Más bien 2.5.

Antes de escribir esta reseña me puse a revisar los cuentos que leí (porque, sinceramente, no lo terminé) y la verdad es que Oates tiene unas excelentes ideas para lo que podrían ser excelentes cuentos. Sin embargo, me parece que la mayoría de estos textos son demasiado largos para su bien, o incluso tienen un par de pasajes que llegan a estar hasta mal escritos.

Me gusta la unidad temática de algunos cuentos: la perspectiva feminista y los problemas de la mujer, comulgo con muchas de sus ideas políticas. Incluso algunos cuentos me impresionaron, aunque siempre hubo algún detalle que me quitó el buen sabor de boca. Pero definitivamente Oates necesita escribir menos y necesita un buen (implacable) editor que le diga cuándo es que un cuento tiene que antologarse, cuándo necesita recortarse y cuándo tirarse a la basura. ( )

Short stories so read only 2/3. We’ll written

Joyce Carol Oates's short stories are unsettling and often have a creepy feel to them. Her newest collection is unsettling, but less creepy than usual. Here, she takes ordinary people and shows them undergoing ordinary ordeals; a retired couple are annoyed by the loud neighbors behind them, a wife discovers that her husband has gotten rid of his bicycle, a young woman goes with her cousin to get a small tattoo. It's in Oates' hands, that these events become menacing and portentous, with the characters unable to change the patterns of a lifetime.

The opening story, Sex with Camel, was my favorite and was the kindest of the stories. In it, a seventeen year old boy accompanies his grandmother to the hospital where she is to undergo some testing. The boy is a typical teenager, with his smart phone and his sly attempts to be a little shocking. His grandmother is also typical, over-dressed for a medical procedure and determined to be casual about their reason for being there. But what shines through is the real affection they hold for one another, despite the years between them.

There are a few stories that return to Oates's favorite themes of women with Daddy-issues and of women living in the shadow of a famous male relative, but here she is allowing her protagonists a bit of rebellion and independence, even if the men haven't altered their expectations. I'm not sure what I think of the title story, however, as it took as its target a real person. I've enjoyed stories that have done that (for example, Lydia Millet's Love in Infant Monkeys), but this story felt mean-spirited, despite footnotes indicating that the story was closely based on a real encounter. The final and longest story, Patricide, was the strongest in a strong collection.

I've become a big fan of Oates's short stories and this collection is an excellent example of what a master at the top of her game can do. ( )

In this collection of short stories, JCO continues her recent theme of how long-term marriages fair in the face of death or dying. The stories are dark and haunting, most with abrupt endings that let the reader decide what happens next.

JCO is a master story teller who just keeps improving. ( )