Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque

Rating:
Summary: Notice the "Grotesque"
Review: But also notice: Joyce Carol Oates. It's disturbing. And, it's not for everyone. It's for open-minded readers, who seriously want to feel creeped out from every purposeful nuance of the tight, economic text of one of America's premier gothicists. If you want to feel your skin crawl, eyes half-blinded by a stagnant North American summer sun as your mind revels in the paranoid, sickly reality next door, then you'll like this.
Some of her greatest horror stories of the past decade are in this collection, most of which aren't easy to find elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing, yet lacking
Review: Each one of her stories starts out wonderfully. Expertly written prose, just enough suspense and mystery to keep me reading, just enough horror to make me love it. The only problem is, she has this habit of ending the story before the end. Many of these stories left me screaming, "SO! What happened? Did she or didn't she?" It's a horrible thing to do to a reader. You need to tie your loose ends, Ms. Oates!

Rating:
Summary: If you hate men, read this book
Review: Every story in this collection goes back to a woman hurt by a man and her reacting with violent retribution. I was sorely dissapointed.

Rating:
Summary: More Disturbed than Haunted
Review: Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque is a collection of horror fiction by critically acclaimed writer, Joyce Carol Oates. It is a book filled with sixteen unimaginative stories. And though it is considered a book of horror, the stories frighten the reader not with grotesque creatures as one would expect, but with a combination of real human horror, and the (collective unconscious) fears and vulnerabilities of the reader. In other words, Oates callously torments with psychologically ambitious images that leave the reader feeling, not entertained, but disturbed.
For some, the words disturbing and grotesque will mean an enjoyable read, and I would agree that she succeeds in doing what most writers attempt to do, leave lasting images of characters in the minds and sometimes the hearts of their readers. Although I am not a fan of any horror, I appreciate a good story, horror or otherwise, and there are a few good stories in this book. But, even though Oates deserves merit for her writing, her treatment of content and character in Haunted, is more of an awkward shortcut to horror fiction than her readers deserve.

Rating:
Summary: More Disturbed than Haunted
Review: Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque is a collection of horror fiction by critically acclaimed writer, Joyce Carol Oates. It is a book filled with sixteen unimaginative stories. And though it is considered a book of horror, the stories frighten the reader not with grotesque creatures as one would expect, but with a combination of real human horror, and the (collective unconscious) fears and vulnerabilities of the reader. In other words, Oates callously torments with psychologically ambitious images that leave the reader feeling, not entertained, but disturbed.
For some, the words disturbing and grotesque will mean an enjoyable read, and I would agree that she succeeds in doing what most writers attempt to do, leave lasting images of characters in the minds and sometimes the hearts of their readers. Although I am not a fan of any horror, I appreciate a good story, horror or otherwise, and there are a few good stories in this book. But, even though Oates deserves merit for her writing, her treatment of content and character in Haunted, is more of an awkward shortcut to horror fiction than her readers deserve.

Rating:
Summary: Tortured
Review: Haunted: Tales of The Grotesque
by Joyce Carol Oates

In Joyce Carol Oates' short story collection, Haunted: Tales of The Grotesque (Plume, 1995), torture is the theme. Not just torture for the characters who weave in and out of desire, love, shame and fear, but the reader, too, is pulled into Oates' spell. The story "Extenuating Circumstances," for example, bleeds with a mother's tale about murdering her two-year-old child and her reasons for doing so. Every sentence begins with "Because" and ends with a twisted explanation such as, "Mommy! - Mommy don't!"
Likewise, the story "Poor Bibi," another first person adventure, highlights Oates creativity as she blends passion with justified cruelty: "If he refused his food, or, indeed, gobbled it down in a way disgusting to see, and vomited it, in dribbles, through the house - are we to be blamed for relegating him more and more to the cellar..." Oates guides the reader with a storytelling voice that cannot be refused. The narrator in "Poor Bibi" (with a nonchalant attitude for morbidity) asks, "Were you ever awakened from a deep satisfying sleep to the sound of another's hoarse, strangulated breathing? It isn't a very pleasant experience, I can tell you!"
Oates uses irony in the story, "The White Cat" as she pits a pet against its owner, with detrimental consequences. The socialites Oates portrays in this story enjoy their circle of friends, yet jealousy provokes action. Wryly, Oates provides an ending that satisfies all. Again Oates uses a storytelling style ("Of course," "And then...") to keep the reader hunched close to the page, as if listening for any hint to the story's conclusion.
In both "Accursed Inhabitants of The House of Bly" and "Phase Change", Oates draws the reader into skewed realms of reality and time. Julia, whose dreams bring forth unpredictable circumstances in "Phase Change," is an assistant curator at a private art museum. "Unspeakable" events leave her asking on more than one occasion, "I am not here, then, am I? Or, if here - who?" The torture of "Accursed Inhabitants of The House of Bly" is witnessing the longing the characters have for one another. The longing between the Master's valet and the governess is heightened by the couple's yearning and protectiveness for Flora and Miles, the children in The House of Bly.
"The Premonition" places the element of trust against the backdrop of a family's bond. Whitney drops in unexpectedly to check on his brother's wife and daughters, his own trust in his brother's stability shattered. Whitney's sister-in-law and nieces are so happy to have him stop by for this unannounced holiday visit, with cheery greetings and their "high-pitched, gay, melodic laugh." Suspicion builds as family secrets are threaded into the plot and Whitney's inquires about his brother's whereabouts. Oates describes "an undercurrent of hysteria" as the story unfolds during Whitney's visit.
Even as the reader hopes various characters will spin around in their tracks and head the other way; each story teases until another page is turned. Vulnerability plays against curiosity in stories such as "The Doll," "The Bingo Master" and "The Model." And with Oates gift of story telling, each brings a bittersweet close that leaves the reader tortured enough to want more.

Rating:
Summary: Tortured
Review: Haunted: Tales of The Grotesque
by Joyce Carol Oates

In Joyce Carol Oates' short story collection, Haunted: Tales of The Grotesque (Plume, 1995), torture is the theme. Not just torture for the characters who weave in and out of desire, love, shame and fear, but the reader, too, is pulled into Oates' spell. The story "Extenuating Circumstances," for example, bleeds with a mother's tale about murdering her two-year-old child and her reasons for doing so. Every sentence begins with "Because" and ends with a twisted explanation such as, "Mommy! - Mommy don't!"
Likewise, the story "Poor Bibi," another first person adventure, highlights Oates creativity as she blends passion with justified cruelty: "If he refused his food, or, indeed, gobbled it down in a way disgusting to see, and vomited it, in dribbles, through the house - are we to be blamed for relegating him more and more to the cellar..." Oates guides the reader with a storytelling voice that cannot be refused. The narrator in "Poor Bibi" (with a nonchalant attitude for morbidity) asks, "Were you ever awakened from a deep satisfying sleep to the sound of another's hoarse, strangulated breathing? It isn't a very pleasant experience, I can tell you!"
Oates uses irony in the story, "The White Cat" as she pits a pet against its owner, with detrimental consequences. The socialites Oates portrays in this story enjoy their circle of friends, yet jealousy provokes action. Wryly, Oates provides an ending that satisfies all. Again Oates uses a storytelling style ("Of course," "And then...") to keep the reader hunched close to the page, as if listening for any hint to the story's conclusion.
In both "Accursed Inhabitants of The House of Bly" and "Phase Change", Oates draws the reader into skewed realms of reality and time. Julia, whose dreams bring forth unpredictable circumstances in "Phase Change," is an assistant curator at a private art museum. "Unspeakable" events leave her asking on more than one occasion, "I am not here, then, am I? Or, if here - who?" The torture of "Accursed Inhabitants of The House of Bly" is witnessing the longing the characters have for one another. The longing between the Master's valet and the governess is heightened by the couple's yearning and protectiveness for Flora and Miles, the children in The House of Bly.
"The Premonition" places the element of trust against the backdrop of a family's bond. Whitney drops in unexpectedly to check on his brother's wife and daughters, his own trust in his brother's stability shattered. Whitney's sister-in-law and nieces are so happy to have him stop by for this unannounced holiday visit, with cheery greetings and their "high-pitched, gay, melodic laugh." Suspicion builds as family secrets are threaded into the plot and Whitney's inquires about his brother's whereabouts. Oates describes "an undercurrent of hysteria" as the story unfolds during Whitney's visit.
Even as the reader hopes various characters will spin around in their tracks and head the other way; each story teases until another page is turned. Vulnerability plays against curiosity in stories such as "The Doll," "The Bingo Master" and "The Model." And with Oates gift of story telling, each brings a bittersweet close that leaves the reader tortured enough to want more.

Rating:
Summary: The Horror! The Horror!
Review: I like to read, and I like to write, and I like to write about what I read. But I don't read much "horror fiction," as Joyce Carol Oates describes the genre in the Afterword to _Haunted: Tales from the Grotesque_. And the words I find coming to mind as I search to describe this 1995 story collection are not so familiar to my usual literary lexicon. "Taut." "Terrifying." In fact, _Haunted: Taut and Terrifying Tales_ might be just as good a title. Just as honest, anyway.

In that Afterword, Oates argues that "One criterion for horror fiction is that we are compelled to read it swiftly, with a rising sense of dread, and so total a suspension of ordinary skepticism, we inhabit the material without question and virtually as its protagonist; we can see no way out except to go forward." These words, now, lend extra richness to the profound experience of reading Oates's famous and much-anthologized "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," which still fills me with horror--terror--each time I read it. They apply, too, to one of her more recent tales, in the 2001 O. Henry Prize Stories_: "The Girl With the Blackened Eye."

And, at the end of _Haunted_, they make you appreciate, even more, much of the experience you've just had.

Because in reading these stories, which you must do "swiftly," and which you'll do "with a rising sense of dread," you will, indeed, find "no way out except to go forward." You will have to forward, with the protagonists. Especially in the first two parts of the book. You will have to go forward with Melissa, in the title story. With Florence (Florence _Parr_). With Julius Muir (you, too, might want to murder that "White Cat"). With Sybil Blake, who will remind you of Connie, back in "Where Are You Going," and you will wish, desperately, that these girls could just stay out of those cars. Even in Part III, with the mysterious women of "Extenuating Circumstances" and "Don't You Trust Me"--you have to go forward with them, too.

And even if you can't always suspend disbelief (young Jocko really pushes the limit, and the characters in "Martyrdom" also go too far) you will still find it an amazing experience, reading this book. Taut. Terrifying. Don't miss it, if you can stand it. If you're willing to go forward.

Rating:
Summary: The Horror! The Horror!
Review: I like to read, and I like to write, and I like to write about what I read. But I don't read much "horror fiction," as Joyce Carol Oates describes the genre in the Afterword to _Haunted: Tales from the Grotesque_. And the words I find coming to mind as I search to describe this 1995 story collection are not so familiar to my usual literary lexicon. "Taut." "Terrifying." In fact, _Haunted: Taut and Terrifying Tales_ might be just as good a title. Just as honest, anyway.

In that Afterword, Oates argues that "One criterion for horror fiction is that we are compelled to read it swiftly, with a rising sense of dread, and so total a suspension of ordinary skepticism, we inhabit the material without question and virtually as its protagonist; we can see no way out except to go forward." These words, now, lend extra richness to the profound experience of reading Oates's famous and much-anthologized "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," which still fills me with horror--terror--each time I read it. They apply, too, to one of her more recent tales, in the 2001 O. Henry Prize Stories_: "The Girl With the Blackened Eye."

And, at the end of _Haunted_, they make you appreciate, even more, much of the experience you've just had.

Because in reading these stories, which you must do "swiftly," and which you'll do "with a rising sense of dread," you will, indeed, find "no way out except to go forward." You will have to forward, with the protagonists. Especially in the first two parts of the book. You will have to go forward with Melissa, in the title story. With Florence (Florence _Parr_). With Julius Muir (you, too, might want to murder that "White Cat"). With Sybil Blake, who will remind you of Connie, back in "Where Are You Going," and you will wish, desperately, that these girls could just stay out of those cars. Even in Part III, with the mysterious women of "Extenuating Circumstances" and "Don't You Trust Me"--you have to go forward with them, too.

And even if you can't always suspend disbelief (young Jocko really pushes the limit, and the characters in "Martyrdom" also go too far) you will still find it an amazing experience, reading this book. Taut. Terrifying. Don't miss it, if you can stand it. If you're willing to go forward.

Rating:
Summary: Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque
Review: In an average life, the dark and macabre are kept hidden, bottled up, controlled, but in each eerie story of Joyce Carol Oates' Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque, there is no such thing as an average life. There is a middle-aged woman, decades later still traumatized by the murder of her childhood friend; a young girl who learns the horrible truth about her parents; an unwed mother driven to an unthinkable act as she fills up the tub with scalding water; a parallel universe where a woman sees horrifying violence committed upon her; a conspicuous Christmas present given to a man by his missing brother's wife; and dolls who walk and function among the living.
In all of these stories, it is best not to become attached to any of the characters; some type of doom awaits them. These are not horror stories of the Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street nature where victim after victim meets a gory fate; these stories are about crossing over from the world we define as normal to the world of the perverse. In this world, it's an everyday occurrence for a 39-year-old virgin to decide to be deflowered by a bingo master; for abortions to be punishable by death; for a grocery store to go on with business as usual though the shelves are filled with stinking, rotting goods; for an American girl to be groomed from birth by her parents to be auctioned off in marriage to the highest bidder, a man who will treat her with terrifying cruelty. Rarely do any main characters in these stories die, but they are transferred into a never-ending nightmare from which they will never awake, from which death might even be a blessing.
In some of the stories, there is no definite explanation of what kind of dreadful scene the reader is witnessing, such as what the veterinarian finds so shocking about Poor Bibi that he refuses his owners any service, and whether or not Jocko, the grown man in a two-year-old's body exists, or is just a figment of his mother's imagination, but the hint of something even more grotesque than what has been described is chillingly appropriate, giving readers the opportunity to unleash their imaginations into realms as terrifying as they themselves will allow.