Heat and Other Stories (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)

Rating:
Summary: A well builder book
Review: Heat was the first Oates book that I had been read. The diferents points of views was able to build an credible story. The instincts forces whose live inside a very conservative society, explodes with a twins murder; this last is one of the motifs from the book principal short story: Heat. The atmospher of Heat is sexual and almost innocent. When I read this short story, had think in the Garcia Marques story: Cronica de una Muerte Anunciada. In both cases we could know who the murderer is. In the Oates work, the instinct is the cause; in the Garcia Marques, the cause is inside a cultural point of view. Both, Oates and Garcia Marquez, show us a richness of technic. (please, be patient with my English

Rating:
Summary: Oates is a master of the short story!
Review: I loved this book. It's been years since I read it, but several of the stories have stuck with me. My favorite is called "Why Don't You Come Live with Me It's Time," about a woman's recollections of her grandmother. It's an absolutely bizarre story, almost like an LSD trip, but the narration, the urgency of the words, many of them italicized, and the far-out imagery convey a poweful sense of aching for the loss of what may have been this woman's most significant relationship. To be frank, I'm not sure I understood it completely (I'd have to add this caveat to my impressions of most of Oates' works), but I know I felt it. A great, great story, as are many others in this collection.