Amazon.com Review
The Collector of Hearts is an eerie, powerfully strange collection of classic Oates narratives. Few of the stories are blatantly horrific, although "Posthumous," with its subtle handling of a gruesome death, could give Stephen King's blood and gore a run for its money. Instead, Oates is a master of turning the everyday into the horrible, so that the stories are unsettling--grotesque because they seem familiar. The author skillfully creates believable characters, both sympathetic and despised, sometimes in as few as three or four pages. We feel for the victims of dysfunctional families, and we loathe the perpetrators of evil even as we cringe while relishing their demise.
Not every one of the stories in The Collector of Hearts is a masterpiece. Some are almost forgettable. However, enough of them are filled with Oates's signature understated dread to make them worth reading, and the occasional gems, such as "The Hand-puppet" and "The Affliction," make this collection worth owning. --Mara Friedman
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Although these 27 macabre stories will trigger familiar fears (of death, of the human potential for violence), they provide many surprising turns as they tour familial traumas and human isolation. In general, Oates's characters are hapless victims of fate. In "Death Mother," a woman recently released from a psychiatric ward attempts to reclaim her daughter, a college student who has never been able to escape her traumatic memories. In "The Hand-puppet," a ragged toy alters a child's voice and behavior hideously, to the terror of her unsuspecting mother. The most disturbing stories have a frightening sheen of plausibility; the occasional monsters and phantoms are far less convincing than the human beasts. Oates can inhabit many different voices and psyches, from the tormented Elvis worshipper of "Elvis Is Dead: Why Are You Alive?' to the homicidal teen of "The Sons of Angus McElster" or the omniscient invalid of "Intensive." These individuals' cosmic predicaments dictate the shape of each tale, related in Oates's characteristically breathless style. While some of the stories lack clear resolutions, Oates generally succeeds in conveying a truly ominous atmosphere and in chilling the reader's blood. Oates proves yet again that she is an equally intrepid navigator of reality as well as its negative image.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
