Eight stories from the author of A Book of American Martyrs that display her âmastery of imagery and stream of consciousnessâ (Kirkus Reviews).
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Joyce Carol Oates is an unparalleled investigator of human personality. In these eight stories, she deftly tests the bonds between damaged individualsâbrother and sister. teacher and student, two lonesome strangers on a subwayâin the beautiful, bracing prose that has become her signature.
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In the title story, a white, aspiring professor in Detroit tries to shake a black, male shadow during the summer of the cityâs 1967 race riots. In âThe Rescuer,â a promising graduate student detours to inner-city Trenton, New Jersey, to save her brother from a downward spiral, only to find herself entranced by his dangerous new world. Meanwhile, a young woman prowls the New York City subways in search of her perfect man in âLorelei.â In each of these short stories, Oates portrays a desperate confrontation with the demons inside us. Sometimes itâs the human who wins, and sometimes itâs the demon.
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âOates offers unexpected glimmers of redemption amid the grotesquerie, degradation, and exploitation that fill this collectionâs eight tales.â âPublishers Weekly
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