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High Lonesome: New and Selected Stories 1966-2006
No other writer can match the impressive oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates. "High Lonesome: New and Selected Stories 1966-2006" gathers short fiction from the acclaimed author's seminal collections and includes eleven new tales that further demonstrate the breathtaking artistry and striking originality of an incomparable talent who "has imbued the American short
...moresoftcover, 688 pages
Published
May 29th 2007
by Harper Perennial
(first published April 1st 2006)
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Joe S
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Recommends it for:
people who occasionally know the pleasure of NPR
Recommended to Joe by:
Andrea, the other me
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short-stories
JCO is everything I hate about Jane Austen made sublime. Not one of her characters is believable, but they all act in the way we wish we could act under similar circumstances. They all utter the stunning, pithy lines we imagine speaking two days later. Oates smiles on the mundane shit of our lives, and honors the interior significance we fabricate in order to slog through each day.
"But that night as he falls slowly asleep he hears himself explaining to Annemarie in a calm mea...more
"But that night as he falls slowly asleep he hears himself explaining to Annemarie in a calm mea...more
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i get the feeling that joyce carol oates can write an essay about taking a shit and it would be published and someone or another would laud it as a piece of great american writing. or, she can just smear the poo on a piece of paper and publish it, and someone would call it a "triumph" of literature.
okay, seriously, just because someone is well-published and well-known, doesnt mean that everything s/he writes is amazing. such is the case with this collection of short storie...more
okay, seriously, just because someone is well-published and well-known, doesnt mean that everything s/he writes is amazing. such is the case with this collection of short storie...more
This collection merely offers a peek at the tip of the iceberg that is Oates' massive talent... Despite spanning four decades, Oates tells us in the afterword that she had to leave out many of her defining works like the miniature narratives and gothic/mystery stories.
She's brilliant at crafting characters who are just short of likeable, and yet you feel drawn in enough to want to know what happens to them.
Her female protagonists especially, seem to invite some of the catastrophes that happen ...more
She's brilliant at crafting characters who are just short of likeable, and yet you feel drawn in enough to want to know what happens to them.
Her female protagonists especially, seem to invite some of the catastrophes that happen ...more
This collection merely offers a peek at the tip of the iceberg that is Oates' massive talent... Despite spanning four decades, Oates tells us in the afterword that she had to leave out many of her defining works like the miniature narratives and gothic/mystery stories.
She's brilliant at crafting characters who are just short of likeable, and yet you feel drawn in enough to want to know what happens to them.
Her female protagonists especially, seem to invite some of the c...more
She's brilliant at crafting characters who are just short of likeable, and yet you feel drawn in enough to want to know what happens to them.
Her female protagonists especially, seem to invite some of the c...more
This collection of short stories (which fills 650 pages) took me a few weeks to finish reading, which means that it took the Oatster--in total--a few days to write. Nearly everyone has an opinion of Joyce Carol Oates and, after seeing her in person, would add to that opinion. Despite her prolific writing schedule, she even had time once to take a picture with Mike Tyson. Really think about that: Joyce Carol Oates and Mike Tyson (Google Images has the evidence). I belong to the camp of thoug...more
Taking up the legacy of Flannery O’Connor and embracing the Dostoevskian themes of crime and punishment, sin and redemption, I now find Joyce Carol Oates — a name that’s always paralyzed me with awe for having stood before bookstore shelves lined with her impressive oeuvre, and wondering which of her more than 100 books I should buy first – a writer to conjure with.
This hefty collection, featuring 11 new pieces along with stories culled from four decades (1966-2006), establishes the ...more
This hefty collection, featuring 11 new pieces along with stories culled from four decades (1966-2006), establishes the ...more
Unsurprisingly, the city of San Diego gives meager funding to its libraries, and thus the collections range from tolerable to horrible depending what branch one is at. I hate Joyce Carol Oates, but this was literally the only reasonable 'literary fiction' I could find while visiting a nearby branch.
Ugh, is she morbid. Every story it's like, you think oh, maybe this one's gonna be normal, but no, by the end, one character is always killing another character like, with a hammer (and u...more
Ugh, is she morbid. Every story it's like, you think oh, maybe this one's gonna be normal, but no, by the end, one character is always killing another character like, with a hammer (and u...more
I believe I have already mentioned the heft of this particular work. This is one very large collection of Oates best short stories of which there are hundred's. In fact, the sheer amount of output is often discussed as is the consistently high quality of her work. The short stories in this collection are intense, moody and downright creepy in turn. The major themes of the book are girls and women being preyed on by men, obsession and twisted sexuality. I was particularly taken with "The Cou...more
It is extremely rare that I don't finish a book, but after reading over of third of this collection, I had to stop. JCO is an incredibly proflic and talented writer, with a beautiful writing style that I greatly admire. Though I am relatively new to reading her work, JCO seem to have a penchant for writing about seemingly unmotivated and disturbing acts of violence, sometimes reveling in their grotesqueness. This is often the case with the stories I read in High Lonesome.
There were ...more
There were ...more
In this collection, most of the stories individually are well written and engaging. I wish they had been presented in a different order. Pretty much all of the stories in the first two decades you read (the 2000's and the 1960's) have the common element of horrible acts of violence that sometimes seemed totally unnecessary. This left me with a disturbed feeling I couldn't shake as I continued to read the other decades. Eventually the violence and other common elements like infidelity became ki...more
Okay I'm swearing off JCO for at least a year. While her writing is phenomenal, I've really had enough of death, despair and dark obsession. Seriously Ms. Oates...there's SOME good in life and people.
These 11 short stories were all so...heavy. There wasn't a single story that was uplifting in any way. They were certainly classic JCO..every character was of a "youthful middle age"...always breathless and confused. It started to irritate the shit out of me. The only reason w...more
These 11 short stories were all so...heavy. There wasn't a single story that was uplifting in any way. They were certainly classic JCO..every character was of a "youthful middle age"...always breathless and confused. It started to irritate the shit out of me. The only reason w...more
my friend has been reading oates like mad lately, so i decided to pick up this book. the stories are great. she has such darkness, and that gives the stories remarkable depth.
still reading, but i have to say the man hating themes of her stories are starting to get repetative, so i've takren some stars away.
still plowing through...hoping that the stories i'm reading are from a time period when oates just was into hating people. i'm going to continue b/c my friend stand...more
still reading, but i have to say the man hating themes of her stories are starting to get repetative, so i've takren some stars away.
still plowing through...hoping that the stories i'm reading are from a time period when oates just was into hating people. i'm going to continue b/c my friend stand...more
i was a 70's boy, 8 in 70, 17 in 79. joyce carol oates is just such a fucking monster.
this is some of the story titles toc:
The 1970s:|tSmall avalanches ;|tConcerning the case of Bobbie T. ;|tTryst ;|tLady with the pet dog ;|tDead
i dare you to read these/
and you must include "high lonsome"
this is some of the story titles toc:
The 1970s:|tSmall avalanches ;|tConcerning the case of Bobbie T. ;|tTryst ;|tLady with the pet dog ;|tDead
i dare you to read these/
and you must include "high lonsome"
Again, another writer I've always avoided for fear of estrogen poisoning. But she's great, absolutely great.
Especially, and this is so very important. Her short stories are STORIES. Tense and fascinating conflict and just enough resolution to feel sated. This is hard to find in a lot of "literary" short stories.
Especially, and this is so very important. Her short stories are STORIES. Tense and fascinating conflict and just enough resolution to feel sated. This is hard to find in a lot of "literary" short stories.
i refer you to Leah's review 6/2/07.
If you read from cover to cover, you read new, oldest, old, less old, etc. Don't do this. You go from a bunch of very well-written weird stories to a bunch of less well-written, less compelling stories and you will be waiting for the weird thing to happen, the event or the release of info that explains what the story is otherwise trying to be secretive about. in the 1960s, this weird thing is less prevalent. or (worse) the weird thing is too weird...more
If you read from cover to cover, you read new, oldest, old, less old, etc. Don't do this. You go from a bunch of very well-written weird stories to a bunch of less well-written, less compelling stories and you will be waiting for the weird thing to happen, the event or the release of info that explains what the story is otherwise trying to be secretive about. in the 1960s, this weird thing is less prevalent. or (worse) the weird thing is too weird...more
Clearly JCO has influenced a great many writers - some of whom I consider among my favorites - and she was writing against the stream of pomo or at least not getting caught up in the gimmicks and tricks of experimental literature of the past 40 years by staying true to the idea that a story should focus on character. While Flannery looks at her characters and focuses on the negative aspects and limitations, JCO seems to have a tendancy to try to make all characters (murderers, the abused, the n...more
I don't usually enjoy short stories but I really loved this. Dark without being totally depressing.
Joyce Carol Oates is beyond prolific--the woman writes an average of two stories a year and publishes stories "on the side" ha! This is an amazing collection. Reading Joyce Carol Oates is like covering yourself in tar and rolling in shards of glass--and I mean that in a good way. Here stories are not light, and rarely are they happy. They are of rape, murder, adultery, and torture. Each is the work of a MASTER. When you first get this collection make sure you read "Heat"...more
In this anthology of short stories, readers will find not only her classics but also eleven new additions to Joyce Carol Oates' collection. The anthology is divided by decade, and my personal favorites were her newer stories and those from the 1990s. I also enjoyed rereading Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been, and noticing little details I somehow missed the first few times around. This collection was a great reminder of the complexity of Oates' characters and why I chose her as the sub...more
that i need to try new technology
This is a good introduction to Oates for new readers, yet also a good collection of a body of work by one of the most prolific writers ever. (Although I'm tiring of her, so I'm taking a loooong break; her characters can be repetitive and I'm tired of her not-so-great portrayal of women, although I suspect much of her work is largely autobiographical and perhaps this has something to do with how she portrays her characters?) There was only one story in this collection that I didn't read because...more
Brutal.
Joyce Carol Oates' short stories suffer, perhaps unjustly, by comparison with her often intricate and always compelling novels. While the prose in High Lonesome</> is no less compelling than that in Oates' novels, I found myself profoundly disappointed when I'd turn a page to find not another chapter but another story. Good short stories often leave the reader wanting more; with JCO's, however, I felt cheated out of a series of amazing imaginary novels.
Liked but didn't love.
Liked but didn't love.
This is a collection of 'new and selected stories' (so says the cover) written by Joyce Carol Oates. I wouldn't say 'depressing' is quite the correct description of the stories I have read so far.... One person in our book club described her as have a 'quirky little dark side'. Most of the stories I've read are snippets from the lives of various characters; things that if they had happened to you, you would not want others to know.... Her writing is engaging.
I've liked Joyce Carol Oates since I first read her in high school. She's a little dark, and a little sinister, so reading this entire volume of short stories together like a novel may be a little overwhelming. She's great, though. Reading her stories is almost like watching a performance of them because so much is going on between the margins. It's almost like you can see the looks on the characters' faces, the way she uses silences and words that go unspoken.
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a proto-Twilight, a prelight and an inkling of the plot: a supernatural(esque) badboy in dogged pursuit of the freshest face in town. Arnold Friend ("Team Arnold!" squealed the weird girl movie's world premiere) doesn't sparkle. No. But his car is gold. Complete text here: http://jco.usfca.edu/works/wgoing/text.h...
There weren't more than a few stories out of this collection that wowed me and I am a huge Oates fan. I really liked, in order of appearance; Spider Boy, The Cousins, Soft-Core, *BD* 11 87, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, The Dead, and others. In this 600+ page book I struggled to like 1/5 very much.
That Joyce Carol Oates is pretty solid. This is a collection of about a billion of her short stories, in a variety of styles/voices, what have you. She's got good range. The one story that fell flat for me was her attempt at Sci-Fi, but I still had to hand it to her for trying.
Excellent stories by JCO; most of them I really enjoyed and I thought were some of her best (and I think JCO is hit and miss) -- but I recommend this collection. Some good stuff, and I really was disappointed when a lot of the stories ended.
Someone needs to tell me which stories to read from this because the few I picked at random were pretty heavy-handed and dated. I know JCO has some gems out there somewhere, probably in this collection, but I haven't found them yet.
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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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“the music was always in the background, like music at a church service; it was something to depend upon.”
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“Her visits to her former hometown were infrequent and often painful. Pilgrimages fueled by the tepid oxygen of family duty, unease, guilt. The more Esther loved her parents, the more helpless she felt, as they aged, to protect them from harm. A moral coward, she kept her distance.”
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