Night-Side

by Joyce Carol Oates

In this new collection of stories Joyce Carol Oates explores the night-side of the human soul. In relating those psychological experiences in the borderland between reality and surreality, Miss Oates enters the mysterious realm of the paranormal, the world of extrasensory perception, "the other worlds of dreams and nightmares, mediums and odd happenings...."

Each of us has, to a degree, a private night-side of his own, but in this collection the author, with her uniquely penetrating sense of "the other," brings the reader "through darkened landscapes on untraveled roads to solitary and unfamiliar borders" he has not journeyed before.

(from inside jacket)

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

370 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

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

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

DOVE VAI, DOVE SEI STATA?



Sono quattro racconti che vengono da una raccolta più ampia intitolata Where are you going, where have you been?, raccolta piuttosto celebre di questa più che prolifica scrittrice (decine di romanzi, centinaia di racconti, poesia, saggi, critica letteraria, teatro, sceneggiature).
Nessuno si intitola “Notturno”: ma il notturno è l’aspetto della vita che interessa alla Oates, almeno in queste pagine (sempre, secondo me).
C’è chi si spinge fino a definirli “gotico americano”, ma secondo me, la definizione, azzeccatissima, va meglio per altre raccolte della Oates, non questa in particolare.



Qui, tutto sommato, sembra restare confinata nella quotidianità: il primo racconta di due giovani vedove che hanno perso il marito di recente in modi diversi (incidente per una, malattia per l’altra) e come inizia e poi cresce l’amicizia tra loro, e su cosa si basa.
Nel secondo, uno scrittore americano in viaggio nell’Unione Sovietica ha accanto una preziosa guida e interprete: probabilmente è anche grazie al suo apporto che riesce a sviluppare un sentimento per una ragazza locale. Solo che a questo punto il regime gli cambia traduttore e lui si sente perso in terra straniera.
Nel terzo è un medico stressato dalle richieste dei suoi pazienti che si ripetono ossessive giorno dopo giorno. Non riesce a ricaricarsi nella monotonia della vita domestica, nelle serate coi soliti amici.
L’ultimo è ispirato dal rapporto tra Joyce e sua figlia schizofrenica Lucia (che qui diventa Daisy).



L’abilità della Oates è di tenere in equilibrio queste storie, apparentemente normali, su un filo teso che sembra spezzarsi da un momento all’altro, ma non sfociano mai in eventi tragici. È quella che si chiama suspense: spalmata su un fondo di incertezza, chiaroscuro, inquietudine, psicologie perturbanti, pericolo latente.

[Sebastian Lönnlöv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bra, men jag har läst betydligt bättre Oates-noveller som fortfarande inte finns översatta - tycker öht att hennes noveller är alldeles för underskattade!

[John Hatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting examination - in the form of fiction - of the boundaries between the physical world and the spiritual world.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

SÅ fin som ljudbok. Björn Granaths uppläsning <3

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel a little bad giving this 5 stars as a solid handful of these stories just didn’t work for me at all, but it was more me than those stories. They just went over my head—I’m not afraid to admit it. ‘70s JCO stories tends to focus more on the characters’ psychology over coherent plot, and things tend to shift. Nothing is reliable, or really tangible. Usually it works for me, hence my rating, but a common complaint of this story collection is the stories don’t “go anywhere”—and while I disagree with that assessment, much of the stories’ “action” is in the characters’ heads.

I really loved about 12 of these stories, especially the title story, “The Snowstorm”, “Daisy”, and “The Thaw”. Excellent, all, and tracking down a copy of this long-OOP collection is worth it for those stories alone.

There is a reason Stephen King included this collection in his list of recommendations at the end of Danse Macabre. It’s fantastic.

[Klara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, osäker på om det är 3 eller 4 stjärnor, men blir sugen på att läsa fler (noveller eller böcker) av Oates.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” This Stephen King quote irresistibly came to mind when I thought about what to say about Joyce Carol Oates’ early short story anthology, Night-Side. Of the eighteen stories included, only a couple deal outright with anything supernatural, and a few others…well, maybe. But all of them deal with the monsters and ghosts that live inside us.

I have yet to read one of Oates’ novels—my total exposure to her work is from four short story collections and one extended meditation on the sport of boxing. I think I shy away from her longer fiction because reading her prose exhausts me, and taking it in 15- to 20-page doses is about all I can handle at one sitting. Oates is more about character than about plot, and Night-Side is a collection of earlier stories—the book was first published in 1977—and I noticed most of the stories, in contrast to many of her later stories, don’t possess a traditional, easy-to-track story arc; they are all about the protagonists and the monsters and ghosts with which they wrestle (most of the protagonists are sensitive, highly-educated, intellectual). For me, the faint story arc is frustrating, but that hasn’t kept me from coming back and checking out another Oates collection from my local library. I can rationalize coming back to her stories time and time again because I hope that by reading her fiction, some of her dense, opulent writing style might rub off on me and influence my fiction writing. Or I can rationalize continuing to read Oates by telling myself that even though I have the definite feeling that I don’t “get” all that Oates is trying to tell me, if I keep reading her stories, that will change. But those are, indeed, rationalizations. The simple truth is that I find her stories strangely compelling and hard to stay away from.

[Tina Ottosson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typisk Oates. Gotisk, lite krypande spänning, lite sådär... och sen kommer slutet som en käftsmäll. Det kommer jag fundera över många gånger.

[Amy Watson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book of gloomy, in exciting stories that mostly go nowhere

[Bradley Ghei]

1. Night-Side
2. The Widows
3. Lover
4. The Snowstorm
5. The Translation
6. The Dungeon
7. Famine Country
8. Bloodstains
9. Exile
10. The Giant Woman
11. Daisy
12. The Murder
13. Fatal Woman
14. The Sacrifice
15. The Thaw
16. Further Confessions
17. The Blessing
18. A Theory of Knowledge

I'm biased because JCO is my favorite American author so I loved every single one of these in their own way. albeit some more than others of course. I also don't understand the criticism that the stories "don't go anywhere", "end too abruptly", or "share similar vibes"... Those are all fine with me! I don't think stories need an "ending" per se, what ending do you want? Some dramatic climax? I don't know, it was all great to me. Im okay with ambiguity, with a mellow fade, a building plot with a new thing introduced on the page, only to end before anything comes of it. Again, sucker for the Oates.

Night-Side... The titular piece, so great. Haunting, spooky, mentions Kant and Thomas Browne... Loved every bit of it.

The Widows... Classic Oates, the dialogue is great, the back and forth, the curious pace. The reveal at the end... Anything that deals with death gets points for me.

Lover ... This one was odd. It made me afraid of being in a relationship in the future for this coming to pass in my life. The weird resentment couples have for each other is a thing that terrifies me. And then the weird "i love you" at the end, scary.

The Snowstorm... Reading this just after a big snowstorm was definitely the right way to go for me. Felt real, felt eerie, I've been too into True Crime lately for the last portion of the book, sometimes I couldn't figure out where she was.. Just sleep at work lady, fuck it !

The Translation... This one was good but weird. The characters were weird, but I loved the strange dreams.

The Dungeon... Loved this one. makes me want to not wear a wig.

Famine Country ... This one is spooky, the emaciated kid, who starts to lose in mind progressively, the family who must put up with it. Dark.

Bloodstains... Loved it ! Weird! stay out of your daughters shit yo.

Exile... Weird! Creepy! Bodies in water, yuck.

The Giant Woman... Loved it. Kids suck, everyone does.

Daisy... loved those little drawings, anything to do with art makes me want to go draw... and whats a story about art without an insane asylum.

The Murder... Short and sweet, and in Milwaukee! Maybe this one falls a little compared to the others. But with its few pages im not complaining.

Fatal Woman... When Beauty gets in the way. Spooky.

The Sacrifice... This one was a mind trip, imagine being that doctor. The ending was an odd one for sure, this is where I can see how people would have the criticism they have, another like I said, I don't mind a story ending this way.

The Thaw... Now, these last four are some of the best in the whole story... This one was so strange too... Again, reading in Spring, felt ominous. Why he so weird.

Further Confessions... Like I said before, this is a top-tier story. The part with the ghostly dad was haunting, the aspects of life in this one, and I love any story with good artist representation.

The Blessing... Loved every bit of this one. Reminded me a lot of Aronofsky's 'mother!'.

A Theory of Knowledge... Great one to end on. Classic Oates, and had aspects of the last book I read, 2666, in its dry reciting of logical prose in an odd manor relative to The Part about Amalfitano... but the ending was unexpectedly touching!

[Jamie Rosen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It pains me to give this 3 stars. Individually, most of the stories are solid 4s. But taken as a whole, the collection starts to display some faults that the individual pieces don't: a certain sameness of the subject matter, and a tendency for the stories to finish weakly, sometimes seeming to simply stop rather than come to an end.

I remain a great fan of JCO's short stories, and would recommend most of the ones located herein; I'm just a little disappointed in the book as a whole.

[Nadia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Primo libro della Oates che leggo e al momento nella mia testa ho un grande "boh".
Lo stile è fluido ma non mi è arrivato nulla di tutto il resto: trama, personaggi, storie... molto probabilmente dovevo puntare a un romanzo come primo approccio all'autrice e non a una raccolta di racconti, ma leggendo la sinossi mi sembrava intrigante e da lì all'inserimento nello scaffale "Want-to-read" è stato un attimo.
In futuro le darò un'altra chance.

[Nozomi]

I like when the character is introduced, you read as a simple description, and later you go, " Ah, she was referring to the characteristics of 'X'-type of person'" It's like you read a description of the recipe without knowing what the meal was, and after you cooked it you realize in fact what you were cooking was a simple pound-cake.

[Grumpus McGrouchy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, I liked it. Any book that can end a story so abruptly that I throw the book across the room before I can even catch myself, deserves a repeat performance. I think the story was ...oh fuck I don't remember. The one with the woman in the doorway. And the teacher, I think. Shit, who knows. I never even read it.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jag har lyssnat på ljudboken och Björn Granath gör som vanligt ett utmärkt jobb! Oates skapar stämning med sin anonyme berättare, vars skeptiske vän plötsligt blir omvänd och börjar bete sig irrationellt. Slutet lämnas öppet för tolkning...

[Ann M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another ancient paperback, worth reading.

[Martin Gumucio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff!

[Agneta Lind · Rating 2 out of 5]

Antigen var jag lite disträ vid läsningen av denna novell eller så tilltalade den mig helt enkelt inte särskilt mycket.

[Sanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

En fyra i egenskap av novell. Fantasieggande och lagom obehaglig. Snyggt komponerad.

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad this isn’t the first book I’ve read by my bestie JCO. It’s a study in navel-gazing and today I don’t have the patience.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid selection of short stories that display the type if literary daring and thematic world building that Oates does so well.

[Michaela L · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5/5 ⭐️

[Elsa Härnström · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trevlig novell på ’klassikerspråk’. Kan läsa mer av henne.

[libraryofjonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stjärnor

[Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questa raccolta di quattro racconti di Joyce Carol Oates è stata la mia prima lettura dell'autrice. E subito parto con un grande punto interrogativo.
Mi è piaciuto?
E' proprio questa la domanda a cui non riesco ancora a dare risposta, nemmeno dopo aver riletto alcuni passaggi ed averci riflettuto sopra un pò.
Innanzitutto mi è parso di aver letto quattro racconti di quattro autori diversi. Nel primo, Le Vedove, si percepiscono l'ansia e lo smarrimento della protagonista ed in un certo modo anche la leggerezza che ella prova nelle ultime righe, quando la sua anima viene liberata da un enorme e tragico peso. In Le Vedove la scrittura è semplice e schietta. Il racconto successivo, La Traduzione, è un banale spaccato della vita di un uomo abituato a viaggiare molto per lavoro e che si ritrova protagonista di uno spiacevole, e ben poco chiaro, episodio. La Traduzione mi è parso un racconto un pò confuso e che confonde, l'ho percepito spezzato. Macchie di Sangue è il principale responsabile del non aver ancora dato una risposta alla domanda iniziale. Ogni racconto rappresenta un momento legato ad un evento passato, evento che incide nel presente narrato. In Macchie di Sangue non sono riuscita a vedere l'evento passato. L'ho trovato slegato dal contesto. Inutile, per dirla tutta.
L'ultimo racconto, Daisy, è quello che più mi è piaciuto. Soprattutto per lo stile, ricco e molto descrittivo attraverso il quale i personaggi raccontati prendono forma in fretta, già dopo qualche riga. Ci sono molti accenni a quello che potrebbe essere l'evento passato attorno al quale ruota il presente descritto, e sono tutti intriganti.
Lo stile della Oates mi è apparso come ricco e ben strutturato, anche se, forse, spesso troppo frettoloso tanto da risultare confuso.
Questo primo esperimento con l'autrice tuttavia ne porterà altri, poichè in me è nata la curiosità di approfondire la sua conoscenza.

[Shan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joyce Carol Oates o la follia della quotidianità. Tre racconti, due dei quali trattano di persone comuni intente a scoprire il tradimento, la bugia, quel cuneo sotto la libreria, che sbilancia delle situazioni apparentemente stabili e può farle crollare. Il terzo racconto è il più atroce, la spiegazione, sebbene intuibile sin dall'inizio, è alla fine. Il terzo racconto narra di una bimba prodigio, amore del papà e della mamma, ma dietro ogni prodigio si nasconde l' "anormalità" nascosta dell'artista, la sua follia e la sua fragilità di fronte ad un evento non previsto. Come Carver, la Oates scrive il poema del quotidiano, dietro ad ogni storia c'è un elemento misterico, imprevisto, un dettaglio disturbante o se vogliamo caricare il dramma : vi è un perturbante che scompiglia la mise en place e ci accompagna lasciandoci un velo d'angoscia che ci rimane attaccato, anche a distanza di tempo, dalla lettura di queste bravi storie.

[Bibliotekstanten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Novellix är ett förlag som ger ut noveller (en och en, inte i samlingar) och den fysiska boken är alltid liten nog att rymmas i en ficka. Jag lade beslag på ett par-tre stycken här om sistens och nu har jag läst Nattsidan av Joyce Carol Oates.

Berättaren utreder tillsammans med Perry Moore olika medium. De båda herrarna är skeptiska till fenomenet, även om berättaren påverkas väldigt mycket mer av det de upplever. I alla fall till en början...

Novellen utspelar sig 1887 i Massachusetts och är i dagboksform och tydligen skrev Oates den redan 1976. Det har länge varit författaren Johan Theorins favoritnovell och det är hans som nu till slut översatt den till svenska.

Jag läste den kanske för snabbt och slarvigt, för jag tyckte varken den var särskilt läskig, eller särskilt engagerande. Det får dock stå för mig. Många älskar den!

[zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Det är en intressant novell som till stor del hanterar synen på vetenskap och varför man har den synen. Det är möjligt att det är hur jag tolkade berättelsen av den anledning att jag läste en kurs i just vetenskapshistoria när jag läste novellen, och att det inte är den första kursen i dylikt ämne för mig. Oavsett var det spännande att läsa hur de olika karaktärerna reagerade på de olika händelserna, och vilka roller de antog - och vilken skillnad det var mellan början och slut utifrån dessa aspekter. Det är trots allt en viktig del av vår historia, och speciellt under den tid som novellen utspelar sig runt.

Men den lyckades även få med den där avslappnade användningen av detaljer som jag gillar, och om det är sättet Joyce Carol Oates beskriver både karaktärer och miljö i resten av sina böcker så ser jag fram emot att läsa mer av henne.

[Berit Lundqvist · Rating 4 out of 5]

English original: Night-Side, not published as a stand alone.

Oates goes full gothic, and explores what happens to a person when everything he believs in seems to be wrong. In this case the story is about a sceptic academic embracing spiritualism.

This is a quite interesting psychological story about what is real and what isn’t. I appreciated the lack of violence.

[josefinessen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detta var det första jag läste av Joyce Carol Oates och jag blev verkligen sugen på att läsa mer av henne. Jag blev mer och mer uppslukad ju längre in jag kom i novellen och gillade verkligen den lite lagom obehagliga stämningen. Det var lite smått omskakande vilket jag verkligen kan uppskatta.

(Ljudnovellkalender 2022)