Heat and Other Stories

by Joyce Carol Oates

A new collection of twenty-five short stories from one of America's preeminent literary figures once again reveals the darkness, the violence, and the raw emotion lurking below the surfaces of everyday life. Reprint.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, American, Literature, Horror, Short Story Collection, Literary Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1991

About the author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Reviews

[Olivia's Bookish Places & Spaces]

Read this for school and WTF was this?!

[Cody | CodysBookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this collection feels like Joyce Carol Oates on autopilot, unfortunately, penning capable and well-written (this is JCO after all) tales without the oomph found in other collections like Wheel of Love and Lovely Dark Deep. This baby clocks in at 25 stories, so I guess it was to be expected that there are some clunkers.

And there are some winners, too. Oh yes.

The title story is amongst the very best JCO has penned: heartbreaking and scary and beautiful all in one, this story shows off all of Oates’s strengths in a neat, compact 20-page package.

Other favorites include:

- The Knife (if only for its unique and even-handed handle on rape, a subject JCO always handles masterfully)
- The Hair
- Shopping
- Morning
- Naked
- Yarrow
- Sundays in Summer
- Leila Lee
- Twins
- Why Don’t You Come Live With Me It’s Time
- Ladies and Gentlemen:

I actually liked more stories than I thought, and the rest of what’s included in this collection is okay, but sometimes it feels like JCO only skims the surface here, not always committing to her ideas.

Not exactly a good starting place for budding JCO readers, this one is best left for the hardcore fans. Though do check out the title story!

[Emily Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in a women's lit class. I was so upset that I remember actually feeling sick. I just remember being shocked by the way she writes about things like rape with a complete frankness. (shudder) Hard to read if you're not used to sad, train wreck stories...but obviously very effective.
"When death comes for you, sometimes you know and sometimes you don't"

[Apoorva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heat is one of the best short stories I've read. It's genuinely terrifying. The menace & sense of foreboding kicks in around the second paragraph and doesn't let you go until the last sentence. Told in incredibly simple prose, yet so so effective. And so haunting.

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

HOT

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to force myself to get through this book because Oates is a genius at taking me to horrible, intimate places where I do not want to go! She's a master of the craft and any aspiring writer should read these. Unforgettable.

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my very favorite collections of short stories. What an amazing talent and brilliant mind!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love her short stories, perhaps more than her novels.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Oates' quirky writing. This is some of her better short stories although I like her novels better.

[Roland · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorite short story collections i have ever read, years after reading them, i think about the stories in this colllection

[Clementine George · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've read Joyce Carol Oates before, the frankness of these short stories do not come as a shock. There is no other writer out there like her. She's brilliant.

[Joy Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who I turn to when I want to know how short stories are written; a master.

[Snotchocheez · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's rather odd that in my more than two decade close acquaintance with JCO's massive body of work that I've completely ignored her short story output. I recently read her latest (as of now, anyway), Mudwoman and the whole time I read it I was thinking how much better it could've been if pared to its essence and made into a short story (without giving her the opportunity to muck it up with space-filling JCO-esque let's-call-it-poetry-and-not-echolalia repetition and (occasionally) bizarre expository.

Thusly, I checked out Heat, a random library grab of the nearly ten short story collections the library had to offer. I'm pleased to report that my suspicions were correct: the short story is (at least if this collection is representative of all of them) a perfect medium for JCO's blend of broody, malaise-y fiction. Of the 25 stories in the collection, all but the last one are really solid (the last is a clunky Margaret Atwood-ish post-apocalyptic story, that could have jusy as easily been scrapped). My favorites include the titular "Heat" (about two twins killed by a mentally challenged man in a small town in the heat of Summer, and "The Buck" (recounting the efforts of an elderly woman in rural New Jersey to keep hunters from bowhunting deer on her property). For the JCO novitiate, this book's as good as any to discover whether her morose stylings strike a chord in you. For fervent fans, it's required reading.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of dark and often violent stories about Americans of various classes as they struggle w/ the reality of the world vs their aspirations. I've read that JCO has been taken to task for the violence in her writing, that her violence seems inevitable and makes base the human condition. Her response is that violence is in fact part of our contemporary society, that her stories of individuals are no more violent than the violence of nations. The book ends with some of her strangest stories, which are the ones I tend to enjoy the most. JCO in interviews has also discussed the passivity found in so many of her women characters; she makes the argument that activity is often in fact a weakness, that moving for the sake of moving is in fact a frenzied animal response and that waiting and watching to see what happens next is often the most advantageous.

Stories that have stuck w/ me:
"The Knife"
"The Hair" - one of my favorites
"Naked"'
"The Buck"
"The Crying Baby"
"Ladies and Gentlemen:"
"Family" - one of my favorites, almost worth keeping the book for this one alone!

**spoiler alert**
She writes about rape in several stories, and her way of approaching it is unsettling - so matter of fact, and there is the question of if-then, of consequences. The story "The Knife" is one such example - a woman holds a knife in her hand while she is assaulted - the hopped up burglar gave it to her almost knowing instinctively that she wouldn't use it on him.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Joyce Carol Oates in college as an undergrad with the short story Gold Gloves. I thought she was great. She doesn't disappoint in this collection of short stories. Oates has the ability to write masculine prose in regards to testosterone material. She can capture the male voice better than most male writers. Her female characters are just as fascinating. Oates reveals the dysfunction of white trash vividly and authentically. She is prolific without sacrificing her craft. These stories pack a wallop!

[Shibilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

True to Oatesian form – an absolutely wonderful read!!! Very rare for me to like all the stories in a short story compilation, but so is the case with this one. Highly recommend! Not for the faint of heart or for anyone who dislikes reading violence in fiction. So why not five stars you ask? I wanted more stories – LOL!

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for feel good stories, stay far away from anything by Joyce Carol Oates. Some of her stuff should come with a side of antidepressants, and others will make you want a shower to wash off all the ick she makes you feel. Short stories are not a favorite of mine, but JCO writes some of the best of them.

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read her collection of short stories dated 2006 not that long ago and found this collection used recently, dated 1992. There were even couple of repeats that appeared in both. But Joyce Carol Oates is a master (mistress?) of the short story (and longer forms). The short story is in some ways a bigger challenge than the full novel. That she is able to rapidly infuse her 'peeps' with a level of strangeness, credibility and fascination is what makes her so readable. She can do it often from page one! She inhabits these various minds, these lives, these circumstances in a credible way in almost every story. They are male, female, rich, poor, lucky, unlucky. Most of the stories are set in upstate NY (where she is from) but she does move the milieu around some. Her takes on blue-collar, dysfunctional America are usually spot on, which is surprising since she spent 30+ years in the ultimate 'ivory tower' of Princeton U. She seems to have absorbed enough from the less 'privileged' sides of America during her formative years to be able to write with insight on made-up lives that luckily she never had to experience. I have read three of her many novels, 'The Falls' and 'We Were the Mulvaneys' and recently the harrowing 'A Book of American Martyrs'. All were superb. But she has written 58 novels! What a treasure!

[Akhil Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Fav quotes:
- Rhea and Rhoda were the same girl; they'd wanted it that way. Only looking from one to the other could you see they were two.
- The [funeral] room was crowded; there was only one way in and out.
- They thought the same thoughts sometimes at the same moment, had the same dream and went all day trying to remember it, brining it back like something you'd be hauling out of the water on a tangled line.
- When death comes for you, you sometimes know and sometimes don't.
- Strip! Come on!_ So it happened. I was scared but I was laughing too. This is to show our power over you, they said. But they stripped too just like me. You have power over others you don't realize until you test it. I was scared but I was happy too. Except for our faces, their face and mine, we could all be the same girl.
- We liked it that Rhea and Rhoda had been killed, and all the stuff int he paper, and everybody talking about it, but we didn't like it that they were dead; we missed them.
- One night when I wasn't asleep but wasn't awake either I saw my parents standing in the doorway of my bedroom watching me and I knew their thoughts, how they were thinking of Rhea and Rhoda and of me their daughter wondering how they could keep me from harm, and there was no clear answer.

[Stephen Haines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe this is the first thing that I've read by Joyce Carol Oates. She's been on my list for a very long time and I'm a little disappointed that it took me this long to give something of hers a shot. She is a tremendous writer. I'm a big, big fan of her style. This collection (my only point of reference on her, for now) is filled with stories that, no matter the subject matter, are first and foremost written meticulously well. I have a huge amount of respect for Oates's obvious attention to detail in her prose, and her exceptional style. She manages to write about (at times) brutal topics with a remarkable amount of grace. Even when stories are distressing in subject matter, it's impossible to not keep hearing what the author has to say about them. And what she has to say about them rarely fails, IMO, to be engaging, challenging, true. That's a rare talent, in total. I look forward to reading more of hers.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this book in stages as I've learned from experience that I can only read so many short stories in a row. Especially with an author like Joyce Carol Oates. Don't get me wrong, she is highly accomplished and her work keeps your attention glued to the page. But you can't help but wonder two things with her stories: when is the violence going to take place and who is going to instigate it? To her credit, it often doesn't unfold the way you would predict, but still, the bloodshed does kind of wear on you after the first 10 or 12 times.

I admire her skilled writing, but I think I need to read someone else for a while. I will return to her someday.

[Amber Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one so I don't know why it took me a MONTH to read! I kept setting it down and taking days to pick it back up (reading a lot of magazines in the interim), but once I'd start reading, it always pulled me in. There were several stories that I wish were full length novels ("Morning", "Heat", "Leila Lee", "Getting to Know All About You") which is usually how I feel reading Joyce Carol Oates's short stories. I have to admit that most of the stories in this collection are damned depressing and bleak, but they're also magnetic and feel REAL, as if you might actually know people like this in reality. Out of all the Oates books I've read, this is definitely in my top 5. Recommended!!

[carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
read for class —
this one was so good !! unlike anything else i’ve had to read for this class. i love the way that it builds the anticipation up throughout the story. i wanted to know what happened to the twins so badly that i couldn’t wait to finish the story. i loved the detached narration style and the bouncing back and forth from a near future and the near past when the twins were killed. very interesting with a dynamic similar to of mice and men.

[Joan Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vintage Oates. Few can match her when it comes to the short story. The title story is masterful. Oates has a way of illuminating a character so that the reader feels a part of the story, as if this was his/her own experience. Others in this collection that stood out include The Buck, Leila Lee, Craps, Hostage, Morning. A terrific read

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This collection of works originally printed in hard-to-find magazines was in my stash of library "book sale" finds.

Oates has a remarkable imagination and in my opinion described the human condition to a "t"!

I dragged this book along on a recent road trip and savored each story.
The "Heat" story was grippingly engrossing.

I really liked this short story collection.

[Brian S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super collection. The last few stories didn't stack up to the rest.

[maeve · Rating 3 out of 5]

heat- 3.5

[Lise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Je n'ai pas accroché et me suis arrêtée au tiers du bouquin. Je comprends toujours pas ce que l'autrice voulait dire/écrire et où elle nous emmenait.

[Mikayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

heat - short story

[Li'el Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very intriguing stories