Marriages and Infidelities

by Joyce Carol Oates

The complex relationship between love and betrayal is explored in these twenty-four short stories

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

497 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

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

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

*(I am only reading The Lady with the Pet Dog)
74 years later Joyce Carol Oates delivers the woman’s perspective of Anton Chekov’s Lady with Lapdog

I can at least appreciate JCO for recognizing the value of telling the other side of this story.
The difference is that Anne feels guilt and shame for her infidelities, whereas the protagonist in the original, Dmitry, does not.

However, it all seems cliché and dated that the authors would assume a man would be proud of how many partners he could accumulate while a woman would suffer some emotional turmoil about doing the same thing.

Regardless of if the man is regarded as a player or the woman is considered a slut, it is their shared complicity that is unasinous. (Thanks to Expendable Mudge for word of the day)

I was hoping something horrible happened to both characters. Unfortunately, the story ended too quickly. May they both continue to live in their own little personal hells.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

24 short stories from one of America's greatest writers. More than one of these stories made me mutter, "brilliant" to myself. There were a few that lagged. None were bright sunny stories,as befits the title. Many were stories from the civil rights era and the failing/falling of the industrial Detroit area. While far from easy reading it was a rewarding and thought provoking read. It was very nearly a 5 star book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Lady with the Pet Dog."

You may read online here.

Opening lines:
Strangers parted as if to make way for him.
There he stood. He was there in the aisle, a few yards away, watching her.

[Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some excellent short stories in this, and a few that fell flat. An overall depressing tone, but well worth it.

[Timothy]

24 stories

(1/24 read#)

The Sacred Marriage
Puzzle
Love and Death
29 Inventions
Problems of Adjustment in Survivors of Natural/Unnatural Disasters
By the River
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
Stalking
Scenes of Passion and Despair
Plot
The Children
Happy Onion
Normal Love
# Stray Children
Wednesday’s Child
Loving, Losing, Loving a Man
Did You Ever Slip on Red Blood?
The Metamorphosis
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
The Lady with the Pet Dog
The Spiral
The Turn of the Screw
The Dead
Nightmusic

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty average Joyce Carol Oates, which for me will likely never go before four stars. Some of the prose and approaches here are a bit more experimental than I'm used to from her, which is okay. It wasn't an easy read because a lot of the stories seemed to have similar themes. However, she found enough variety to keep me engaged.

[Birdie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a wife and a boy, I should be thinking of them, but I can't fix my mind upon them ... people come together, do things together, and then they say goodbye. What do people have to do with each other anyway?

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few fascinating characters, but basically dated storylines & social commentary.

[Marlla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bohyně a jiné ženy - Odeon, 1988
ISBN: 01-075-88

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rollercoaster of quality. Some stories Oates commands with such gusto whilst others feel like drafts or exercises and could have been left out given the almost 500 page length of this collection.

[Erin]

"Nightmusic" and "Have You Ever Slipped on Red Blood"