Customer Reviews

Dear Husband,: Stories

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

These fourteen short stories focus on family relationships that appear initially normal, but turn grim when a crisis occurs. Each tale is well written and insightful; with some shocking. For example "Dear Husband" is a letter from infanticide mom Andrea Yates explaining to her spouse she did God's work when she drowned their children. "Vigilante" focuses on a drug abuser son trying to kick the habit while helping his mom avenge his father. Though some aspects of the theme has been used often by Ms. Oates, all the entries are "Special" whether it stars an autistic child devastating the lives of her caretaker parents and her ignored younger sister or a juror attracted to a charismatic defendant in "Mistrial". Women forced to make difficult decisions that fail to go as planned in "Cutty Sark," and "Landfill," or meeting the boyfriend's family in "The Glazers,", are part of "Dear Joyce Carol Oates" entreating look at the dark side of the American family.

Harriet Klausner

It is truly thrilling for a short story lover to be aware of Joyce Carol Oates and her ability to write the perfect short story. Contained in this amazing collection is 14 of them. Most importantly, she propels the reader into a blissful state, lost completely in the characters, dialogue and world of her storylines. Many of these tales possess themes of leaving a family or family member.

The first story, "Panic," is both frightening and heart-rending. It starts with the simplest of opening lines: "He knows this fact: It was a school bus." You will be hooked by the end of the first paragraph and will find yourself reading faster and faster, devouring each sentence quickly while not missing a single word.

The most fascinating story is "A Princeton Idyll," which ironically was published originally in The Yale Review. Through letters to her grandparents' maid, a now-43-year-old woman attempts to discover truths about her grandfather and his association with great minds of our time, such as Albert Einstein. You will not be able to help but reminisce about aspects of your life and memories of pleasant times spent with your grandparents. However, there is an underlying, ominous theme here that gets under your skin. Oates's incredible ability to tantalize readers with foreshadowing is legend. Hidden agendas, tidbits of juicy gossip and hurt feelings pervade these letters as well.

Although some of these entries are painful, deliberate and caustic, we are treated to the rare humorous story, like "Dear Joyce Carol." I won't give away the character description, but I will "leak" the scenario. Oates visits Boise, Idaho, on a book tour recently. A man who is unable to attend her talk writes to her through her publisher. All he wants is for her to autograph the picture that he cut out of the newspaper. He assumes that she will want to get to know him and his amazing life story, resulting in a novel --- and then a screenplay --- about his life. "We are Strangers across a thousand miles, and more, & how anxious I am, to hear from you."... "Hoping to hear from you very soon, your Special Friend." We learn more about him in each letter, as he becomes more anxious about receiving a response and that coveted autograph. This darkly humorous story is reminiscent of the writings of Stephen King.

The reader sees, somewhat quickly, that although someone might still be with another family member, they indeed have left them, or have been absent spiritually or emotionally. It can be a husband and wife, a mother and son, a father and daughter, or a sibling. The reader searches for a link and finds it, but not easily in some cases. In each and every case, though, it is certainly worth the hunt. DEAR HUSBAND is an extremely satisfying read.

--- Reviewed by Marge Fletcher

I liked many of JCO's novels, especially Them, Wonderland, You Must Remember This and We Were the Mulvaneys. I found Middle Age unreadable and Firefox an interesting failure. But the short story form is quite different and in many ways, more difficult to pull off than a novel. Most of these stories explore the dark side of the American family. We are treated to intimate looks at many dysfunctional families. The title story is enough to send chills down any reader's spine. The story, Magda Maria, put me off not because it is depressing, but because there is not one truly interesting character about whom we care. While many of the stories are on target, some are merely clever, lacking any substance, such as Dear Joyce Carol and Suicide by Fitness Center. Cutty Sark was never believable to me. Also, JCO is capable of some of the worst sentences I've seen in print: "His penis was a fleshy stub resembling one of those deep-sea worms that unfolds and contracts: unfolds to a startling length and glowers with phosphorescence , or contracts ignominiously into a tight little knot, swallowing itself up to elude predators." And then there is this: "I balanced my whiskey glass between my flat-sloping breasts and listened to Abigail speak in wayward feverish lunges like a marathon runner who has overexerted herself yet can't stop running, must continue panting and gasping for air until the collapse is complete." Yet it is this story (The Blind Man's Sighted Daughters) that cries out to be expanded into a novel (in my opinion). I kept thinking of John Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his daughters. I was also put off my JCO's excessive use of quotation marks for emphasis. Despite these concerns, many of the stories are powerful and hard to forget.

In A Princeton Idyll, a middle-aged woman writes to her former nanny to glean more information about her dead grandfather. This story demonstrates the truth of the adage, be careful what you wish for, you may get it. Mistrial seemed to me to be obvious and predictable until the very delicious twist at the end.

The world that JCO depicts in these stories is one peopled by depressed and suicidal women and mostly insensitive men. The collection is uneven and is strictly for her fans. I keep thinking about Dorothy saying "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." We're certainly not in Plesantville.

Joyce Carol Oates is the rare author who is as successful with short stories as she is with lengthy novels. All of these beautifully crafted explorations of families in crisis could easily be expanded into the longer form, but there is a finality to each that isn't usually found in short stories. Since they address specific moments of distress, there is a natural climax and ending in each. Which leads to the fact that they are better read individually, the time broken up with lighter material, since Oates in her traditional manner gravites toward the dark side of human experience.

My husband says there is "another woman" in our household: JCO. We are always discussing her latest oeuvre...and the author (fondly) whom we consider a member of the family at this point. As a writer and avid reader I have decided that I need only read JCO for my daily literary all-in-one requirement. Yesterday, for example, I took the short story "Mistrial" three times: with breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had read all the stories through, but "Mistrial" is my absolute fave. I ADORE stories about librarians with a jones for psychopaths, especially when the librarians are borderline crazy themselves. What was especially cute about this story was that I had the feeling that JCO was describing a sort of crazy side of herself. That's what I mean about us "living" with JCO. Though each novel and story is unique and about some of the strangest people on the literary planet, we feel that, through her writing, we have gotten to know JCO intimately. Don't try to dodge the autobiographical question, dear author. We know it's you in there. Love, US.

In most cases these stories a dark and often dreadful in their stark portrayal of the underbelly of human nature. They are not easy stories to stomach. Though sometimes difficult to read, Oates does display moments of pitch perfect awareness. I was grateful for Suicide by Fitness Center, of all the stories, this one was humorous enough to balance out some of the more depraved ones. I wish there had been a few more with the same tone. Also, I loved her portrayal of the quintessestial "fitness club" core group which incidentally never varies no matter what gym you walk into. Ok so maybe I won't be rushing to read any more of her works anytime soon but I will say that she is a thought provoking author and one who definitely illicts strong emotions in her readers. I found myself actually hating the mother in Landfill and instead of sympathizing with her horrible plight, found myself utterly disgusted by her. Yes, I do believe that in many cases Oates was overeaching and overplaying her characters to make her point. In some instances however, I believe her characters were at least borderline psychotic. If you are looking for lighthearted with happy endings, this is definitely not the book for you. If you are the type who likes to cut through the carefully constructed facades people construct for themselves and perhaps feel a little better about yourself or at least not so bad, give it a turn.

This author has an uncanny ability to render with authenticity and verve the internal dialogue, the motives, and patterns of behavior of a wide range of individuals. The stories, rather dark admittedly and associated with the netherworld of modern family life, had a feel of actuality, as if whatever what was the imaginative component of the stories could play against a backdrop of reality. The veracity of the stories, of the people motives, of the themes that contemporary humans play out day to day, seemed remarkable. These are events that seem to occur frequently, though in the confusing buzz of daily life one does not see them so neatly described or progressing to their obvious conclusion. The prose is also very good and the stories went quickly. Some seem at first a bit sensational, but yet there is no internal voice, at least in this reader, saying "people don't really act this way," or no voice saying, "this doesn't happen this way." I am not sure how one person, this author, registers and stores such a bestiary of different human types in her mind, or manages to recreate them or their voices so accurately but the effect was entertaining, and this book is the most engaging contemporary fiction I have read for a while.

No one gets into the dark heart of families like Joyce Carol Oates. In story after story, she writes in startlingly original prose about the entanglements we cannot escape because they are part of our DNA. What makes her so effective is her taking the voice of one family member and showing how that person tries to escape, or conform to, idiosyncratic family norms. She shows how painful and predetermined close family relationships are, and she never sentimentalizes. A story like "The Blind Man's Sighted Daughters" feels so real you forget you are reading. In "Special," we feel the pain, pluck and unwavering determination of 9-year-old Aimee, who is perhaps the character based most closely on Oates herself. Landfill shows us unwavering mother love at its most heartbreakingly tragic. JCO is, if not our greatest writer, our most phenomenal. She can turn her attention to anything and make it come alive in a way that feels like she has not written about it, just observed it and let us in on what she sees. Dear Husband is as good as anything she has written, and that is very good indeed.

This is the first short story collection I've read by Joyce Carol Oates. She is a master story-teller. Her stories are dark, but very clever. I can't say I enjoyed reading these tales, but I'll gladly read more of her works.

Oates has never written a story or novel that I did not love.
She has a way of describing a character's innermost self that is rivaled only by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
I cannot recommend her novels and stories highly enough.