2001 - Joyce Carol Oates is a writing machine. Since her career began in the late 1950s, she has churned out more than 75 books of fiction, nonfiction, drama and poetry, not to mention countless magazine articles. One of the main criticisms directed at her is that she is, actually, too prolific. The sonin-law faces a moral dilemma, as he needs to decide if he should tell his wife of her parents' decision after swearing to keep the secret.
Every page vibrates with genuine emotion.
Its ending is one of the most startling you will encounter in fiction. And that is the main problem with the book. For every good, powerful, gripping tale, there is a so-so one. This discrepancy epitomizes the entire collection. Not just the stories themselves, but the prose is also wildly uneven.