Joyce Carol Oates Touched Me!

Cafe Society
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I found out on Monday that Oates was going to be at a local bookstore, reading from her latest on Tuesday. Like a 12-year-old girl with an NSync ticket, I rushed into action.

I bought the new book, “I’ll Take You There.” Then I ran home and pulled everything of hers I own off the shelves. I had 16 of her books. Since “I’ll Take You There” is her 38th novel, and she’s also produced volumes of poetry, short stories, dramas, essay collections, etc. this figure is not too impressive.

I was giddy, picking out things I might be able to get her to sign. I felt like I had a sick crush or something. Little, insignificant ME in the room with a certified GENIUS. I knew I couldn’t get away with carrying in a stack of books and having her sign every one. So I picked three. And I tried to read as much of the new one as I could.

I was so excited, I could barely speak. I was literally flushed in her presence. As with every time I see photos of her or see her on tv, I was shocked at her frailty, her paleness, and the tiny form she made under her clothes. And shocked again when such an animated, lively, enormous personality came out of the little bitty person.

It was better than I’d imagined! I almost fainted! She was funny, she was insightful. She was oddly self-deprecating. She read from her book and explained what she was thinking when she wrote it, told a few jokes, and was just generally an amazing, compelling speaker. The joy!!!

I got in line after that to have my books signed and she TALKED to me! She asked me what I did for a living. I gushed that I was THRILLED to hear her speak. I swept my hand over a display of her works next to her and said, “I have all of these!” She giggled shyly. Then she TOUCHED me! She shook my hand.

I’ll never wash this hand again.

L

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You lucky thing.

Lloyd Alexander kissed me on the cheek. :smiley:

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I must say I never thought I’d see the words Joyce Carol Oates and Sexy Writer on the same line.

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So you got her to sign On Boxing but what were the other two?

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Now why on earth would you say THAT? I love JCO. She’s my hero. Is it because you don’t find her sexy? I dont’ get it.

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I got her to sign three…the current, “I’ll Take You There” which I’m finding is completely marvelous.

Also, “Expensive People,” And amazing work about a young boy taking up a gun and killing people a la Columbine. But written in 1968, which I find odd and premonatory. Also, my copy of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” which was made into a movie with Treat Williams and Laura Dern and is powerful and wonderful.

On Boxing…I don’t own it, but have read it. She talked about her passion for boxing at the reading. It’s really contrary to her character in some ways and very interesting. I know she’s met with and written about Mike Tyson. Fascinating. Sadly, that wasn’t someting I had available for her to sign.

I’ll have to do better next time!

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On Boxing is the only thing of hers I’ve read but you make the novels sound good, so off to the library for me.

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Yeah, I don’t want to sound like I’m a literary critic. So take my opinion with a grain of salt…it’s only MY opinion. But Oates has the most amazing insight into what makes people tick. She can write the simplest comments that sum up decades of destruction in somone’s life…the barest bones descriptions of the way a person approaches things and how that makes them destroy themselves.

If you don’t trust MY opinion, she’s won dozens of “O’Henry” awards for short fiction, been nominated numerous times for a Pulitzer, and won Booker awards up the wazoo. It is my (uneducated) opinion that she’ll easily win a Novel for literature in our lifetime. Her body of work is enormous and SO invades the human psyche that’s it’s impossible for it NOT to be recognized as genius.

“We Were the Mulvaneys” is great. “Zombie” and “Black Water” are SO simple to read that you end up wondering how you came away with such a complex notion of the protagonist’s character.

Be warned though…much of this stuff is very black (Zombie is from the point of view of a serial killer) so it’s not necesasrily for the faint of heart or for those who want a carefully wrapped up happy ending.

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Jeez…that was supposed to be “she’ll easily win a NOBEL for literature in my lifetime.”

Hey, I’ve been bar-hopping this evening. Cut me some slack. :slight_smile: