Rating: 4/5
Review:
Another good collection
Dis Mem Ber is another good set of creepy and unsettling
stories from Joyce Carol Oates. The
seven stories gathered here were all published elsewhere in 2016 and form a
very good collection.
The stories feature some familiar Oates character types:
controlling and domineering husbands, damaged and traumatised young women, a
self-deluding student who may or may not have stumbled on something sinister
and so on. Each story, some told in the
first person and some in the third, portrays convincing characters whose story
becomes very involving, often with a growing sense of menace. This is done with a light touch and by
suggestion rather than explicit exposition and it is very skilful. I have to say that in a couple of the
stories, The Drowned Girl and The Situations, it was *so* inexplicit that I'm
still not quite sure what the overall point was – but I still found them
involving and well worth reading.
The final story is different in character; it's well done,
of course, but more satirical and darkly humorous in tone. It's a good piece but less suspenseful, so I
don't think it fits well in this collection.
Nonetheless, this is a very satisfying read overall by a fine
writer. Recommended.
(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)
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