New York, NY HarperCollins: Ecco , 2005. Hardcover First Ed; First Printing indicated. First Ed; First Printing indicated. Fine in Fine DJ: Book shows binding square and secure; text clean. DJ unclipped; mylar-protected. As New. NOT a Remainder. NOT a Book-Club Edition. NOT an Ex-Library copy. 8vo. 370pp. Hardback with DJ. So illuminating, personable, and prevalent is Oates' literary criticism, a reader might know and value her strictly as a clarion and companionable critic. She seems to have read everything. Utterly at home in literature, she writes naturally about books with vigor and pleasure.

Synopsis

Uncensored: Views & (Re)views is Joyce Carol Oates's most candid gathering of prose pieces since (Woman) Writer: Occasions & Opportunities. Her ninth book of nonfiction, it brings together thirty-eight diverse and provocative pieces from the New York Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, and the New York Times Book Review.Oates states in her preface, "In the essay or review, the dynamic of storytelling is hidden but not absent," and indeed, the voice of these "conversations" echoes the voice of her fiction in its dramatic directness, ethical perspective, and willingness to engage the reader in making critical judgments. Under the heading "Not a Nice Person," such controversial figures as Sylvia Plath, Patricia Highsmith, and Muriel Spark are considered without sentimentality or hyperbole; under "Our Contemporaries, Ourselves," such diversely talented figures as William Trevor, E. L. Doctorow, Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Connelly, Alice Sebold, Mary Karr, Anne Tyler, and Ann Patchett are examined. In sections of "homages" and "revisits," Oates writes with enthusiasm and clarity of such cultural icons as Emily Bronte, Ernest Hemingway, Carson McCullers, Robert Lowell, Balthus, and Muhammad Ali ("The Greatest"); after a lapse of decades, she (re)considers the first film version of Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Americana, Don DeLillo's first novel, as well as the morality of selling private letters and the nostalgic significance of making a pilgrimage to Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond.Through these balanced and illuminating essays we see Oates at the top of her form, engaged with forebears and contemporaries, providing clues to her own creative process: "For prose is a kind of music: music creates 'mood.' What is argued on the surface may be but ripples rising from a deeper, subtextual urgency."

Reviews

(Log in or Create an Account first!)

Details

Bookseller: Black Cat Hill Books (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 38476
Title: Uncensored: Views & (Re)views.
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First Ed; First Printing indicated.
ISBN 10: 0060775564
ISBN 13: 9780060775568
Publisher: HarperCollins: Ecco ,
Place of Publication: New York, NY
Date Published: 2005.
Bookseller catalogs: Lit Criticism and Theory; Essays; Prose & Criticism; Literature; Prose; Belles Lettres;

Terms of Sale

Black Cat Hill Books

Default shipping charges provided at the time of sale will hold unless the actual cost of shipping is significantly more - or less -t han the default shipping charge quoted. In such cases we will contact you with alternative charges; we will arrive at these charges by the following method: actual United States Postal Service (or UPS) shipping charges + $2.00 handling charge. We guarantee the accuracy of our descriptions and the quality of our packaging. Books we ship may be returned for any reason. If you are not satisfied, notify us via email, and return the book. If we are satisfied that we have provided an inaccurate description, we will refund your return shipping charges, at USPS Media Mail rates. All prices are net to all. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance in expediting your order. Thanks from the folks on Black Cat Hill.

About the Seller

Black Cat Hill Books

This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

Biblio member since 2004

Oregon City, Oregon

Ask Seller a Question

About Black Cat Hill Books

Black Cat Hill Books is an Internet-only bookseller.

Glossary
Frequently asked questions

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Remainder: Book(s) which are sold at a very deep discount to alleviate publisher overstock. Often, though not always, they have a remainder...