Joyce Carol Oates: Conversations [Paperback]

Greg Johnson (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Greg Johnson has published three previous books on Joyce Carol Oates, including Invisible Writer: A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates (Dutton, 1998), and is currently editing the forthcoming volume of Oates's journals, The Invisible Woman: Journals 1973-1982. He is also the author of two novels and four collections of short stories. He lives in Atlanta.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Ontario Review (November 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865381186
• ISBN-13: 978-0865381186
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,188,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Long-Awaited Updating, November 14, 2006

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joyce Carol Oates: Conversations (Paperback)

It had been years since anyone gathered Oates' recent interviews and discussions under one cover, and this collection is a good one. Drawing for its subject matter the texts of articles and conversations regarding (but mostly by) Oates, from such sources as The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, Playboy, and more than a dozen other publications, Johnson, Oates' second most ardent fan after me, has done a sound job as editor of this project. These discussions show Oates as a thoughtful individual, often puzzled by the state of human society, and it is easy to see from her words how her efforts to comprehend the goings-on in this life manifest so often in her books. Within "Conversations" one can learn of Oates's views on Marilyn Monroe, subject of her novel Blonde, her attitudes on race, religion, violence, politics, family, love, the supernatural, and contemporary and past America. Most of all anyone who reads this book will become better informed about Oates' masterful insights into the malleable craft of writing. At times it is desirable to know little about a writer and therefore to have a more filtered and directed experience in reading her or his material, and at other times it is not (such as Sylvia Plath, whose life story has been fried into her works to the point a neutral reading is an impossibility) but with an iconic figure such as Joyce Carol Oates, background knowledge can greatly enhance an appreciation of her nearly one-hundred published books. I really enjoyed Joyce Carol Oates: Conversations, and I'm very glad Mr. Johnson took the time to put this work out there. He has my appreciation.