The Assignation: Stories

by Joyce Carol Oates

A woman's lover seems not to recognize her on the street. A teenage girl accepts a ride from a stranger in a rust-speckled Cadillac. An old man is obsessed by the memory of his innocent childhood intrusion on a half-dressed aunt. In forty-four very short, very powerful stories, Joyce Carol Oates fashions brief, intensely compact dramas out of the unwieldy material of human experience. The stories in The Assignation are infused with a "radiant intensity," wrote James Atlas in the New York Times Book Review, and they convey the depth and scope of a novel in a few charged pages. The Assignation is an electric display of the talents that make Joyce Carol Oates one of our finest short story writers.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Short Story Collection, Literary Fiction, Book Club, American, Anthologies

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

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

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives new meaning to the “short” story! Forty-four stories in one book, and a thin book at that. I like JCO and I like short stories. They fit my attention span, something that can be quite short. I like to read a whole story in one sitting and be ready to do it again next time.

Sometimes when I read JCO I don’t try too hard to understand the story. It can be just the words. The stories in The Assignation are about relationships and interactions. (So – big deal – what else is life about?) Some are weirder than others. If you enjoy watching people, I think you are likely to enjoy this book. The stories are glimpses of people having a life.

Is it possible that JCO has 34 books of short stories? That’s what it says at http://www.listal.com/list/jco-biblio... ! This one was published in 1988.

Evidently the rule in reviewing books of short stories is to mention one or more of your favorites. I was nearly halfway through the book and hadn’t had that moment when I came to the realization that “this story” was going to be one of my favorites. Almost at that moment it came to me that The Bystander was going to be my first. At eight pages it is one of the longest. A fifty-one year old woman enters her local drugstore and interrupts an armed robbery.

The gunman was behind the cashier’s counter and Jerry Knoth was just getting down, on his hands and knees, to lie on the floor, on his stomach, as the gunman had ordered him to do, and Mrs. Ingram called out loudly, “What are you doing? What is this?” - or something similar; she wouldn’t remember, afterward, her exact words; only that they were quick, and loud, pushy angry words of a kind she’d never heard herself say before, in any public place. It was like she’d gone back decades to when the children were young, and the way you spoke to them half the time was scolding, disciplining , since half the time they were getting into trouble and that was the only way they could be made to listen, to take what you said seriously.

Maybe it is more about where I am rather than the story. For one story later is the very next favorite, Party, which I also find amazingly amusing. Judith is dying of cancer while her friends and colleagues gather at a party to small talk and snipe and gossip about her. It doesn’t sound funny, does it? I guess you have to appreciate the cynicism and the irreverence of JCO like I do.

Judith Lambert was dying at last. She had come home from the Medical Center for the fifth and final time in how many months? – eighteen? – since her cancer was first diagnosed. But the Institute party was scheduled for that night, the handwritten invitations sent out weeks ago, so they were at the party, Judith’s many friends and a number of her colleagues from the Bedminster Choir College, where Judith had taught voice for fifteen years, how sad they were saying, how tragic, she is such a young woman, - forty-seven and looks ten years younger despite the chemotherapy – gathered about the long candlelit table where plates of hors d’oeuvres were set amidst coolly fragrant spring flowers, daffodils, jonquils, hyacinth, taking up Swedish meatballs on toothpicks, jumbo shrimp dipped in Mexicali hot sauce (Take care, the director’s wife warns, - that sauce is hot), how lovely everything looks tonight, and this wine, this is superb wine, German, is it? and how delicious the stuffed mushrooms, did you make those yourself, Isabel?

IMHO, LOL! Just superb – both the food and the conversation! I just love looking down on high society and JCO excels.

Most haunting story: Secret Observations on the Goat-Girl:

At the edge of my father’s property, in an abandoned corncrib, there lives a strange creature – a goat-child – a girl – my age – with no name that we know – and no mother or father or companions. She has a long narrow head and immense slanted eyes, albino-pale, and an expression that seems to be perpetually startled.
. . .
Her nose, like her ears, is goatish: snubbed and flat and with wide nostrils. But her eyes are human eyes. Thickly lashed and beautiful.
. . .
One day I slipped away from the house to bring her a piece of my birthday cake (angel food with pink frosting and a sprinkling of silver “stars”) – I left it wrapped in a napkin near the corncrib but as far as I knew she never approached it: she is very shy by daylight.
. . .
Years pass and the goat-girl continues to live in the old corncrib at the edge of our property. No one speaks of her – no one wonders at the fact that she has grown very little since she came to live with us.

I’m sorry, it is not possible to only have only a few favorites out of forty-four choices. You will have to read some Joyce Carol Oates short stories yourself and decide what you think. She has written hundreds. The hard part is deciding which of her 34+ books of short stories you are going to pick up. Myself, I don’t think you can make a bad choice.

The Assignation got better as I got into a JCO mood. How do you find out if you are in The Mood? Randomly pick out one short story and read it. If you like it, you’re in The Mood and you should read a few more stories immediately! I was in The Mood enough for this book to get four stars. Probably wouldn’t take much more to get five from me.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. After having read both "Blonde" (which I loved, but need to re-read now) and "I Am No One You Know," I was beginning to wonder what all the Oates-fuss was about. The latter I mention, the short stories (which are allegedly her forte), were good, but primarily nothing to write home to mom about. There were a few truly powerful standouts among those stories, but many that sizzled and never really broke through to greatness.

This collection, however, really displays Oates' masterful use of prose, her incredible ability to boil a drama down to its most basic elements, her skill at taking a single moment and elevating it to strangely broad-spanning emotional power and resonance, and analysis of character that requires only a page or so for the reader to feel as if they 'know' that character. Almost every story is a standout, and they vary so greatly in style, perspective, and emotional impact that it was such a breeze to read quickly. Very much a page-turner. Perhaps Oates' real stomping ground is in flash/really-short fiction, because this collection seemed to force her to truly stretch her chops and pack a punch. It was wonderful to watch. Personal favorites: Slow, The Boy, Tick, The Assignation, The Train, Blue-Bearded Lover, Secret Observations on the Goat Girl, In Traction, Senorita, The Bystander, Romance, Only Son, and many others. Superb collection.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seems to read like that game you play when you make up stories about random strangers you see when people watching, Brief glimpses into the lives of rather anonymous people. I enjoyed it enough to get through it but some of the stories were a little too morbid for my tastes. All in all, I intend to continue reading her.

[Angelica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, at first I felt jolted with this collection, going from one “miniature narrative” to another, trying to think about and appreciate each piece and then break off suddenly to the next. Gradually, however, I felt the Oates rhythm and began to recognize and admire her candid character descriptions and the way she can magnify her characters’ psychological needs. Sometimes Oates builds a freight train of thought and observation, or blends action and dialogue in a single wave. By the time I was halfway through, I was excited to dive into the next narrative.

Reading this collection as a whole, I felt like I was getting a mosaic of human existence through shifting perspectives. Some struggle with relationships and emotional fulfillment, like in “Superstitious” and “Desire.” Some wish for the wonder and comfort of a time before, as in “Señorita” and “Holiday”. Some are haunted by a time before and forever shaped by memory, reading “Picnic” and “Two Doors.” Some look at the here and now to feel alive, as in “The Boy” and “Sharpshooting.” And there are those who find hope for the future, like in “The Bystander.”

I appreciated the various perspectives in this collection, which is aptly titled after the story “The Assignation,” because it certainly feels like a secret meeting with each character or place.

[Harald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, ultra-short stories.
Twenty-four very short stories or tales. Oates writes very well in several genres. The collection includes psychological flashbacks, crime, horror stories, and gothic fairy tales. Most of them explore problematic expectations for happiness and cohabitation. Since the length of each story averages eight pages, it goes without saying that the reading will be fragmentary. It took me a long time to get through all the 192 pages.

[Michelle’s Vintage Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not the biggest fan of literary fiction, but it can work for me in the form of a short story. JCO does this really well, and I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. Maybe it’s also because I love the dark twist she puts on everything.

[adele]

I am not going to finish this, Joyce Carol Fartes, goodbye. Talk soon.

[Kelly Hager · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories (crazy short, really; there are 44 in this collection, and the book isn't even 200 pages). I'm generally not a huge fan of short stores; I prefer novels and the thicker the novel, the better.

But this book was different. Instead of reading like a set of short stories, it seemed more like reading a collection of chapters.

I enjoyed reading them, but wished that some of them had been a little more fleshed out. I would read novels of any of these stories, actually. They were all fantastic concepts.

One interesting thing---almost no one in the stories had names. Some had initials and a few had actual names, but for the most part it was "he" or "she." I thought that was pretty unique.

I've heard that Joyce Carol Oates is an absolute master at short stories, and this book definitely bears that out. I don't know that I'd be willing to read more short stories in general, but I definitely want to read more of hers.

Recommended.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short stories (no more than five pages and one story is one sentence long ) from a writer who can grip the essence of emotion quickly and describe characters so well , we can feel their angst. Stories all surrond the concept of needing love, not getting it, or getting it in perverse and unhealty ways. In every story the characters were ambiguous in their thoughts and feelings,. Many stories left you hanging and trying to figure out how they might end. If you have never read anything from Joyce Carol Oates, this is a little book which will give you a glimpse of how she develpps unusal and very real characters that are often not the subject of novels. They are just real people with real feelings and real moments in time that can change their lives.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are 44 short narratives, glimpses into people's lives during key moments. "Tick" is especially powerful in its examination of how one small incident, in this case the presence of a stubborn arachnid, can cause someone to alter their life's trajectory. In typical Oates' style, these mini stories examine fear, lust and death. A lot of them use stream of consciousness, and most of them work, but some left me confused and irritated. Stories that deserve a closer reading are Tick, Assignation, Sharpshooting, The Quarrel, Secret, The Bystander, Shelter, Party, Adultress, A Sentimental Encounter, Desire and The Others.

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cerebral and illusive yet so precise.

This turned me on to the powers of the short story format. How JCO can write with such detail, humor and nuance in a story as short as a single page just dazzles me.

I loved this book.

[Suzie Q · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is much more a collection of fragments than actual stories. Definitely not one of Oates better works. Many fragments seem almost like they are just pieces of random writing prompts that were never really fleshed out.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't love every story, but her writing is undeniable. When she misses the mark, the language carries it. And when she doesn't, she nails it.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really found myself enjoying this collection of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates. If you are looking for a light book with relatable stories, then this one is for you. This collection contains many short stories that are good stories, but have potential to be turned into longer stories. I also recommend this book for anyone that enjoys people watching.
Oates did a great job at shortening lengthy stories into something much simpler. Looking back, I believe the longest story in the book was around 8-9 pages. This collection of short stories was a light read yet Oates made me want to keep the book in my hands until I finished it. As a creative writing student I really enjoy reading in general. I am a full time college student so when I was assigned reading a short story collection I honestly dreaded it. However, this collection changed my mind on readings like these. Although I did enjoy the stories being short and very straight to the point, I feel as though some of the stories could’ve had a bit more added to them for it to be ‘complete’.
This may seem weird to some, but this collection made me feel like I was reading a journal of a people watcher in a sense. Never in any of her stories did Oates flat out say that she was watching others, but that is just the vibe I got from reading the stories. She never gives straight forward personal feelings which is one of the main reasons I felt as though she was a people watcher. In “Heartland”, Oates says, “She has driven one thousand miles into the heartland of the country to visit her parents, whom she hasn’t seen in a very long time, and within an hour she wonders if she has made a mistake—there is an atmosphere of strain in the household and neither of her parents seem overjoyed to see her though they have gone through the customary ritual of embraces, kisses, protracted and reiterated greetings, such questions as ‘how are you?’ and such remarks as how good you look! As they smile at one another so hard it hurts.” For some reason the opening paragraph of this story really stood out to me. When reading this story, I felt as though I was someone sitting somewhere and observing people. I love this fact because as awkward as it may seem to some, I enjoy people watching.
As mentioned before, I honestly loved this book and would 10/10 recommend it to others interested in short stories. Although I included few examples, the examples I did chose sum up the basis for all of the others. Oates does an excellent job of taking long drawn out situations and turning them into interesting and attention grabbing shorter stories.

[Russell Bittner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me begin by saying that this collection of very short short stories by Joyce Carol Oates is a difficult one to review. It’s difficult not because Ms. Oates’ writing is flawed—far from it—but difficult because the writing is sui generis, one of a kind.

Perhaps it’s best to quote a little bit of Ms. Oates herself from her Afterword (pp. 193 – 195). “With two or three exceptions, the prose fictions of The Assignation are not short stories but ‘miniature narratives’ … radical distillations of story.” Indeed, one or two of her shorts are examples of what we now call ‘micro-fiction.’

But apart from the length (or brevity) of these narratives, Ms. Oates uses other devices to arrest our attention on the page, among which is an outright omission of standard punctuation. In the hands of a lesser writer, this device could be deadly—or at the very least, annoying. But with Ms. Oates’s narrative fiction, I found it to be quite effective. Although most of my reading of this short tome was accomplished either on a bus or on a subway as I went about my daily job, and although commutation in NYC is rarely blessed with library silence (for that matter, NYC libraries these rambunctious and distraction-filled days are rarely blessed with library silence), I never lacked concentration. In fact, I had the impression on numerous occasions that I’d stopped breathing from one paragraph-length sentence to the next.

The entire collection (which I found laid to rest on a stoop here in Brooklyn) is well worth reading. But if you want to run a little test drive before you jump in and buckle up, allow me to suggest both (or either of) “Superstitious” (pp. 129 – 133) and “A Sentimental Encounter” (pp. 134 – 138). You won’t be disappointed.

When it comes to the art of short story-writing in the larger category of American Letters, I would like to nominate Joyce Carol Oates queen, and T. C. Boyle king. I’m just not sure I’d like to see them sitting side by side on the same throne. (Not good for library silence.)

RRB
14 October 2017
Brooklyn, NY

[brettlikesbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

though these stories are merely a page or two—or even a few lines—long, their sparseness only adds to their powerful impact + i devoured it, but in bites over time, because every piece is so rich that to gobble it up all at once would seem fairly gluttonous + each little vignette is a kick in the face—disturbing, shocking, provocative, masterful
•
“Easier, she thinks, to hate yourself than to respect yourself: it involves less imagination.”
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instagram book reviews @brettlikesbooks

[K. Fox (Cahill) · Rating 4 out of 5]

From JCO I expect nothing but the saddest, bleakest stories ever. I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself 🥲
Full of the shortest-ever stories of suspicions, men gaslighting women, women gaslighting themselves, women hating themselves and their image, more suspicions, more self-disgust, more suspicions. Rambling run-on chaotic sentences without a period in sight (as per the author’s way.) Not for everyone, probably not for me, but like a car crash, I can’t look away 😔

[Bryan Cothrun · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are very short like flash fiction at times. It’s like tik tok of literature though and feels to lack continuity with 40 plus stories in under 200 pages. The word choices and sentences are often extremely crafty and JCO has a knack for the dark domestic world, but it feels a bit disorienting reading so many stories, some of which I feel really need expansion. I’m not the largest fan of flash fiction though.

[Reyna Ayala · Rating 4 out of 5]

bittersweet that these little vignettes are just that— merely glimpses, teasingly leaving readers wanting more. and, yet, they’re just as they should be. some of these stories truly deserve the five stars (others i disliked in a cruel way where i knew joyce carol oates wrote the characters to be hated and here i am falling into her trap, and so i spitefully leave my four stars)

i am now convinced that no one can so vividly write characters like joyce carol oates.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Assignation, a 1988 collection of short stories, offers us glimpses of longing. The opening piece, “Flesh,” is just one paragraph long and most of those that follow aren’t much longer. Oates’ lean, sharp prose makes no bones. While the stories are taut with sensual tension, a need for love and acceptance fuels the lust.

More recommendations from me at www.jenniferfrostwrites.com

[Christian M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning. Really enjoyed this.
However. One note before you pick this up. Based on JCO’s age, I assume, and time this was published, there is some weird fetishization of groups that reads a bit wacky. I think it makes sense in the context of when this was written, but note that. Some fat phobia, glorification of adultery, white/Indian relationships that are fetishized, etc…

[keith koenigsberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book of ultra-short stories (see Where is Here?), mostly about intense, brief interactions between sad, lonely, often twisted individuals. Lots of hitch-hikers, cheating lovers, child-molesters, etc. But even in stories about otherwise normal people, JC-O has a way of cutting straight to the desolate, empty core of the human condition.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book of flash fiction stories did not live up to my expectations of how good flash fiction should be written. The stories are fragmented and some of the endings left me hanging. I'm sure Ms. Oates is a seasoned writer, but after being introduced by way of this book in how she presents her craft, I know I won't be reading any other of her books in the meantime.

[rhea · Rating 4 out of 5]

joyce carol oates is one of my goats and this is proof. i dont know how she does it but her short blurbs and blurs in time are always so gripping and make me want to be a better writer. she sees peoples / worlds / conversations / relationships and more so easily and it is one of the coolest things everrrr

[Jon Birondo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the 44 short stories in here, i recommend the following:
“
Tick
Accident
A Touch of Flu
Holiday
The Abduction
In Traction
Romance
Bad Habits
The Quarrel
Shelter
Adulteress
Señorita
August Evening
Desire
Train
The Others
Secret Observations On The Goat Girl
“

[Ken Moskowitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oates shows her obvious skill at very short fiction, though the longer pieces did more for me than the very short ones. There is a fair amount of noir and suspense. The stories are told by both male and female narrators.

[Jessie Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Idk, this collection of stories isn’t going to be my favorite collection of hers. By the end of the book I felt like I was having a hard time breathing. Not in a good way. The goat-girl story is heartbreaking.

[Jack Castillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first J.C.Oates read and I enjoyed it. As noted by her, these are not short stories but narratives. Powerful writing and some of them very erotic. I felt like I was getting inside the characters in these stories; some felt a little too short.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and engaging collection of short-short stories in which Oates wrings every possible emotion and implication out of the few words she allows herself. It feels a bit more modernist than usual from her, as many stories end rather abruptly. But still a worthwhile book.

[Inês · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5*