All the Good People I've Left Behind

by Joyce Carol Oates

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

227 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

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

[Matthew Pacchione · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology has always been my favourite book, the one I'd say that had this biggest impact on me growing up. This is my second reading, and at first I had to question why that was the case; each story, while incredibly well-written, is not exciting outright. That's just a first impression, however, and as you dwell more into the work you begin to realize that is just the point. The situations described in these stories may come off as cliche, unoriginal, or even mundane, but it's JCO's focus on that very aspect of our lives, the way she describes every detail, every action, that makes her writing all the more better.

The characters can even come off as predictable tropes, but JCO has a way of phrasing actions and dialogue unlike anyone I've ever read, and what we are left with is characters aware of their lack of identity, and what that means for them.

Altogether, the anthology almost reads like a novel, with the final work, the titular novella, being the pillar with which this stands proud. "All the Good People I've Left Behind" stands the test of time and I would recommend this to anyone.

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for everyone.