Dis Mem Ber and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense - Hardcover

Oates, Joyce Carol

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802126529 ISBN 13: 9780802126528

Publisher: Black Cat, 2017

Synopsis

Joyce Carol Oates is renowned for her rare ability to "illuminate the mind's most disturbing corners" (Seattle Times). That genius is on full display in her new collection of seven feverishly unsettling works, DIS MEM BER and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense. In the title story, a precocious eleven-year-old named Jill is in thrall to an older male relative, the mysterious, attractive black sheep of the family. Without telling her parents Jill climbs into his sky-blue Chevy to be driven to an uncertain, and unforgettable, fate. In "The Drowned Girl," a university transfer student becomes increasingly obsessed with the drowning/murder of another female student, as her own sense of self begins to deteriorate. In "Great Blue Heron," a recent widow grieves inside the confines of her lakefront home and fantasizes about transforming into that great flying predator--unerring and pitiless in the hunt. And in the final story, "Welcome to Friendly Skies," a trusting group of bird-watchers is borne to a remote part of the globe, to a harrowing fate. At the heart of this meticulously crafted, deeply disquieting collection are girls and women confronting the danger around them, and the danger hidden inside their turbulent selves.

About this title

Review:

Praise for DIS MEM BER "Seven gothic tales that plumb the depths of women who, whatever their age, always seem to stand on the threshold of the heartbreaking tides of adolescence . . . Oates creates worlds and minds as overwrought and paranoid as anything a female Poe could imagine, then sprinkles her trademark exclamation points licentiously through the interior monologues to heighten the intimacy between ecstasy and madness."--Kirkus Reviews

"Unnerving . . . Oates' superbly creepy collection concludes with a surprise: a deliciously lacerating and nightmarish parody of airline safety instructions."--Booklist

"Oates, undeniably a master of the macabre, gets deep inside your soul and plants seeds of misery. This collection of stories could leave you afraid to be a child and terrified to grow up . . . Brilliantly crafted. Oates doesn't have one flabby sentence, not one superfluous character."--NJ.com

"Each of the seven narratives in master storyteller Joyce Carol Oates' collection, DIS MEM BER, takes readers on a disquieting trip through dark and paranoid minds. As the subtitle indicates, these are stories of mystery and suspense, and the psychological horror within does not disappoint."--Bookreporter

About the Author:

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of such national bestsellers as The Falls, Blonde, and We Were the Mulvaneys. Her other titles for the Mysterious Press include The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror, Jack of Spades, and The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, which won the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Short Horror Fiction. She is the recipient of the National Book Award for them and the 2010 President's Medal for the Humanities.

About this edition

• Publisher: Black Cat
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0802126529
• ISBN 13: 9780802126528
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256