Heat and Other Stories (Contemporary Fiction, Plume) [Mass Market Paperback]

Joyce Carol Oates (Author)

Book Description

Series: Contemporary Fiction, Plume | Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A new collection of twenty-five short stories from one of America's preeminent literary figures once again reveals the darkness, the violence, and the raw emotion lurking below the surfaces of everyday life. Reprint. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Devoted fans and newcomers alike will find it hard to read just one of the 25 compelling stories in Oates's newest collection. In the title story, a chilling tale of repressed sexuality, Oates grips the reader with her masterful interplay of dread, dominance, and youth. The story begins after the bold, impetuous Kunkle twins are found behind the icehouse, raped and murdered. The iceman's son, Roger, can't explain the blood on his overalls because he doesn't remember a thing. The young narrator isn't exactly sure what happened to Rhea and Rhoda before they died, but the reader knows. Less is left to the imagination when adult voices tell tales of love, desire, and despair. Oates combines stories of voyeuristic clarity with those that obscure truth to reveal the emotional forces at war in the human heart. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/91.
- Janet Wilson Reit, Univ. of Vermont Lib., Burlington
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Plume (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452266467
• ISBN-13: 978-0452266469
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #722,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oates is a master of the short story!, May 31, 1998

By 

itskevin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat and Other Stories (Contemporary Fiction, Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved this book. It's been years since I read it, but several of the stories have stuck with me. My favorite is called "Why Don't You Come Live with Me It's Time," about a woman's recollections of her grandmother. It's an absolutely bizarre story, almost like an LSD trip, but the narration, the urgency of the words, many of them italicized, and the far-out imagery convey a poweful sense of aching for the loss of what may have been this woman's most significant relationship. To be frank, I'm not sure I understood it completely (I'd have to add this caveat to my impressions of most of Oates' works), but I know I felt it. A great, great story, as are many others in this collection.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oates's best collection yet!, August 23, 2004

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Heat and Other Stories (Contemporary Fiction, Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

I can't get enough of Joyce Carol Oates's clever short-story collections. Having read I Am No One You Know and The Assignation, I couldn't wait to read more of her short stories. Heat and Other Stories is the best Oates collection I've read thus far. Her writing is dark and disturbing, yet possesses a beautiful prose that makes her tales unforgettable. "Heat," "Why Don't You Come Live with Me It's Time," "Twins," "Passion," "Naked," and "The Boyfriend" enthralled me the most. Each story has a special brand of darkness, magic and quirkiness that make them irresistible. They're thought provoking and unforgettable. I agree with the reviewer that compared Oates's writing with the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. She's brilliant! I look forward to reading more of Oates. I shall give one of her novels a whirl next time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heat Is An Apt Title, August 18, 2005

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heat and Other Stories (Contemporary Fiction, Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

In this 1991 collection of short stories, heat, both as a phenomenon of the weather and the metaphorical heat within the soul, is explored as a causative agent for human action. The title story has a woman, now old, telling of the brutal and inexplicable murder of her two best friends, red-headed eleven-year-old twin girls in the 1930's, on a blistering summer day, by a theretofore gentle retarded boy who worked at the local ice house. The twenty-four other tales in this collection prove equally gripping and contain an impact in ways longer prose, even epic novels, often do not. I read this anthology over the course of about a week, and spread the tales out so I was reading several in the course of each day. In my opinion this is not a good starting place for someone new to Oates' work, but it is beyond a doubt her best short story collection of the 1990's and one of her five best anthologies overall.