Conversations with Joyce Carol Oates

Stephen King has said his motto (something he jokingly said should be etched onto his tombstone) could be: "It is the tale, not he who tells it." I agree with him there and think more emphasis is placed on the creator of a literary work than maybe there ought to be. But still, one does become curious about a writer and the background that may or may not have gone into forming the individual who composed the tales that have contributed to that person's fame, infamy, or at least to his or her output. With a literary master such as Oates, it seems this compulsion to know more registers that much stronger. Here we have less a biographical piece on Joyce Carol Oates than Oates in her own words, telling of her works, her life, her world, her attitudes, as she feels them to be. Beginning at the tail-end of the left-leaning 1960's and concluding in the closing days of the Reagan era, this collection of interviews presents us with the ongoing evolution of a human being who has authored some of the strongest and most vivid literature in the canon of American writings. I found these conversations to be compelling reading, and would hope a sequel or updating of this book comes within this present decade.

This compilation of interviews and feature articles chronicles the maturation of one of America's most prolific writers. Starting in 1969 with an article first published in The New York Times Book Review and ending with a Q and A session in 1989, this volume is somewhat incomplete since Oates has now entered her later years, but it offers an excellent chronological look at how the author's views and literary sensibilities have evolved from before she won the National Book Award (for _them_) to the well-recognized writer of the late 1980s. Fans and scholars will find a wealth of material in these pages. The Jay Parini article gives a succinct but full idea of Joyce Carol Oates in her then-new Princeton house. John Alfred Avant's 1972 interview delves into those writers who inspired her. Princeton colleague Elaine Showalter offers a more personal description of the author, who is often portrayed as being aloof; it's hilarious to know that Showalter once convinced Oates to go shopping (an activity that Oates decidedly dislikes) at a discount clothing store where she picked up a red mohair coat. The book includes an interview about her fascination with boxing, about her poetry (a genre she's less known for, though accomplished in), and her feelings about writing genre fiction under pseudonyms. Aspiring writers, fans, and scholars will find much here to entertain and enlighten. In these pages, the skinny woman behind the owl glasses comes to life.