Sourland-Joyce Carol Oates

Sourland
Joyce Carol Oates
Ecco, Sep 14 2010, $25.99
ISBN: 9780061996528

Sourland is a super anthology that focuses on the down side of relationships with the typical Joyce Carol Oates’ themes of violence and loss leading to psychological traumas. This makes for a strong insightful collection with no losers. In "Pumpkin-Head", "Sourland," and “Probate” lonely susceptible widows having recently lost their protective mates and encounter an ugly new world order when males use them or the bureaucracy abuses them. In “Bonobo Momma”, Ms. Oates turns upside down her usual lethal male when a rapacious former model is the nasty player. In haunting “Daddy Lost”, mommy puts people to sleep at the medical clinic while daddy stays home after being downsized to watch over frightened little Tod. In “Honor Code”, she knows her life is before and after cousin Sonny or more descriptive before and after manslaughter. Though printed in a variety of magazines in similar form, with these sixteen short stories, Ms. Oates provides a profound look at the dark side of relationships with beasts feasting and “Beating” on the vulnerable.

Harriet Klausner