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Lovely, Dark, Deep
From the legendary literary master, winner of the National Book Award and New York Times bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates, a collection of thirteen mesmerizing stories that maps the eerie darkness within us all.
Insightful, disturbing, imaginative, and breathtaking in their lyrical precision, the stories in Lovely, Dark, Deep display Joyce Carol Oates’s magnificent ability to make visceral the terror, hurt, and uncertainty that lurks at the edges of ordinary lives.
In “Mastiff,” a woman and a man are joined in an erotic bond forged out of terror and gratitude. “Sex with Camel” explores how a sixteen-year-old boy realizes the depth of his love for his grandmother—and how vulnerable those feelings make him. Fearful that that her husband is “disappearing” from their life, a woman becomes obsessed with keeping him in her sight in “The Disappearing.” “A Book of Martyrs” reveals how the end of a pregnancy brings with it the end of a relationship. And in the title story, the elderly Robert Frost is visited by an interviewer, an unsettling young woman, who seems to know a good deal more about his life than she should.
A piercing and evocative collection, Lovely, Dark, Deep reveals an artist at the height of her creative power.
Insightful, disturbing, imaginative, and breathtaking in their lyrical precision, the stories in Lovely, Dark, Deep display Joyce Carol Oates’s magnificent ability to make visceral the terror, hurt, and uncertainty that lurks at the edges of ordinary lives.
In “Mastiff,” a woman and a man are joined in an erotic bond forged out of terror and gratitude. “Sex with Camel” explores how a sixteen-year-old boy realizes the depth of his love for his grandmother—and how vulnerable those feelings make him. Fearful that that her husband is “disappearing” from their life, a woman becomes obsessed with keeping him in her sight in “The Disappearing.” “A Book of Martyrs” reveals how the end of a pregnancy brings with it the end of a relationship. And in the title story, the elderly Robert Frost is visited by an interviewer, an unsettling young woman, who seems to know a good deal more about his life than she should.
A piercing and evocative collection, Lovely, Dark, Deep reveals an artist at the height of her creative power.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
382 people are currently reading
3926 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates
854 books9,639 followersJoyce 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 304 reviews
September 18, 2021
Colección de relatos en la que todos, de una manera u otra, te arrastran a las profundidades del alma humana, de la mano de la gran narradora que es Joyce Carol Oates, que te va contando las cosas con una fría naturalidad y te va helando el corazón. Son historias lentas, en las que no pasa gran cosa, pero los retratos de los personajes se te quedan dentro. Todos ellos componen una radiografía completa de la sociedad americana contemporánea. Son duros pero se disfrutan, porque la prosa es magnífica.
Hago una lista de los que más me han impresionado con una breve descripción – en realidad cada uno se merecería una detallada reseña:
- Sexo con una camella – Un chico acompaña a su abuela a hacer quimioterapia al hospital. Esta visita es la oportunidad para describir la belleza de su relación y las maneras en que se afronta la enfermedad.
- Mastín – La ferocidad de un animal es como una manifestación de los miedos de una mujer en una relación de pareja.
- Un libro de mártires – El tema del aborto y los movimientos antiabortistas está presente en este relato.
- El cazador – Retrato inmisericorde del depredador sexual en el ámbito académico. Este es un tema recurrente en varios relatos.
- Cosas que quedan atrás de camino al olvido – La odisea de una chica adoptada que nunca ha acabado de encajar en el seno de una familia rica.
- Los payasos – Un matrimonio ya mayor que vive su decadencia en una urbanización de lujo.
- Traición – La lucha de un hijo por realizarse profesionalmente frente a la incomprensión familiar.
- Mágico, sombrío, impenetrable – Este relato, que da título al libro, es una radiografía implacable del famoso poeta Robert Frost, en la que se desnuda al hombre machista y egocéntrico que está detrás de la imagen del genio.
- Parricidio – Como en el anterior relato, es una crítica de un gran escritor, Premio Nobel, visto desde la relación con su hija. Demoledor.
Hago una lista de los que más me han impresionado con una breve descripción – en realidad cada uno se merecería una detallada reseña:
- Sexo con una camella – Un chico acompaña a su abuela a hacer quimioterapia al hospital. Esta visita es la oportunidad para describir la belleza de su relación y las maneras en que se afronta la enfermedad.
- Mastín – La ferocidad de un animal es como una manifestación de los miedos de una mujer en una relación de pareja.
- Un libro de mártires – El tema del aborto y los movimientos antiabortistas está presente en este relato.
- El cazador – Retrato inmisericorde del depredador sexual en el ámbito académico. Este es un tema recurrente en varios relatos.
- Cosas que quedan atrás de camino al olvido – La odisea de una chica adoptada que nunca ha acabado de encajar en el seno de una familia rica.
- Los payasos – Un matrimonio ya mayor que vive su decadencia en una urbanización de lujo.
- Traición – La lucha de un hijo por realizarse profesionalmente frente a la incomprensión familiar.
- Mágico, sombrío, impenetrable – Este relato, que da título al libro, es una radiografía implacable del famoso poeta Robert Frost, en la que se desnuda al hombre machista y egocéntrico que está detrás de la imagen del genio.
- Parricidio – Como en el anterior relato, es una crítica de un gran escritor, Premio Nobel, visto desde la relación con su hija. Demoledor.
June 24, 2019
This is a collection of 13 short stories. They are haunting and fascinating... with flawed compelling characters. Joyce Carol Oats takes us into the minds and hearts of people navigating the unsettling transitions that life presents to us all. Ordinary people face challenging situations.
The first short story: “Sex with Camel”.... catches your attention with the title and the first sentence: “LOTS OF THINGS ARE OVERRATED. LIKE SUICIDE”.
It’s a bittersweet story about a teenage boy and his grandmother. The boy loves his grandmother- and tries to keep the jokes coming and moral high.
His grandmother has cancer.
While at the hospital, patients often sneaked outside with their IV poles to smoke. It was against hospital rules as it was also common sense.
Conversation between cancer patients turned into laughter which turned into a coughing fits.
While laughing, one of the patients said....
“The good news is, they’re stopping chemo.. The bad news is, they’re stopping chemo”.
As for grandmother: her results will be in tomorrow morning.
This heartfelt tale - was an excellent story to begin with.
Next came “Mastiff”.
“Mastiff”....includes a day hike to Wild Cat Peak in the Berkeley Hills. It was an ambitious hike for a man and a woman. The man and a woman had been hiking for several hours. Its a funny, semi-erotic- terrifying tale....
Single people might consider forgetting a date-hike with somebody you barely know! 😉🚶🏻♀️
The visuals were outstanding!!
Some of these stories connect together - but not all. Mostly they are each very different ....totally varied in content and emotions.
Great overall collection: highly imaginative- disturbing & unsettling.
The title story...”Lovely, Dark, and Deep”...is a spellbinding story about an artist on the rise. I liked it. There has been controversy about this story ...having to do with the mention of poet, Robert Frost...as whether or not his name was used in vain. I didn’t think so.
Joyce Carol Oats sees things that waver just below the surface of life...
‘Lovely, Dark, Deep’....is filled with depth..
JCO’s greatness is subtle.
Her prose is impressive!
Life is unpredictable. Fragilies are explored!
A really strong exquisite book-of-short stories that feels like a novel.
The first short story: “Sex with Camel”.... catches your attention with the title and the first sentence: “LOTS OF THINGS ARE OVERRATED. LIKE SUICIDE”.
It’s a bittersweet story about a teenage boy and his grandmother. The boy loves his grandmother- and tries to keep the jokes coming and moral high.
His grandmother has cancer.
While at the hospital, patients often sneaked outside with their IV poles to smoke. It was against hospital rules as it was also common sense.
Conversation between cancer patients turned into laughter which turned into a coughing fits.
While laughing, one of the patients said....
“The good news is, they’re stopping chemo.. The bad news is, they’re stopping chemo”.
As for grandmother: her results will be in tomorrow morning.
This heartfelt tale - was an excellent story to begin with.
Next came “Mastiff”.
“Mastiff”....includes a day hike to Wild Cat Peak in the Berkeley Hills. It was an ambitious hike for a man and a woman. The man and a woman had been hiking for several hours. Its a funny, semi-erotic- terrifying tale....
Single people might consider forgetting a date-hike with somebody you barely know! 😉🚶🏻♀️
The visuals were outstanding!!
Some of these stories connect together - but not all. Mostly they are each very different ....totally varied in content and emotions.
Great overall collection: highly imaginative- disturbing & unsettling.
The title story...”Lovely, Dark, and Deep”...is a spellbinding story about an artist on the rise. I liked it. There has been controversy about this story ...having to do with the mention of poet, Robert Frost...as whether or not his name was used in vain. I didn’t think so.
Joyce Carol Oats sees things that waver just below the surface of life...
‘Lovely, Dark, Deep’....is filled with depth..
JCO’s greatness is subtle.
Her prose is impressive!
Life is unpredictable. Fragilies are explored!
A really strong exquisite book-of-short stories that feels like a novel.
November 17, 2014
There's something hypnotic in the way Joyce Carol Oates writes short stories. She somehow manages to lure you in by creating characters and putting them into situstions that you just can't turn away from. A woman with mixed feelings about a pending abortion and while having to face protestors on her way into the clinic...a young teenager driving his grandmother to the hospital for a "diagnostic procedure"...a boy, killed in an auto accident, yet able to see his parents and friends erecting a roadside shrine at the site where he was killed...such insight and imagination! Many of the stories end without full resolution and I believe this is part of JCO's style of writing...and isn't that more accurate and realistic, much like life, rather than wrapping each story up with a neat ending? Many readers may find this frustrating but I think it shows how powerful her writing is in that you don't want to let go of her characters.
I've read a half dozen of her novels and collections of short stories and am constantly in awe of her talent. She is an American treasure.
I've read a half dozen of her novels and collections of short stories and am constantly in awe of her talent. She is an American treasure.
July 18, 2018
To decide on a rating for this story collection, I totaled up the rating I gave each story, and divided that number by 13. I ended up with 4.46, or 4 stars if rounded. But this book is close to earning 5 stars.
My first experience with reading Joyce Carol Oates was my junior year in high school — my English class was assigned her classic story “Where are you going, where have you been?” and I have been intrigued by the author since, though it was not until very recently that I began to actively seek her work out.
This is a stellar collection. The stories hang together perfectly, often offering up common ideas and visuals; it is obvious much care was put into the order in which these tales appear. They aren’t thrown together at random.
For me, there’s only one dud in the bunch — that being “Things Passed on the Way To Oblivion”. And I probably would have liked it more had it not followed so many stellar literary treats. My favorite is certainly “A Book of Martyrs” — it details the experience of a young woman getting an abortion, and the impact it has on her romantic relationship.
What Oates excels at is writing people, and writing with brutal honesty. Though this is not a horror collection, it works on the nerves the same way a good horror collection should: the stories explore the black depths of the human condition, and what is found is often broken, beyond repair.
For someone looking to check out the short fiction of Joyce Carol Oates and isn’t sure where to start (she has something like forty collections to her name), this is as good a place as any. Highly recommended!
My first experience with reading Joyce Carol Oates was my junior year in high school — my English class was assigned her classic story “Where are you going, where have you been?” and I have been intrigued by the author since, though it was not until very recently that I began to actively seek her work out.
This is a stellar collection. The stories hang together perfectly, often offering up common ideas and visuals; it is obvious much care was put into the order in which these tales appear. They aren’t thrown together at random.
For me, there’s only one dud in the bunch — that being “Things Passed on the Way To Oblivion”. And I probably would have liked it more had it not followed so many stellar literary treats. My favorite is certainly “A Book of Martyrs” — it details the experience of a young woman getting an abortion, and the impact it has on her romantic relationship.
What Oates excels at is writing people, and writing with brutal honesty. Though this is not a horror collection, it works on the nerves the same way a good horror collection should: the stories explore the black depths of the human condition, and what is found is often broken, beyond repair.
For someone looking to check out the short fiction of Joyce Carol Oates and isn’t sure where to start (she has something like forty collections to her name), this is as good a place as any. Highly recommended!
October 12, 2021
I am still not a JCO fan. There were a handful of stories here, but they are all so dismal and stark. The writing can be occasionally good, but I think the atmosphere could do with a little humor and less sarcasm. I dunno, I just cannot get into the vibe which she tries to bring across and find her protagonists hopelessly flawed and lacking in charisma each time.
January 29, 2015
I have to admit the writing was beautiful and haunting...but I didn't get it. the short look into the lives of strangers, no endings, weird endings, endings that appear to mean something...but don't. like the story about the woman who left to las Vegas. why? for what? there was no point. so ambiguous.
July 10, 2022
“Unfamiliar places could be more dangerous than familiar places, unexpectedly. The boy had been discovering that an unfamiliar place was more easily “haunted” than a familiar place simply because there was less there to distract the memory.”
This was my return to Joyce Carol Oates after nearly a decade. I had entirely forgotten how compelling JCO's writing can be. This was not the best return for me but I still enjoyed it enough to not have a break of another decade before reading another Oates.
These short stories are all psychological studies of unhealthy power dynamics in relationships. Each story is an unnerving look into some of the vilest, most pathetic characters that you would hate to love, love to hate. These are ordinary, flawed people thrown into tense situations. In my favourites out of this collection, the atmosphere building is so flawless along with their in-depth look into characters spiraling out, minds looping in a toxic cycle, that I felt suffocated and paranoid, out of control right alongside the characters.
Having said that, quite a few of these stories seem to meld into each other. There are only so many stories one can read about delicate, fragile, blonde young/middle-aged women obsessing about undeserving handsome, gruff, older men who are the embodiments of the word a**h*** (excuse me). At some point, they started to lose any meaning for me, especially with bland characterizations.
The ones that are good are so good though that they make me feel so excited to return to JCO.
This was my return to Joyce Carol Oates after nearly a decade. I had entirely forgotten how compelling JCO's writing can be. This was not the best return for me but I still enjoyed it enough to not have a break of another decade before reading another Oates.
These short stories are all psychological studies of unhealthy power dynamics in relationships. Each story is an unnerving look into some of the vilest, most pathetic characters that you would hate to love, love to hate. These are ordinary, flawed people thrown into tense situations. In my favourites out of this collection, the atmosphere building is so flawless along with their in-depth look into characters spiraling out, minds looping in a toxic cycle, that I felt suffocated and paranoid, out of control right alongside the characters.
Having said that, quite a few of these stories seem to meld into each other. There are only so many stories one can read about delicate, fragile, blonde young/middle-aged women obsessing about undeserving handsome, gruff, older men who are the embodiments of the word a**h*** (excuse me). At some point, they started to lose any meaning for me, especially with bland characterizations.
The ones that are good are so good though that they make me feel so excited to return to JCO.
September 21, 2014
I generally don't like books of short stories, but this one sounded fascinating, so I thought I'd give it a try. I made it through 1 1/2 short stories, but they were just so weird. I don't like the writer's writing style "the boy" and "the grandmother" got old. I thought it was just like that for the first story, but then the second story did the same thing. And there were a bunch of hidden secrets with the grandmother and the first hospital, and why they had outstayed their welcome, why they got nervous when the nurse recognized them. I kept reading to find out what that was all about, but then it just ended. And nothing happened and you learned nothing.
I started reading the second story, hoping it would be better, but I found it to be even worse. At least if you're going to write a short story, do it well. You can't have all open ends and fake beginnings that you don't plan on following through with.
I started reading the second story, hoping it would be better, but I found it to be even worse. At least if you're going to write a short story, do it well. You can't have all open ends and fake beginnings that you don't plan on following through with.
August 13, 2017
Buena colección para iniciarse con Joyce Carol Oates. Una mujer con un estilo directo, contundente, nada convencional; con un significado en su narración, en su plateamiento, que va más allá de las situaciones que te expone. Entiendo que escritoras como ella, o como Donna Tartt, no lleguen al interior de todos/as los/as lectores/as. O te cautiva su esencia, su fuerza, o no te llegan a convencer (incluso te aburren) sus historias porque piensas que "no pasa nada interesante o relevante".Yo pertenezco al primer grupo; al de las cautivadas. A mí me gusta leer a estas genias entre líneas, saborear y deleitarme con lo que realmente creo que me quieren contar, que me quieren transmitir; vivirlo. Así que preveo, con casi total acierto, que la Oates es una de las mías ♥ Seguiré su camino para comprobarlo 🤔🏞📖 Por cierto, es una firme candidata al Nobel 🎖Y eso me gusta 👌
October 20, 2014
One of my favorite collections by JCO. It has a much different tone. It's not haunting or sinister, at least not relatively. I also liked that these didn't have her usual calling cards (locations, color hair etc) there were a couple that had similarities but the end result was not the same. You always have to look a little deeper. The final story Patricide I thought would make a great novella.
June 11, 2016
Such thought provoking and very interesting stories. My favorite being one about a pretty young woman interviewing Robert Frost. Great story telling! I listened to this while driving and walking and the reader was outstanding! Very enjoyable, I highly recommend this book.
October 28, 2014
I can always count on JCO for nightmares - beautiful.
March 9, 2020
This collection is a weighty one, with twelve long stories and a novella called Patricide. It would probably be more appropriate to read this book with breaks – other books – in between the stories here. But that doesn’t work for me because I’m monogamous and commit to one book at a time, giving it my whole attention. That’s how I prefer to read. Anyway, the point is that the feeling of impatience to finish that seeped in at a certain point, has made me less enthusiastic than I’m sure I would have been under other circumstances. But this isn’t another anticlimactic experience, as was the case with Atwood, of finally coming to an author after circling her for years and then not bonding. Because I have bonded with Oates. She has vitality and range, she is interesting – intensely personal. These stories live in the dark places in her characters’ secret hearts, and she’s good at starting with and sustaining a highly tense atmosphere. The stories I liked best were great examples of what I love most about the art of the short story, and the stories I didn’t love demonstrated the well-known criticism I was aware of: her work is hit and miss, and of varying quality. The ones I didn’t love were like loose knots that needed tightening, running on flow, mood and style. But my first meeting with JCO is a success ultimately. I’ll be reading her again for sure – though I worry I’ll be turned off by that feeling of looseness or lack of solid ground, which will be harder to bear in a novel. We shall see!
March 21, 2015
The latest release from our most prolific writer is a collection of short stories. I didn't find much "lovely" in Joyce Carol Oates' Lovely, Dark, Deep, but there's certainly a lot of dark and deep phenomena. Since this is a long collection of stories, a synopsis of each one is impossible. Most of the tales concern upper-middle class angst, and in particular the university setting is explored. Though JCO grew up in a working class family in western New York, she moved into academia and has been at Princeton for years. She likes to write about devious college administrators and professors. Scientists are also featured. The story from which the title is taken is about Robert Frost, and it left me laughing. I don't want to give away why. The last work, Patricide, is long enough to qualify as a novella, or at least it seemed so. I didn't count the pages. It's about an arrogant famous novelist fond of using and abusing women.
April 2, 2019
Notable colección de relatos con profundas descripciones de sus protagonistas femeninas. Relatos nunca lineales ya que muchas veces abren el juego aumentando su riqueza narrativa sin nunca perder el control de los recursos desplegados. Coronados con una nouvelle (Parricidio) sobre un escritor famoso y su devota hija, con notas de un humor mordaz y donde la rivalidad y la sororidad pueden complementarse.
December 22, 2014
Why do I read JCO?
Because she sizes me up, gouges my heart out, fillets it, and chomps it down.
Because it is her heart, too.
This book damaged me. Watch out.
Because she sizes me up, gouges my heart out, fillets it, and chomps it down.
Because it is her heart, too.
This book damaged me. Watch out.
March 31, 2017
I'm not a short story person at all, but after reading this I think I might become one.
June 21, 2022
I am a long time JCO fan but this is the first of her books that I have read in a while. I had a shelf full of her printed books on my bookshelf and didn’t manage to get to all of them before I switched to Audible a few years ago. But it looks like I picked up a few JCO audible books since I see a few coming up on my list which I go through one by one in my anal compulsive way in the order in which I buy them. I am more than a year behind!
This is a book of mostly short stories with a couple that might be Novela length. I love short stories and JCO is among the best short story writers. It is interesting that most of the stories in this book involve two characters who interact with each other. The stories occasionally take you inside of people who are having experiences that might be familiar to you but that you have never experienced personally. The story of someone on chemotherapy and of someone going for an abortion are two prime examples of going into the process along with someone.
I love JCO for her weirdness and darkness and she is superlative in this book in both of those areas. Some people think she might overdo it but I am not one of those people! And the glory of short stories is that even if you occasionally find one that is definitely not your type, it is pretty quickly behind you. The Robert Frost story in this book is probably the one that left me with the most questions. Since he was a real person I couldn’t figure out if this story portraying him in a pretty negative way was fiction or non-fiction. There was another story in the book about a clearly fictional famous author. But when a story includes a real person it does make you wonder.
This is a book of mostly short stories with a couple that might be Novela length. I love short stories and JCO is among the best short story writers. It is interesting that most of the stories in this book involve two characters who interact with each other. The stories occasionally take you inside of people who are having experiences that might be familiar to you but that you have never experienced personally. The story of someone on chemotherapy and of someone going for an abortion are two prime examples of going into the process along with someone.
I love JCO for her weirdness and darkness and she is superlative in this book in both of those areas. Some people think she might overdo it but I am not one of those people! And the glory of short stories is that even if you occasionally find one that is definitely not your type, it is pretty quickly behind you. The Robert Frost story in this book is probably the one that left me with the most questions. Since he was a real person I couldn’t figure out if this story portraying him in a pretty negative way was fiction or non-fiction. There was another story in the book about a clearly fictional famous author. But when a story includes a real person it does make you wonder.
June 21, 2020
Conocí a Joyce Carol Oates con "Infiel", desde entonces me gustó mucho su estilo y decidí leer este libro que en lo personal me ha gustado más. Los dos últimos relatos de este libro son maravillosos: "Mágico, sombrio e impenetrable" y "Parricidio". En el primero, la autora desnuda de forma elegante la discriminación sexual hacia la mujer, esa falta de respeto hacia la mujer disfrazada en paternalismo intelectual. La forma en que el relato se desarrolla es magistral. Luego termina el libro con "Parricidio" un relato en el que la autora pone de manifiesto su profundo conocimiento de la psicología humana. Oates se atreve a mostrarnos deseos oscuros en personajes cotidianos.
Además, me encantan sus personajes femeninos, cualquiera podría cuestionarlos porque hay fragilidad, hay emociones contenidas, hay dolor, hay debilidad, hay opresión en mujeres que se conectan con sus pensamientos más profundos, allí donde se han sentido cohibidas, minimizadas, utilizadas.
Además, me encantan sus personajes femeninos, cualquiera podría cuestionarlos porque hay fragilidad, hay emociones contenidas, hay dolor, hay debilidad, hay opresión en mujeres que se conectan con sus pensamientos más profundos, allí donde se han sentido cohibidas, minimizadas, utilizadas.
November 30, 2024
A fabulous collection, the highest five stars I can give, this was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer, and should have won. Capped by the magnificent novella, Patricide. Here are my rankings, fwiw:
Joyce Carol Oates, Lovely, Dark, Deep (2014)
(Finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer)
“Patricide” (Saul Bellow?) — novella [6++)
“Things Passed on the Way to Oblivion” [5++]
“A Book of Martyrs” [5+]
“The Hunter” [5+]
“Sex with Camel” [5+]
“Distance” [5+]
“Stephanos Is Dead” [5+]
“Lovely, Dark, Deep” (Robert Frost) [5+]
“The Disappearing” [4.5]
“Mastiff” [3.5]
“The Jesters” [3.5]
“Betrayal” [2]
“Forked River Roadside Shrine, South Jersey” [—]
Joyce Carol Oates, Lovely, Dark, Deep (2014)
(Finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer)
“Patricide” (Saul Bellow?) — novella [6++)
“Things Passed on the Way to Oblivion” [5++]
“A Book of Martyrs” [5+]
“The Hunter” [5+]
“Sex with Camel” [5+]
“Distance” [5+]
“Stephanos Is Dead” [5+]
“Lovely, Dark, Deep” (Robert Frost) [5+]
“The Disappearing” [4.5]
“Mastiff” [3.5]
“The Jesters” [3.5]
“Betrayal” [2]
“Forked River Roadside Shrine, South Jersey” [—]
July 22, 2024
Finally finished 😭😭😭 there were only 2 good stories in this book 😶🌫️
February 4, 2015
Excellent collection. The female characters are again portrayed as passive, masochistic women but this portrayal is done in just a way that makes me sympathize with the women and not necessarily want to scream at them for seeing themselves through the eyes of their male co-characters. The message is there, but it is not presented in a piteous way - the women are as much to blame for their situations as the men who surround them. (yet, the stories beg you to ask "why do they see themselves this way?" the answer to which is perhaps JCOs commentary on society)
My absolute favorite story was "The Jesters," which I immediately wanted to re-read. It was a gem of a story whose ending gave me goosebumps - not because it was frightening but because it made you rethink the entire story. This story, as well as "Forked River..." narrated by a teen who died in a car crash really were about reviewing our own lives and each had strong emotional impact.
"Stephanos is Dead", another favorite, was really quite humorous to me.
My absolute favorite story was "The Jesters," which I immediately wanted to re-read. It was a gem of a story whose ending gave me goosebumps - not because it was frightening but because it made you rethink the entire story. This story, as well as "Forked River..." narrated by a teen who died in a car crash really were about reviewing our own lives and each had strong emotional impact.
"Stephanos is Dead", another favorite, was really quite humorous to me.
October 9, 2014
Oates never fails me. Not my favorite of her collections as some stories feel sketchy and undeveloped. Still, I could very much relate to 13 stories focused mostly on women, many middle-aged and older, learning to live life after their youth has slipped away. As the title suggests, Oats captures the eerie darkness within us all.
September 25, 2014
Gorgeous and grueling. I've been a fan of Oates' short fiction since college, when I was fascinated by her portrayals of human ugliness, like horror without the trappings of the genre. In her older years her short fiction seems to have mellowed; a few of her stories of obsession and misunderstanding actually end on a somewhat hopeful note.
October 26, 2017
Una lectura muy extraña por decir lo menos. A veces pesada, a veces ágil pero siempre muy diferente. En cuestión de paginas pasabas del horror al drama y hasta un poco de comedia. Mis relatos favoritos fueron "A Book of Martyrs" porque fue muy interesante leer una perspectiva abiertamente pro-elección en un libro y “Lovely, Dark, Deep” por el final inesperado.
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October 8, 2014Lovely profound stories
I am not a short story reader but the characters were so rich, I drank up these stories like a nice glass of wine
I am not a short story reader but the characters were so rich, I drank up these stories like a nice glass of wine
October 28, 2014
Joyce Carol Oates satisfies my itch for not-so-happy endings.
January 20, 2021
I was sure I'd read something by Oates before - besides Wild Nights, which is a different beast entirely - but Goodreads says no and who am I to disagree. But oh well, whatever drove me to pick this up in the SH bookstore, I can only be grateful. I loved the ornate style, the kindness she shows her flawed characters, and the stories that sometimes don't "go somewhere" per se - all the while acknowledging these might be exactly the things someone else would hate. So approach with caution and with a heavy heart, 'cause this ain't cheerful. But it's pretty bloody good.
November 23, 2014
Don't expect to feel good at the end of any of these short stories and novella. You won't. They are tragic, emotional, and realistic examples of life and suffering. That's what makes them so frightening because you can see yourself (or a family member/friend) living through the subject matter of each story. Even the one about Robert Frost is no exception, since you could substitute any licentious older and powerful male into the story in place of the Frost character and relate to it. Wonderful writing and imagery.
August 4, 2017
If you like beautiful prose with very little plot, you'll appreciate the short stories of Joyce Carol Oates. I don't mean this to be insulting; Oates truly is a gifted writer, but her style of offering up vignettes rather than a complete problem-resolution tale does not appeal to all readers, as it did not appeal to me. If this style of story is not your cup of tea either, I would encourage you to experience Oates's writing through one of her novels.
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