The Assignation: Stories

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, dark haunting short-story collection!
Review: Joyce Carol Oates has really outdone herself with this collection. These stories are wonderful and are Oates at the top of her game. Each story is so well crafted and haunting, she gives you little slices of American life, each one revealing a different aspect of that life. She usually focuses on some seemliness, something dark, something sinister, but manages to keep the stories enjoyable to read. The Assignation is a collection of explicit, racy stories that awaken your senses almost as much as your intellect. My favorite story is "In Traction." You can almost feel the main character's despair. The aforementioned story enthralled me like few short stories have done. I highly recommend this collection. Oates fans will not be disappointed and for those who are not familiar with her work, it is the perfect introduction.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Oates
Review: The Assignation is filled with often startling and honest glimpses into the interesting moments of everyday life. Realistic to the point of being grotesque, this collection of stories is typical Oates--beautiful yet piercing. From a woman's yearly physical ("Pinch") to an ironic tour through a fallout shelter ("Shelter") Oates, as always, challenges her readers to think!

Rating:
Summary: Assignation
Review: This book is my all-time favorite Oates book. I've read it years ago and find myself re-reading it from time to time. In this collection of short stories, Oates finds a way to drive home the utter despair of the human condition. "A Touch of the Flu" twisted my insides and gave me that sick feeling I get when I think about death. My favorite story is "In Traction"-- the hopelessness of the character A. is completely beyond help. Oates is absolutely the master of horror when it comes to daily life and she magically transfers those utterly private and personal feelings onto paper and exposes them grotesquely for the world to see. EXCELLENT!