A wildly inventive new collection ofstories by Joyce Carol
Oates that chartsthe surprising ways in which the worldwe
think we know can unexpectedlyreveal its darker
contours
The New York Times has hailed Joyce
Carol Oates as "adangerous writer in the best sense of the
word, one whotakes risks almost obsessively with energy and
relish."Black Dahlia & White Rose, a collection
of eleven previouslyuncollected stories, showcases the keen
rewards ofOates's relentless brio and invention. In one
beautifullyhoned story after another, Oates explores the
menace thatlurks at the edges of and intrudes upon even the
seeminglysafest of lives—and maps with rare emotional acuity
thetransformational cost of such intrusions.
Unafraid
to venture into no-man's-lands both real andsurreal, Oates
takes readers deep into dangerous territory,from a
maximum-security prison—vividly delineatingthe heartbreaking
and unexpected atmosphere of such aninstitution—to the inner
landscapes of two beautiful andmysteriously doomed young
women in 1940s Los Angeles:Elizabeth Short, otherwise known
as the Black Dahlia,victim of a long-unsolved and
particularly brutal murder,and her roommate Norma Jeane
Baker, soon to becomeMarilyn Monroe. Whether exploring the
psychologicalcompulsion of the wife of a well-to-do
businessman whois ravished by, and elopes with, a lover who
is not what heseems or the uneasily duplicitous
relationships betweenyoung women and their parents, Black
Dahlia & White Roseexplores the compelling
intertwining of dread and desire,the psychic pull and trauma
of domestic life, and resonatesat every turn with Oates's
mordant humor and hertrenchant observation.
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