High Lonesome - by Joyce Carol Oates (Paperback)

About the Book

This unprecedented collection features the best of Oates's short fiction, plus nine new stories.

From the Back Cover

No other writer can match the impressive oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates. High Lonesome: New and Selected Stories 1966-2006 gathers short fiction from the acclaimed author's seminal collections and includes eleven new tales that further demonstrate the breathtaking artistry and striking originality of an incomparable talent who "has imbued the American short story with an edgy vitality and raw social surfaces" (Chicago Tribune).

Review Quotes

"[High Lonesome] further establishes the prolific and wide-ranging Oates as a gifted chronicler of American culture . . . with a sharp eye for psychological detail--everything conveyed in lucid, rhythmic prose. However much is made of her prodigious output, it's the consistent quality of the work that lifts Oates into the literary pantheon." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Oates is just a fearless writer...[with] her brave heart and her impossibly lush and dead-on imaginative powers." - Los Angeles Times
"If the phrase''woman of letter'' existed, Joyce Carol Oates would be, foremost in this country, entitled to it." - John Updike
"For Oates fans and readers who want an overview of her ability to create a snapshot in time, this is an excellent volume." - Library Journal
"Oates' daring oeuvre, immense in size, depth, and spirit, will stand as a pillar in American literature, and this collection of stories that Oates feels are her best is as significant as it is breathtaking." - Booklist
"The 1990s show her consistently at her best, working with the material of murder ("Heat") and rape ("The Knife") and teenage suicide ("Life After High School") and the difficulties of love and friendship among the middle class ("The Hair" and "Will You Always Love Me?"). As in all of her stories...she makes up our feeling about her characters by a dense infusion of details both physical and psychological." - San Francisco Chronicle
". . . this rich volume comes at the right time, late enough in the author's long career to stand as a sampling of her impressively varied wares. And, on balance and in retrospect, it succeeds in reminding us how far this indefatigable chronicler of all our lives has traveled, and how important it is that we keep on reading her." - Boston Globe
"This collection of stories that Oates feels are her best is as significant as it is breathtaking." - Booklist
"Illustrious author Joyce Carol Oates is back with a seminal collection spanning five decades...This anthology is a must-read." - Harper's Bazaar
"In the 662-page collection High Lonesome, Joyce Carol Oates culls 40 years worth of her short stories (and includes 10 new ones). Here, the wildly prolific author suggests five go-to works from her own oeuvre." - Entertainment Weekly
"A nice window on Oates' writing for those not familiar with her work, or a revisit for those who have read her novels but are not familiar with her shorter pieces." - Denver Post
"A rich compendium... A brief review can only suggest the wealth of fictional insight and aesthetic achievement in "High Lonesome," which may someday be viewed as the very best of Oates' nearly 100 published books." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"[High Lonesome] further establishes the prolific and wide-ranging Oates as a gifted chronicler of American culture. . . . However much is made of her prodigious output, it's the consistent quality of the work that lifts Oates into the literary pantheon." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A seminal collection. . . . A must-read." - Harper's Bazaar
"This big, lavish collection will do for Oates what similar volumes did for Katherine Anne Porter and John Cheever." - Houston Chronicle