Now aged 77, Joyce Carol Oates
still writes with the terrific – and terrifying vigour of a young woman flowing
in full spate.
Moreover, we must acknowledge
that even as the prize-winning US storyteller and journalist continues to
examine the same issues she’s scrutinised throughout her career, such topics have
become more important than ever.
Four of the six tales in her
latest short story collection are written in the first person and all look at
the features of modern society we most despise and fear. But the worst is merely
implied.
Is the ‘doll-master’ of the title
story a child abductor and murderer? Is the father figure in Big Momma an especially
grisly serial killer? May it be argued, as in Equatorial, that attempts to
eradicate an introduced sub-species on to the Galapagos are comparable to Nazi
eugenics? Certainly, reading passages in that tale are akin to looking into the
well at Israel’s Holocaust Museum Hall of Names.
But as Oates’s prodigious output
continues unabated, the reader must ask if she is beginning to repeat herself. Are The Doll-Master, Big Momma and Gun Accident: An
Investigation polished variations on the theme of her most noted
short story, Where Are You Going,
Where Have You Been? This is the piece that she dedicated to singer-song writer Bob Dylan and wrote
after first hearing It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. That was exactly a half-century ago. Is it
time to look at something else?
The Doll-Master and Other
Tales of Terror will be published by Grove Atlantic on
May 03 2016 @ $18.24 (£12.25; NIS 71.07 approx)
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