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Oates, Joyce Carol Uncensored: Views &
Ecco 2005 0060775564 / 9780060775568 Hardcover Fine Fine Hardcover
New. Fine in publisher's quarter bound boards in like dust jacket. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.The prolific, bestselling novelist Oates wears a critic's hat in this tastefully textured compilation of prose pieces. Guided by her overarching desire "to call attention solely to books and writers that merit such attention, and to avoid whenever possible reviewing books 'negatively' except in those instances in which the 'negative' is countered by an admiring consideration of earlier books by the same author," Oates has achieved a delicate critical balance-gracefully sidestepping the Dale Peck approach to reviewing while eschewing the temptation to dish pat, effusive praise. As a result, her essays, never grating nor bland, engage the reader with their refreshing honesty. She does not hesitate to expose the various contrivances of Patricia Highsmith, particularly as they pertain to the short story, for which, Oates suggests, Highsmith possessed "perhaps little natural skill." Similarly, Oates challenges Anita Brookner's solipsistic insistence that self-analysis "'is an art form in itself.'" Other highlights include her look at the "new memoir" of crisis as seen through Alice Sebold's Lucky, her take on the exhibition of essentially private writing (Sylvia Plath's journals, J.D. Salinger's letters to Joyce Maynard, etc.) and her questioning of the "restoration" of literary works, a process she explores vis-Ó-vis a scholarly re-release of Robert Penn Warren's classic, All the King's Men. Envisioned as "a conversation among equals," this collection covers the literary gamut-from spirited icons like Hemingway and Carson McCullers to quieter, more unassuming contemporaries such as Pat Barker, Ann Patchett and William Trevor-and even makes room for the occasional homage to a trailblazing athlete (Muhammad Ali), a film idol (Bela Lugosi) and an art world sensation (Balthus). Fortunately for readers, Oates does not spare herself either, turning that discerning dialogue inward to candidly discuss her own writing process. Copyright ® Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ... So illuminating, personable, and prevalent is Oates' literary criticism, a reader might know and value her strictly as a clarion and companionable critic. But, of course, the acuity of her critical perspective derives from her unparalleled experience as a versatile novelist, short story writer, playwright, and young adult and children's book author. And she seems to have read everything. Utterly at home in literature, she writes naturally about books with vigor and pleasure. In her latest collection of graceful and welcoming essays and reviews, Oates is as avid as ever. She presents substantial retrospective considerations of Hemingway, Emily Bronte, Carson McCullers, and Robert Penn Warren, and happily takes a magnifying glass to the mishmash of fact and interpretation found in memoirs in her energetic dissection of Mary Karr's racy contributions to the genre. Oates praises Kazuo Ishiguro and E. L. Doctorow, scrutinizes Anita Brookner, and, most proactively, reflects in depth on the state of the short story as she reviews a bounty of striking collections that argue mightily for the form's ongoing vitality. Donna Seaman Copyright ® American Library Association. All rights reserved
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2.51 GBP
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