Joyce Carol Oates is one of our most insightful observers of the human heart and mind, and, with her acute social consciousness, one of the most insistent and inspired witnesses of a shared American history.
Oates is perhaps best known for her prodigious output of novels and short stories, many of which have become contemporary classics. However, Oates has also always been a faithful writer of poetry. American Melancholy showcases some of her finest work of the last few decades.
Covering subjects big and small, and written in an immediate and engaging style, this collection touches on both the personal and political. Loss, love, and memory are investigated, along with the upheavals of our modern age, the reality of our current predicaments, and the ravages of poverty, racism, and social unrest. Oates skilfully writes characters ranging from a former doctor at a Chinese People's Liberation Army hospital to Little Albert, a six-month-old infant who took part in a famous study that revealed evidence of classical conditioning in human beings.
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This is the season when the husbands lie in their hemp-woven hammocks for the last time reading the Nation in waning autumn light IN HEMP-WOVEN HAMMOCKS READING THE NATION
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(@eccobooks, 9 February 2021, ebook, 118 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle, # popsugarreadingchallenge, a book that's published in 2021)
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This is JCO's first collection of poetry in over 20 years. I have been eagerly awaiting American Melancholy since I pre-ordered it last year. I love JCO's fiction but her poetry is incredible and her collections especially Tenderness are among my favourites. I had HUGE expectations for American Melancholy and thankfully they were all fulfilled. Each poem is an incredible piece of writing. The poems cover a wide range of subjects. Among the best are poems which explore famous or rather infamous psychology experiments including Little Albert and the Stanford Prison Experiment. I would have loved a poem about Pavlov's dogs but was left disappointed on that front. This was a joy to read.
