A Widow's Story - Softcover

Oates, Professor Of Humanities Joyce Carol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062020501 ISBN 13: 9780062020505

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2012

Synopsis

Paperback. Pub Date :2012-02-07 Pages: 432 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins US Your one-stop financial guide Includes ten new tips to survive any economy Overhaul your investment portfolio to thrive in good times and bad Uncover the roots of your bad financial decisions Discover how much is enough for you Find peace of mind in any financial situation

About this title

Review:

"Affecting...perfectly pitched prose..."--Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Flourishes of black humor punctuate the drumbeat of grief, setting the book apart from works such as Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking."--Wall Street Journal

"As much a portrait of a unique marriage as a chronicle of grief...immensely moving..."--People

"Joyce Carol Oates's new memoir, A Widow's Story, is a naked confession about the messy relation of art to life...A Widow's Story, while about life after the death of a husband, is also about the intense inner life of a female genius..."--Elle

"Oates' raw emotion lifts the veil of the enormity of grief that most widows, and widowers, must feel at the loss of their partners in a way that will come as a shock to some and a relief to others."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Joyce Carol Oates writes like a force of nature, and a story emerges, as if organically, from the physicality of her grief. There are few secrets and no lies, only insights into the inner world of her partner of 50 years."--Financial Times

"Reads like a rending of garments..."--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Oates excellently conveys the disconnect between the inwardly chaotic self and the outwardly functioning person..."--New York Review of Books

"An affecting portrait of anguish."--The Economist

"Astonishing...revelatory...[A Widow's Story] is remarkable...for how candidly Oates explores the writer's secret life: the private world of her marriage, which...she asserts is far truer and more real, and of far greater importance, than any of her imaginary creations."--Book Forum

From the Back Cover:

Critics across the country have raved about Joyce Carol Oates's ground-breaking memoir A Widow's Story, lauding its blazing honesty and raw emotion, calling it "immensely moving," "searing," "enthralling," "brave," "slyly mordant," and "astonishingly candid."

On a February morning in 2008, Joyce Carol Oates drove her ailing husband, Raymond Smith, to the emergency room of the Princeton Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. In less than a week, Ray died from a hospital-acquired virulent infection--and Joyce was suddenly faced with the stunning reality of widowhood.

A Widow's Story illuminates one woman's struggle to comprehend a life absent of the partnership that had sustained and defined her for nearly half a century. As never before, Joyce Carol Oates shares the derangement of denial, the anguish of loss, the disorientation of the survivor amid a nightmare of "death duties," and the solace of friendship. Here is a frank acknowledgment of the widow's desperation--only gradually yielding to the recognition that "this is my life now."

Enlivened by the piercing vision, acute perception, and mordant humor that are the hallmarks of the work of Joyce Carol Oates, this moving tale of life and death, love and grief, offers a candid, never-before-glimpsed view of this acclaimed author and fiercely private woman.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0062020501
• ISBN 13: 9780062020505
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432