Joyce Carol Oates
HarperCollins
Otago Daily Times, July 17th 2010
In direct contrast to the modern-day fables of Once Upon a time in Aotearoa, the characters in Joyce Carol Oates’ new collection Dear Husband live lives of quiet desperation.
Trapped by past events, relationships, duty or love, people batter themselves against the walls of their lives likes moths against a lighted window. Oates writes with an intensity that draws the reader into her characters world, and she does not pull her punches. Real life is not a fairy-tale, and bad things happen, particularly within the claustrophobic confines of family. In ‘Vigilante’ and “Cutty Sark”, for example, the passions generated between mothers and their adolescent sons spills over into violence and self-destruction. Or in ‘Panic’, a man is unable to forgive his wife for choosing to save their infant daughter rather than protect him. Particularly disturbing are the title story (based on real events) and “The Heart Sutra” in which we watch helplessly as women contemplate infanticide. Although I am still haunted by them, I was so drawn into their world I could not put the book down.
On the other hand, Oates also possesses a quite wicked black humour. ‘Suicide by Fitness Centre’ was worth it for the title alone, whilst in ‘Dear Joyce Carol’, the author takes an ironic dig at both herself and at literary fandom in extremis.
I recommend Dear Husband to anybody who has ever wondered why people bother with short stories, as well as those who already appreciate the form. But be prepared. This collection is powerful, disturbing, and heartbreaking. You will be thinking about it long after you have put it down.
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