while i'm no longer an advocate reader with my busy schedule, i do like to read short stories or novellas from time to time. in fact, i think i tend to suffer from acute laziness when reading anything that doesn't pertain to my work or junk mail which are receive tons of all the time in my p.o. box. after years of reading a short story here or there, i'd never read a book of short stories all the way through and in such a short period of time. from the moment i picked this book up on the bargain rack in border's to the time i went to bed later that evening, i could not tear myself away from the book. believe or not, i actually stopped taking phone calls and i had no desire for any kind of noise in the background (or just the minimum noise) which is unusual because i love music, movies, and lotsa noise generally speaking. when i began reading oates, i couldn't bear the though of the least distraction. i wanted to be literally taken away into her world of destruction, despair, and the tortured sould which only ms. oates can give. in a world of little faith, we find so many people here losing their way and struggling to maintain balance and find hope. faithless tells the tales of the sins we commit against others and the sins commited against us both forgivable and unforgettable. here we stories steeped with violence, aggression, and confusion which we can all surely identify with in this day and time. whereas there are books that you can read one short story and skip the others, you will want to read every story here and then seek out other books this magnificent woman has written. of all the literary minds still living in the world today, jopyce carol oates has proved once again that she is tops and has never been anything less than the serious writer she aspired to be. recognized everywhere now by literature lovers and critics or even talk show hosts like oprah winfrey, it is impossible to avoid her name and so you might as well follow the phenomenon yourself and discover the urgency of her work. it is easy to understand now after reading faithless why ms. oates work has won so many accolades through the years and this volume of work is proof that she deserved them. i am now in the process of finishing up her collector of hearts but that's another story and another review. seek out faithless, my devout reading friends.

Another fantastic, moving, thought provoking book from the master.

Joyce Carol Oates is a marvelous writer, who does very well exploring the dark, seamy underside of life, and in Faithless, she remains faithful to her style. The characters in these stories have all been betrayed in one way or the other and deal with their betrayal in different, and sometimes really warped, ways. These stories are all strong, all engrossing and will please those just discovering Oates and those who have admired her all along.

It's popular in some circles to turn up noses at "romance" novels. If you're in one of those, don't turn up your nose at this one! In it Oates has captured the style of the 19th Century Gothic Romance novel down the the last crossed t and dotted i. It's also a beautifully researched picture of how women lived in the late-1800s, written in the language of the time -- or at least a very good simulation of it. 20th century feminism in 19th century guise.

It's about women's roles in society and the rules they lived by. A fast-moving tale full of imaginative twists -- there's a wedding night scene that's the funniest and the most surprising I've read.

The story begins with the introduction to a surly Cinderella-type with step sisters who definitely are not Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. It's September, 1879. All five girls are spoiled and privileged, living lives of ease in the white-columned splendor of Kiddemaster Hall, near the Bloodsmoor River in Pennsylvania.

The girls are relaxing in the gazebo after a grueling party. Deirdre (did they really name girls Deirdre in those days?), who is our Cinderella, becomes angry and stalks down the path to the river. Suddenly a giant black balloon dips from the sky and carries her away. The book describes the fates of the girls for the next 20 years in rich and lively prose.

Oates takes the romance novel and skewers it with social satire. Her volume of work is prodigious -- she has probably written more in a wider variety of style and genres than any other contemporary author. Whether romance, horror, science fiction, mainstream, mystery, short story collection, essays, criticism or poetry, her work excels. Joyce Carol Oates is the Renaissance Woman on the modern American literary scene and A BLOODSMOOR ROMANCE eclipses the genre.

This book provides about as much fun as you can ask for in a novel. Without being at all like him in style or story--this book reminds me of a Vonnegut romp: The dry wit; The ludicrous behavior of the characters; The lampooning of our society's absurdities, especially as they apply to attitudes toward and treatment of women. It keeps you smirking, smiling and from time-to-time breaking out in full belly laughs-and these are laughs that do not leave you for days-because there is plenty to think about along with the laughs. Oates has merged a variety of literary styles; the romance, the 19th century classic, the woman's novel, etc and she brews up a broadside that is beyond amusing: It is in fact social commentary and it is social commentary at it best. There is no preaching, nothing every gets too serious. But you would have to be as dumb as a rock to miss the points that are being made. For instance, there are some of the most amazingly funny sex scenes that you can imagine in this book--and while no one could read them and not howl--it is also mighty serious stuff that anyone's sexuality could be so distorted in the name of being proper. Oates employs the technique of a having a narrator who, in her capacity as being responsible for chronicling a family's history, tells the reader what proper folks ought to think about the goings-on--and exactly when and where we ought to be shocked and alarmed. Meanwhile, there is the story itself, which reveals as much lunacy about our culture as does the narrator. Plus there is the actual story, which is a kick, full of cameo appearances of famous people acting like themselves as if we were reading a historical biography. Stir it all up, adding heaping doses of tongue-in cheek and riotous activity, and you find the book is a regular page-turner. Get this book. Read it. You will be glad you did and you will be looking for copies to give to your best friends...the ones who understand the worth and power and the fun that can be had in a great novel. Thanks you Ms. Oates-what a job you did, what a gift you gave with this one!

I am actually rereading this book currently...it is so impressive; the kind of book i read while i burn candles and listen to gothic music. b/c i am a dork. but it is pretty thrilling and evocative and though Oates' vernacular gets a little heavy, sometimes, I keep thinking about what a great movie it would make, if it was in the right hands. And I don't see it so much as a parody, myself. I mean parts of it are definitely very ironic, but I think there's a lot more to it than that. Though I do read it and think about how, when I read Little Women and like books when I was younger, i wondered if sex wasn't some modern invention.

This is a collection of wonderful stories told by a master story teller in the old tradition. Unlike most other collections of stories these live in your ear. Most others live on the page. And these are truly American stories, but unlike anything you'll find in popular anthologies of contemporary North American short stories, because they reach far back into our immigrant consciousness in an elastic, unpretentious way. I choose Alistair MacLeod over John Updike any day to describe what it means to me to be American.

On the surface 'The Lost Salt Gift of Blood' appears preoccupied with tragedy and death. However, read a little deeper and one finds it to be very life affirming. The themes of family, traditions, relationships, death, isolation and endurance echo throughout the short stories. The thematic parallels are skillfully woven into the fabric of the novel, highlighting that indeed, no one story can stand alone. It is worth reading!

Written with great care, precision and meaning. You must read between the lines to get the most out of the book. Although all the stories revolve around death, grief, and pain, the focus on the life of the characters, rites of passage, and relationships is truly inspiring. I really enjoyed this book.

Joyce Carol Oates has really outdone herself with this collection. These stories are wonderful and are Oates at the top of her game. Each story is so well crafted and hauting, she gives you little slices of American life, each one revealing a different aspect of that life. She usually focuses on some seamliness, something dark, something sinister, but manages to keep the stories enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this collection. Oates fans will not be disappointed and for those who are not familiar with her work, it is the perfect introduction.

This is a superb collection from one of the greatest short-story writers. Stories like 'Handclasp' and 'Mark of Satan' are certainly on par with the best of Oates' more famous stories: 'In the region of Ice' or 'Heat'.

These stories remind us of what we all know but will not admit to. Sparing no one, Oates cuts to the bottom of every-day life and brings up the truth. Her prose is precisely calculated to make the reader fidget. In "The Revenge of the Foot, 1970", a woman, fascinated with an amputated foot some medical students are tossing about, steals it and deposits it into her lover's freezer knowing that his wife will find it. In "The Passion of Rydcie Mather", an introverted school bus driver decides to kill her passengers after coming to the conclusion that they deserve death . Oates gives no explanations and makes no excuses for her characters' behavior, instead relying on the conviction that they are emotions we have all felt (yet perhaps not acted on). The book is ended with the reader's solemn thought: "That could be me."

Lawrence Grobel is a brilliant entertainment interviewer. I have admired his work and by reading "Above the Line: Conversations about the movies", his work inspires me even more. As an entertainment writer, I've always wanted to conduct my interviews like Grobel's. One thing about Grobel's style is that he's smart, he's a man who does his research and although I have never met the man, his interviews are intelligent, informative and it leaves me complete. Where magazines tend to have the typical questions that are becoming so damn repetitive in many entertainment publications (and also to short), when you read this book you can tell by his conversations with people like Harrison Ford, Sharon Stone, Oliver Stone and more that they have a certain respect for this man. I can't wait to read the next book from Grobel (which I hope there is another one) and I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading entertainment interviews and to those who are interviewers as well. "Above the Line" is deserving of the five stars.

Lawrence Grobel has been writing the finest interviews with the world's famous for the past twenty years. Finally, a compilation of his best work has arrived. The thing that sets Grobel apart from most interviewers is research. He makes a consistent effort to never repeat the same old tired questions. This is apparent throughout this book. I highly recommend both the Robert Evans interview and the Oliver Stone, but they're all pretty great. Be sure to check out Grobel's work each month in Movieline and Palyboy magazines as well.

This book is my all-time favorite Oates book. I've read it years ago and find myself re-reading it from time to time. In this collection of short stories, Oates finds a way to drive home the utter despair of the human condition. "A Touch of the Flu" twisted my insides and gave me that sick feeling I get when I think about death. My favorite story is "In Traction"-- the hopelessness of the character A. is completely beyond help. Oates is absolutely the master of horror when it comes to daily life and she magically transfers those utterly private and personal feelings onto paper and exposes them grotesquely for the world to see. EXCELLENT!

The Assignation is filled with often startling and honest glimpses into the interesting moments of everyday life. Realistic to the point of being grotesque, this collection of stories is typical Oates--beautiful yet piercing. From a woman's yearly physical ("Pinch") to an ironic tour through a fallout shelter ("Shelter") Oates, as always, challenges her readers to think!

Goyen wrote a number of novels, but his true forte was the short story. Even his extended works have the feel of connected stories (something Goyen himself observed when he once called his works quilts, made of many patches).

HAD I A HUNDRED MOUTHS gathers his greatest early stories with stories written shortly before his death from leukemia in 1983. There are unforgettable tales here, mixtures of realism and fantasy,the gothic and the quotidian, that nearly make Goyen a twentieth century Hawthorne. Among the best of the later pieces are "Arthur Bond", a story of obsession, and "Precious Door," in which man struggles against nature and himself. "White Rooster" is perhaps the best known of his early stories, another tale of obsession, madness, and willfulness, and other gems from the same period include "Rhody's Path", in which Goyen's ubiquitous theme of restlessness and searching for one's place in the world is given poignant expression, and "The Grasshopper's Burden", which I read as an allegory of the misunderstood artist trying to make his way in an indifferent or even hostile world.

Goyen's themes are often dark, but he leavens the heaviness with humor and a masterful use of Southern/Southwestern vernacular.

Goyen toiled in near-obscurity for many years. His lyricism, humor, and insights into love and loneliness entitle him to wider recognition and readership.

This is a collection of stories that seem to seethe from the imagination of a writer of astounding power. Some are interwoven... some just reach out and ensnare you with their seductiveness. None are for the faint of heart. Joyce Carol Oates wrote a five-page introduction for this book - and even she could only scratch the surface of this East Texas spirit that shed its body in 1983. A MUST for every writer!

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.

Heat was the first Oates book that I had been read. The diferents points of views was able to build an credible story. The instincts forces whose live inside a very conservative society, explodes with a twins murder; this last is one of the motifs from the book principal short story: Heat. The atmospher of Heat is sexual and almost innocent. When I read this short story, had think in the Garcia Marques story: Cronica de una Muerte Anunciada. In both cases we could know who the murderer is. In the Oates work, the instinct is the cause; in the Garcia Marques, the cause is inside a cultural point of view. Both, Oates and Garcia Marquez, show us a richness of technic. (please, be patient with my English

Joyce Carol Oates dedicates her latest collection of short stories, 'Small Avalanches' to 'The Bad Girls.' Be it Ingrid in 'Man Crazy,' or Anellia in 'Ill Take you There,' Oates has always been fascinated, really infatuated with the outcasts, the fringe dwellers, the lonely hearts. More to the point, Oates enjoys writing female characters that struggle and fight against what society considers 'normal' behavior'whatever the heck normal means in the society of Oates' world and in the world in general. It is the tension of this ambiguity that Oates revels in.
'Small Avalanches' begins with the story, 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' which was the basis for the film 'Smooth Talk' starring Laura Dern as Connie and Treat Williams as Arnold Friend. Reading it again now, and even with the visuals of the film spinning around my head, I was struck by the smoldering sexuality of the story. Connie is 15 and she has one foot stuck in childhood and the other one, always ready to high-tail it to the highway roadhouses, in adulthood. Oates describes her: ''Everything about her as two sides to it, one for home and for anywhere that was not home: her walk, which could be childlike and bobbing, or languid enough to make someone thinking she was hearing music in here head'her laugh, which was cynical and drawling at home but high pitched and nervous anywhere else.'
Arnold Friend becomes Connie's 'friend,' stalker really. Arnold is older, handsome, drives a spiffy car and is definitely dangerous and what he offers Connie is a view of adulthood she cannot turn down: it's glamour and attraction cannot be ignored. The denouement finds Connie more experienced in the adult world that she craves but is not ready for. The inevitability of the situation is decidedly sensual yet undeniably moralistic: Connie's story is ultimately a cautionary tale. One in which a bad girl gets what she deserves or is asking for. But is she better for it?
Oates mines this particular subject matter again in the more up to date, computer savvy story 'Capricorn' also included in this collection.
The title story of this collection, 'Small Avalanches' is cruel but slight: a young girl Nancy, through the unaffected, natural conceit and innocence of youth avoids the advances of an older man: 'He looked so funny, bent over and clutching at his chest, pretending to have a heart attack or maybe having one, a little one, for all I knew. This will teach you a lesson, I thought.'
It is this youthful innocence and lack of foresight that also imbues 'Bad Girls' a story about three daughters who set out to investigate their mother's boyfriend: 'Nor did we set out to destroy our mother's man friend Isaak Drumm, exactly'(but we) confirmed the neighborhood's and our relatives' judgment of us, that we were bad. And not only bad in ourselves but the cause of somebody else being bad, too.'
Throughout 'Small Avalanches' we encounter writing of uncommon grace: 'Her eyes were like washed glass, her eyebrows and lashes were almost white, she had a snub nose and Slavic cheekbones and a mouth that could be sweet or twisty and smirky depending on her mood.' Or razor sharp writing that cuts to the heart of a matter: 'It's true, all you have heard of the vanity of the old. Believing ourselves young, still, behind our aged faces'mere children, and so very innocent!'
'Small Avalanches' was intended for the young people's market as was Oates' earlier 'Big Mouth and Ugly Girl.' But Oates' has not toned down her natural gift for revealing the underside and the emotional truth of her characters actions and words. Far from it, she pulls no punches in revealing her patented, twisted yet humanistic worldview. Be forewarned, though: a visit to Oatesiana will leave you a bit shocked and warm under the collar but startlingly as refreshed as having just stepped out of a cool shower on a hot day.

Small Avalanches is a collection of short stories previously published by Joyce Carol Oates whose thematic link is that each centers around the life of an adolescent or teenage girl. The focus on this age group is appropriate for this extremely talented writer who has written in an incredible range of styles and voices, but has often focused on the lives of young woman especially in her novels such as Man Crazy, Blonde and I'll Take You There to name just a few.
Oates has said in an interview with Diane Rehm in 2002:

"I feel probably quintessentially very adolescent... I guess it's just that age of romance and yearning and some scepticism, sometimes a little bit of cynicism."

The temperament of this age group that Oates so readily identifies with is something that the author is able to ingeniously capture in this series of tales. She shows in her female characters those intense feelings she marks as emblematic of this age group from a variety of perspectives.

Despite the close ages of all these girls there is a tremendous diversity of voice within the stories. They are sometimes vulnerable as the girls are primarily perceived or surprisingly self-aware which gives them the ability to manipulate their own situation. This occurs in some of the stories like Capricorn where a girl named Melanie meets a man on the internet who begins obsessively watching her play tennis and Small Avalanches where a girl walking home is followed by a suspicious looking man she nearly escapes. Some of the girls from these stories are timid, naive and orbit danger with curious innocence. In others, like Bad Girls where three close sisters invade the privacy of their mother's new boyfriend and The Model where a girl meets a man in the park who starts paying her large sums to pose for sketches, the girls are defensive to a militant degree. These diverse perspectives give a refreshing perspective when contemplating an age group so heavily stereotyped. Oates also uses multifarious structures to tell the girls' stories producing a wide range of possible meanings and giving a unique accent to their particular situations. Some take on a creepy gothic tone as in The Sky Blue Ball where a girl begins throwing a ball back and forth with a faceless participant over a wall and Haunted in which a mysterious violent woman appears to two curious girls who were searching a house they thought was empty. The most experimental structure Oates uses is in the story How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again where you read a girl's notes for a school paper that descend into an intense disjointed personal deliberation about her past and future. However, all the stories are incredibly accessible to read while still challenging the reader to think complexly about growing up and the nature of identity. Each gives a deep focus on the consciousness of these girls and presents in some way a close perspective of their point of view. The stories also examine the process in which these girls become self conscious about how they are viewed by the rest of the world. It is an extremely emotional, varied and pleasurable read.

I bought this book for a friend, and after she read it--I stole it for a few days. Very enjoyable. The religious symbols and allusions are amazingly disturbing, yet allows one to see how a child--perhaps even an adult--could be confused with religion and love, together. It's a definite must-read. It's first and second-person point of view play a role in the novel's eeriness. A dark, twisted, mind-boggling novel. Snakes, swamp, sexual abuse and how "easy" one can suppress bad memories--all written so beautiful it's disturbing, yet enjoyable.

This is a short book. You can read it in a single sitting. But I warn you--it will get you. It is a horrifying story. Oates is good at this stuff so beware--prepare yourself to ask: Why did I read that and put myself through such an experience? Real horror has little to do with monsters and everything to do with what resides in our own hearts and in the way our society molds us, and Ms. Oates knows how to make us squirm as she lays it all out.

Life is cruel. Loneliness adds to such cruelty, and makes one a victim of it. This is the story of the bewildered 11-year-old Josie whose life is shattered one summer, and in response becomes the victim of other lonely people.

"Fear is good, fear is normal. Fear will save your life." Oates begins her story with this warning on the first page, and ends with it just four paragraphs from the end. It is the story of a family that fell apart, and the harm that falls upon the innocent.

The background is that Josie's mother left her husband and moved to another state, where her mother was soon engrossed in a frantic hunt to escape loneliness. She forgot about Josie, alone and isolated and lonely in a new town with no friends, and with the healthy curiosity of a young girl. A 25-year-old divinity student slips into her life and offers the attention to fill her loneliness, yet he has his own bitter demons.

It is a story of sadism and domination, with Josie falling completely under the spell of the 25-year-old Jared. He strips all of her clothes off, inflicts cuts on her breasts, dominates and degrades her with taunts of "filthy little -- filthy, filth -- girl," ties her down with cloth strips to dominate her and leaves her "in terror, animal terror, beads of sweat breaking out like flame on your body."

She accepts such pain because Josie wants, "Love. Love. Love Jared, don't hurt me." Everyone wants to be wanted, and if this is the only "wanting" that Josie can find, she'll take it. Her mother is emotionally absent, she's bullied at her new school, and that is why Josie turns to any substitute who gives her the attention she craves.

Her mother finally defines the problem as her own inability to love anyone, ". . . . . . . I've been so unhappy, I've been so undefined. Every man I've ever wanted, when I have him I cease to want him -- it's a curse." Some people are like that. Give them love, and their own sense of inadequacy drives them to hurt others who offer the most.

Oates presents the story as a snapshot of life; no moral judgments, no great lessons, no redemption. It's simply a slice of life. Most stories have a "plot," but we don't think of finely crafted photographs as having "a plot." It's often said a picture is worth a thousand words; in this case, Oates turns a few thousand words in a powerful picture.

If you want answers for the cruelties of life, it's not here. If you enjoy a superb portrait of a gripping slice of life, this is a wonderful book.