DIS MEM BER and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense
Short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates
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DIS MEM BER and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense is a collection of Gothic genre short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates published in 2017 by The Mysterious Press.
First edition | |
| Author | Joyce Carol Oates |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Gothic |
| Publisher | The Mysterious Press |
| Publication date | 2017 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 256 |
| ISBN | 978-0802126528 |
The story "The Crawl Space" was the winner of the 2016 Bram Stoker Awards, Superior Achievement in Short Fiction, and nominated for the 2017 Edgar Awards, Best Short Story.[1]
Stories
Selected periodical or book of original publication are indicated.[2]
- "DIS MEM BER" (Boulevard, 2016)
- "The Crawl Space" (Ellery Queen, 2016)
- "Heartbreak" (Taking Aim, ed. Michael Cart HarperCollins 2015)
- "The Drowned Girl" (Boulevard, 2016)
- "The Situations" (Vice, 2016)
- "Great Blue Hero" (Black Feather: Bird Horror ed. Ellen Datlow, Pegasus Publications, 2017)
- Welcome to Friendly Skies! (Idaho Review, 2017)
Reception
Kirkus Reviews compares the stories favorably to those of 19th century Gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe:
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.[3]
Literary critic Eric K. Anderson in Bearing Witness praises the collection's skillful grafting of "psychological realism with genre writing."[4]
"[W]hat makes these intense stories so emotionally compelling is the economically precise way in which Oates portrays the fractured states of mind of her troubled protagonists."[5]
Anderson adds: "This collection dramatically teases out many ambiguities of human nature and confronts truth that refuses to remain hidden."[6]