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40th out of 198 books
—
157 voters
The Collector of Hearts: New Tales of the Grotesque
In these twenty-five gothic horror tales from the master of the short story, Joyce Carol Oates explores the waking nightmares of life with eyes wide-open, facing what the bravest of us fear the most. From the Kafka-esque "Scars" to a ballad like tale of erotic obsession in "The Crossing, " to the mother-daughter bond given a fatal twist in "Death Mother" the stories in The...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
October 1st 1999
by Plume
(first published 1998)
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Joyce Carol Oates's collection is horrific, but you won't find any zombies, vampires, or even serial killers here. Rather, she highlights the horror of everyday life and relationships – from mental illness to the breakdown of relationships between parents and children, from repressed memories the psychological insanity, her book is that much more powerful and scarier because most of these stories could (and probably do) really happen. Of course, there were supernatural elements to many of the st...more
Love this book but I love this author, too. I've read so much by Oates that I feel like I'm in her skin - okay I only wish I had her literary talents, too. This collection has a Gothic feel, though some of the stories were originally published in an assortment of magazines and anthologies, including Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
I especially loved the story 'Scars' and 'Evening Shadows.' With Oates you can feel totally immersed in a tale and have a sense where it's going, then 'bang,' the rug...more
I especially loved the story 'Scars' and 'Evening Shadows.' With Oates you can feel totally immersed in a tale and have a sense where it's going, then 'bang,' the rug...more
I've got to stop reading Oates. The subtitle on this one - New Tales of the Grotesque - should have been enough to leave it on the library shelf. She's good at describing feelings or actions so bizarre that they don't occur to most people,and life is a bit too short to send time reading about them. As an aside - at the back of the book under a title of "Acknowledgments" each story is listed with the magazine that originally printed it. Many of those sources I'd never heard of and a kind of wonde...more
Collector of Hearts is another short story collection that centers around grotesque characters and plots. Despite the similarity with themes in Haunted, Collector of the Hearts pales in comparison. In fact, it seems as if Oates has ripped herself off with this collection by using almost the exact same techniques as she did in her previous collection (such as numbering certain segments and arranging the stories in three parts). Similar to Haunted, the stories in Collector of Hearts are almost ent...more
This collection did not disappoint. Each of the twenty-seven short stories is self-contained, but several themes recur. "Death Mother," "Schroeder's Stepfather," "The Sons of Angus MacElster," and a story with only a censor's black box as a title all deal with familial abuse and varying levels of redemption and retribution. "The Affliction," "Scars," "Elvis is Dead: Why are You Alive?," and "Unprintable" all wrangle with the nature of fame or the artist's relationship to their art. Other recurri...more
Oct 15, 2012
Heidi
marked it as gave-up-on
I don't know why I keep trying Joyce Carol Oates books. I really don't like her books at all. I got through maybe a third of this book and it actually made me mad. So I stopped. I wouldn't consider these tales of the grotesque. They are just stories of people in bad situations like abusive homes and mental illness.
I've really got to stop picking up her books at book sales.
I've really got to stop picking up her books at book sales.
I've only read one other short story collection by Oates and have to conclude that, for me, it is really hit or miss with her. I really enjoyed "The Affliction," "Valentine," and "Scars." I also thought "The Hand-puppet" and "The Collector of Hearts" were also worth reading, but some stories, such as "An Urban Paradox," "Intensive," and "The Journey," I just did not get and, like many of the remaining stories in the collection, I found them forgettable.
Reading the stories in this book was akin to what I imagine seeing a Salvador Dali exhibit would be like; nightmare images melting in and out of recognizable shapes. I enjoy Ms. Oates' writing style but I always come away feeling like there was so much more meaning below the surface that I just wasn't able to comprehend.......
I had really high hopes for this book, but it didn't deliver. I have about a 99% completion rate for books -- even ones I can't stand -- but I abandoned this one about 2/3 of the way through. Each of the stories started off with great promise, but just fizzled out/got boring/made no sense. They are not "tales of the grotesque" but rather "odd stories without any point."
Joyce Carol Oates is a fine writer, but I like her dark literature best. This is a rich serving of wonderfully dark stories that don't inspire terror so much as disturb the mind.
Unreal. These stories are a tour of shocking and truly chilling themes. Incredibly well written.
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One of my favorite collections. Joyce Carol Oates is a master of the short story genre.
blah. the vocab in this book is too limited to be descriptive in a crisp way, so the style ends up feeling tired and predictable. Some of the inner monologues of main characters don't seem to match the personality that they project through their spoken words and interactions with others. Some of the short stories are just trying too hard to pick up a feel you can tell the author is going for, but she falls short. This is the first anything I've read by Oates, and although I'll grant that it is n...more
some of the short stories are really good but most are just too gross for me.
I basically love everything Oates writes, and this is worth a look. Some of the stories are downright disturbing, and as usual, Oates delivers her unique voice and style to these horrific tales.
This is probably my favorite joyce carol oates book, andi have read quite a few. so intense, emotional moving, dealing withthe high school memorything, and a bit shocking.
Creepy, dark, and kind of disturbing short stories! Joyce Carol Oates can always pull it off effectively, though, and these stories are hard to put down!
What can you say about Joyce Carol Oates? If you enjoy macabre, you'll enjoy much of this.
Ms. Oates gets five stars automatically...I don't think she's ever written anything bad!
Spooky - still haunts me.
1st edition, signed by author
Read "Labor Day" first.
May 18, 2013
Richard
marked it as to-read
May 18, 2013
Gina
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Leah
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Cynthia
is currently reading it
May 13, 2013
Tyler
marked it as to-read
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Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Prix Femina for The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. Pseudonyms ... Rosamond Smith and Laure...more
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