not in the sense that it involves in any way elements of the supernatural, but has a growing sense of pure terror as the reader comes to see the way in which one person can absorb all the life out of another.
In "The High School Sweetheart: A Mystery," a famous mystery writer reads a speech as he accepts the presidency of the most prestigious of all mystery organizations. The speech is delivered as a piece of fiction that appears to be a confession of a horrific crime committed during his teen years while besotted with a girl two years older than he. When the speech ends, the audience cannot imagine applauding because the story seems so true. Is it?
Once again, the incomparable Joyce Carol Oates has produced a compelling and important volume for the shelves of anyone who cares about distinguished suspense fiction. --Otto Penzler
Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Medal of Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and has been several times nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and the New York Times bestseller The Falls, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. Her most recent novel is A Book of American Martyrs. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. 1.95. Seller Inventory # 0060185252-2-1
Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published 1.95. Seller Inventory # 353-0060185252-new
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # VIB0060185252
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 400 pages. 9.50x6.50x1.25 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # 0060185252
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks91209
Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. RARE Advance Reading Copy- Uncorrected Proof- Not For sale. 1st Edition-Stated. 1st Printing-Full # Line. Trade paperback format. Back cover has a crease about 2 inches long top left corner. Cease caused by crush mark which is barley noticeable on most of the inside pages. Book is still a very nice COLLECTABLE copy. Seller Inventory # 000763
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.95. Seller Inventory # Q-0060185252