Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque [Anglais] [Poche]

The central haunting of this collection of 16 tales is not anything so concrete as a building haunted by a ghost, but rather the interior haunting of a human being by their ever-shifting sense of self. As Joyce Carol Oates puts it (in a fascinating afterword on the nature and history of the grotesque), "The subjectivity that is the essence of the human is also the mystery that divides us irrevocably from others . . . all others are, in the deepest sense, strangers." These stories, while all dark, cover a range of styles and subjects. Some are vividly violent; several are subtle and/or ironic. The New York Times praised this collection for "pull[ing] off what this author does best: exploring the tricky juncture between tattered social fabric and shaky psyche, while serving up some choice macabre moments."

The prolific NBA-winning author presents 16 multifarious horror stories ranging from a reworking of James's The Turn of the Screw to macabre, contemporary thrillers.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the first rank of American writers comes this anthology of 16 short stories and a short essay on the literary lineage of horror fiction and the grotesque. The stories, written between 1980 and 1993, are reprints. Oates pays curious homage to James and Poe; retelling James's "The Turn of the Screw," she defuses the fright and makes the tale darkly comic. Likewise her "The White Cat" is more misadventure than horror with just a twist of Poe-like irony at the end. Some of these stories will disturb, some will require literary analysis to appreciate. Of special interest is her essay, which spans film, painting, and the theater seeking to identify the source of society's craving to be frightened. While all the tales are beautifully written, overall they are a departure from the genre and may leave horror enthusiasts disappointed. For literary collections rather than public library fiction collections.
- Robert C. Moore, DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. Information Svcs., Wilmington, Del .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

A master storyteller pays homage to the horror genre via a collection of superbly twisted tales. Oates, an author who has consistently displayed a decided penchant for the peculiar and the macabre in her mainstream fiction, gives free rein to the dark side of her imagination, producing 16 gruesome, titillating, and bizarre short stories. These spine-tingling, surrealistic yarns represent yet another aspect of Oates' unparalleled literary genius and remarkable versatility. Margaret Flanagan --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Surging intensity floods nearly every page of Oates's 18th hardcover collection (Where Is Here?, 1992, etc. etc.), these devoted to explorations of the grotesque. It's not as if Oates needs the fantastic to release her imagination: even in her calmer or more domestic outings she baits steel springs for snapping the reader's neckbones. Of the 16 tales here, only one is new (``Blind''), the others--nearly all quite recent--having appeared in well-heeled surroundings (Glamour, Omni, Playboy, Antioch Review, etc.). A collection such as this succeeds if it has even one masterpiece, and here there's at least one, perhaps two or three, while the rest run over with imaginative fury. Top honors go to ``The Premonition,'' in which the deepest horror remains unnamed but is hinted at in the brilliance of a bathtub just scrubbed of blood and gleaming from kitchen cleanser. Oates's variation on Henry James's ``Turn of the Screw'' is ``Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly,'' in which James's characters reappear incorporeally but are drenched with lust for the unachievable orgasm. In the title story, Oates brings an abandoned farm house to life as if she'd been fed all her life on hot tarpaper roofing and worn kitchen linoleum. ``The White Cat'' is a variation of Poe's ``The Black Cat,'' and the longish ``The Model'' of Robert Nathan's Portrait of Jennie, though that sentimental fantasy here turns into a murder/suicide. Least happy story is ``The Bingo Master,'' in which a spinster fails to get herself deflowered. Of the others, especially ``Thanksgiving,'' a grotesquerie on consumer America's Thanksgiving dinner, all rise to a level few living masters of the genre can equal as Oates's forefingers test the pulse on your throat or wander into your ears. Like swallowing live mice. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Revealing another side of the accomplished writer's unlimited imagination, sixteen tales of the grotesque include ""Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly,"" a reworking of The Turn of the Screw, and the chilling ""No Trespassing."" Reprint. NYT.