About this item
Highlights
- "A poignant, nostalgic collection of literary criticism by one of America's premier authors.
- Author(s): Joyce Carol Oates
- 416 Pages
- Literary Collections, Essays
Description
About the Book
Acclaimed for her novels and short stories, Oates is also an unparalleled literary critic whose insights and commentary have appeared in such publications as the "The New York Times Book Review." This new collection brings together some of Oates's most brilliant and provocative commentaries.Book Synopsis
"A poignant, nostalgic collection of literary criticism by one of America's premier authors."
--Kirkus Reviews
In Rough Country is a sterling collection of essays, reviews, and criticism from Joyce Carol Oates that focuses on a wide array of books and writers--from Poe to Nabokov, from Flannery O'Connor to Phillip Roth. One of our foremost novelists, National Book Award and PEN/Malamud Award winner Oates demonstrates an unparalleled understanding and appreciation of great works of literature with In Rough Country, and offers unique and breathtaking insights into the writer's art.
From the Back Cover
In twenty-nine provocative essays, Joyce Carol Oates maps the "rough country" that is both the treacherous geographical and psychological terrain of the writers she so cogently analyzes--Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth, E. L. Doctorow, and Margaret Atwood, among others--and the emotional terrain of Oates's own life following the unexpected death of her husband, Raymond Smith, after forty-eight years of marriage.
"As literature is a traditional solace to the bereft, so writing about literature can be a solace, as it was to me when the effort of writing fiction seemed beyond me, as if belonging to another lifetime," Oates writes. "Reading and taking notes, especially late at night when I can't sleep, has been the solace, for me, that saying the Rosary or reading The Book of Common Prayer might be for another." The results of those meditations are the essays of In Rough Country--balanced and illuminating investigations that demonstrate an artist working at the top of her form.
Review Quotes
"Oates writes like a woman who walks into rough country and doesn't look back...long sentences unfold with great beauty, and [Oates's] line of argument follows not an artificial arc but the natural course of thought." -- New York Times Book Review
"Oates writes movingly in the preface about her dual identity in those months immediately after Smith's death--by day, a pitied widow, by night an avid reader. It's a fascinating chapter, poignant, intimate...this collection is a rich gathering of insights from a mind consecrated to books--both as a writer, and as a reader." -- Salon
"A poignant, nostalgic collection of literary criticism by one of America's premier authors, gathered in the aftermath of her husband's recent death...a remarkably forthright and moving preface...the author effectively combines her highly tuned sensibilities, sharp research and concise, vivid prose...Always a teacher, Oates imbues each essay with a careful sifting of the evidence and consistently acute observations. A top-notch literary talent invites readers to find new inspiration in these works, and in her own." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Her essays, never grating nor bland, engage the reader with their refreshing honesty." -- Publishers Weekly
"Oates' knowing and voluptuously inquisitive journeys through books reveal glimpses of her private self and map her inspirations and feelings of "kinship" with other writers. Her latest collection of reviews and essays is the most poignant, open, and trusting to date...A relaxed yet erudite and exacting critic, she is nimble in her assessment of Nabokov and avidly forensic in her dissection of Salman Rushdie. Most captivating and poignant are Oates' personal essays, particularly her gracefully revealing portrait of Lockport, New York." -- Booklist