What do you think?
Rate this book
The Museum of Dr. Moses: Tales of Mystery and Suspense
In "The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza" a woman’s world is upended when she learns the brutal truth about a family friend’s death—and what her father is capable of. Meanwhile, a businessman desperate to find his missing two-year-old grandson in "Suicide Watch" must determine whether the horrifying tale his junky son tells him about the boy’s whereabouts is a confession or a sick test. In "Valentine, July Heat Wave" a man prepares a gruesome surprise for the wife determined to leave him. And the children of a BTK-style serial killer struggle to decode the patterns behind their father’s seemingly random bad acts, as well as their own, in "Bad Habits."
In these and other stories, Joyce Carol Oates explores with bloodcurdling insight the ties that bind—or worse. The Museum of Dr. Moses is another chilling masterpiece from "one of the great artistic forces of our time" (The Nation).
In these and other stories, Joyce Carol Oates explores with bloodcurdling insight the ties that bind—or worse. The Museum of Dr. Moses is another chilling masterpiece from "one of the great artistic forces of our time" (The Nation).
229 pages, Hardcover
First published August 6, 2007
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates
828 books8,498 followersJoyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Prix Femina for The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. Pseudonyms ... Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
August 23, 2021
More morbid fun with jolly Joyce! A number of these stories depict the inner lives of various male serial killers, and while serial killing isn't always the topic, how a body and mind dies and how a personality disintegrates always is. These are less tales of mystery and suspense and more stories of how messed-up minds rationalize their toxic, murderous bullshit. As usual, the prose is superb.
The novellas in the book ("Roland Starza" and "Dr. Moses") are more straightforward tales, but the rest of this collection really showcases how much the author enjoys playing with perspective and structure. Oates' heavy themes certainly give her mainstream literary credibility - despite her well-established love of more disreputable subjects - but for me at least, she is a queen among writers because her morbidity is married to a nimble style that is often both a challenge and a pleasure to read. She deploys the second-person perspective twice, in "Valentine" to act as a scolding monologue from an estranged husband and in "Stripping" to reduce any barriers that would naturally come up between reader and loathsome teacher turned serial killer. The opening tale of a murdered jogger is one long sentence, one of my favorite devices. "Bad Habits" employs the plural first-person as the child protagonists worry about apples not falling far from trees. And in "The Twins" she eschews traditional storytelling altogether, with the reader unclear on who is alive or who dead, what has happened or not happened, and will this all happen again, if it has even happened in the first place.
💀☠💀
"Hi! Howya Doin!" - acerbic Prof. Oates gives a failing grade to husky male joggers who have the temerity to shout hearty greetings like testosterone is something to be proud of.
"Suicide Watch" - icy Dr. Oates provides a perhaps too clinical assessment of the relationship between complacently bourgeois father and possibly murderous loser son; diagnosis: terminal.
"The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza" - charitable Lady Oates feels quite at her ease when enjoying the company of the plebian set and their entertaining bloodsports, the scent of sweat and blood in the air, mob justice on the horizon.
"Valentine, July Heat Wave" - nosey Mrs. Oates next door warned those young people that to marry above your station, let alone your intellectual capacity, will probably result in separation, bitterness, and a corpse.
"Bad Habits" - dour Det. Oates investigates the mystery of how the brood of an infamous serial killer heard the news, absorbed the news, avoided the news, became the news, investigated the news themselves.
"Feral" - pragmatic Capt. Oates's decorated martial career has prepared her for the inevitability of children, and all such animals, becoming enemies to parents, and all humans.
"The Hunter" - learned Sayyidah Oates tells an instructive tale of a hunter of certain women, certain women this lover and killer deems weak, in the hopes that readers may understand toxic masculinity, inshallah.
"The Twins: A Mystery" - enigmatic Rabbi Oates is as fascinated by twinship as she is by doubling, severe parental control, and the constructing & deconstructing of narrative.
"Stripping" - empathetic Sister Oates understands that even psychopaths must freshen up both body and soul with a good scouring shower and monologue, post-kill.
"The Museum of Dr. Moses" - Joyce Carol Oates, Esq. puts forward the case of the very old man, the very masochistic wife, and the very suspicious collection of archaic surgical tools on display; a very quick verdict is reached, thanks to a very reactive daughter.
☠💀☠
This collection is a good overview of what the author is capable of stylistically. It certainly provides ample evidence that Oates is just as much a writer of horror as she is of anything else. Sadly, despite the impressive skills on display, the majority of these stories were rather less than satisfying - especially the cheap titular tale and the dull boxing story. Still, an enjoyable experience overall. I most appreciated the especially depressing "Hunter" which perfectly describes how seemingly disparate female victims of a serial killer can seem quite similar to each other in that killer's mind - one that cherishes the supposed fragility of women. Because misogyny. That said, I'd hesitate to consider JCO a feminist author, despite her bonafides as a genre-breaking iconoclast who is usually writing about how females can be victimized by males. There is a certain reductive essentialism about gender in her vision and an innate empathy with her destructive male predators that precludes feminism being a defining attribute. But nor is she a misogynist by any means. Her female characters, despite usually being the victim in any given story here, are always realistic, always sympathetically characterized. I think labels like "feminist" or even "literary author" in general just don't fit an author of Oates' range, complexity, and interest in not just exploring the worst aspects of humanity, but getting right in that muck. Despite her exalted status as a highly intellectual writer of rarified prose and rare prolificacy, the Hon. Joyce Carol Oates really likes to get down & dirty.
The novellas in the book ("Roland Starza" and "Dr. Moses") are more straightforward tales, but the rest of this collection really showcases how much the author enjoys playing with perspective and structure. Oates' heavy themes certainly give her mainstream literary credibility - despite her well-established love of more disreputable subjects - but for me at least, she is a queen among writers because her morbidity is married to a nimble style that is often both a challenge and a pleasure to read. She deploys the second-person perspective twice, in "Valentine" to act as a scolding monologue from an estranged husband and in "Stripping" to reduce any barriers that would naturally come up between reader and loathsome teacher turned serial killer. The opening tale of a murdered jogger is one long sentence, one of my favorite devices. "Bad Habits" employs the plural first-person as the child protagonists worry about apples not falling far from trees. And in "The Twins" she eschews traditional storytelling altogether, with the reader unclear on who is alive or who dead, what has happened or not happened, and will this all happen again, if it has even happened in the first place.
💀☠💀
"Hi! Howya Doin!" - acerbic Prof. Oates gives a failing grade to husky male joggers who have the temerity to shout hearty greetings like testosterone is something to be proud of.
"Suicide Watch" - icy Dr. Oates provides a perhaps too clinical assessment of the relationship between complacently bourgeois father and possibly murderous loser son; diagnosis: terminal.
"The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza" - charitable Lady Oates feels quite at her ease when enjoying the company of the plebian set and their entertaining bloodsports, the scent of sweat and blood in the air, mob justice on the horizon.
"Valentine, July Heat Wave" - nosey Mrs. Oates next door warned those young people that to marry above your station, let alone your intellectual capacity, will probably result in separation, bitterness, and a corpse.
"Bad Habits" - dour Det. Oates investigates the mystery of how the brood of an infamous serial killer heard the news, absorbed the news, avoided the news, became the news, investigated the news themselves.
"Feral" - pragmatic Capt. Oates's decorated martial career has prepared her for the inevitability of children, and all such animals, becoming enemies to parents, and all humans.
"The Hunter" - learned Sayyidah Oates tells an instructive tale of a hunter of certain women, certain women this lover and killer deems weak, in the hopes that readers may understand toxic masculinity, inshallah.
"The Twins: A Mystery" - enigmatic Rabbi Oates is as fascinated by twinship as she is by doubling, severe parental control, and the constructing & deconstructing of narrative.
"Stripping" - empathetic Sister Oates understands that even psychopaths must freshen up both body and soul with a good scouring shower and monologue, post-kill.
"The Museum of Dr. Moses" - Joyce Carol Oates, Esq. puts forward the case of the very old man, the very masochistic wife, and the very suspicious collection of archaic surgical tools on display; a very quick verdict is reached, thanks to a very reactive daughter.
☠💀☠
This collection is a good overview of what the author is capable of stylistically. It certainly provides ample evidence that Oates is just as much a writer of horror as she is of anything else. Sadly, despite the impressive skills on display, the majority of these stories were rather less than satisfying - especially the cheap titular tale and the dull boxing story. Still, an enjoyable experience overall. I most appreciated the especially depressing "Hunter" which perfectly describes how seemingly disparate female victims of a serial killer can seem quite similar to each other in that killer's mind - one that cherishes the supposed fragility of women. Because misogyny. That said, I'd hesitate to consider JCO a feminist author, despite her bonafides as a genre-breaking iconoclast who is usually writing about how females can be victimized by males. There is a certain reductive essentialism about gender in her vision and an innate empathy with her destructive male predators that precludes feminism being a defining attribute. But nor is she a misogynist by any means. Her female characters, despite usually being the victim in any given story here, are always realistic, always sympathetically characterized. I think labels like "feminist" or even "literary author" in general just don't fit an author of Oates' range, complexity, and interest in not just exploring the worst aspects of humanity, but getting right in that muck. Despite her exalted status as a highly intellectual writer of rarified prose and rare prolificacy, the Hon. Joyce Carol Oates really likes to get down & dirty.
June 20, 2009
Dear Ms Oates:
WHY DO YOU LIKE SERIAL KILLERS SO MUCH? You don't know me, but I've been aware of you for years. I knew that you were out there, amassing that massive oeuvre of yours. Racking up all that critical acclaim. I'd lose track of you for a few months and, next thing I knew, there you'd be yet again. Plastered across the New York Times book section. With three more books to your credit. The Jenna Jameson of the literary set.
It all just seemed a bit overwhelming to me. For years I was convinced that you were a syndicate, perhaps some combination of
ACE ACTOR SLOE JOY
ORACLE ACT JOE SOY
COLA JAY CREOSOTE
RACY CAT JOE LOOSE
JOCOSE TRACY ALOE
Anyway, last weekend I stumbled across this collection of “Tales of Mystery and Suspense” that you published in 2007. The price was right (marked down to $5.98). From the dustjacket it seems like this is the fifth such collection that you’ve written.
So, credit where credit is due, Ms Oates. You surely got some mad writing skilz. From a technical point of view, the ten stories in this collection are ridiculously impressive (OK, except for that 60-page boxing story which it’s a safe bet that nobody actually finished). That unreliable narrator in “Suicide Watch”, the creepy atmospherics of “The Museum of Dr. Moses” – brilliant execution, I gotta admit.
But you know what, Ms Oates? I wouldn’t recommend this collection to my worst enemy. These stories were uniformly ugly, brutal and twisted. They disturbed me, but only because I don’t understand what kind of author would feel the need to write so many of them (well, actually, I do – the same kind of author that is fascinated by the ritualized brutality of boxing). I mean, yeah, the first story where you put yourself so convincingly in the mind of the serial killer – sure, that’s impressive. But, over and over again – it has all the entertainment value of watching a 70-year old contorsionist shoot ping-pong balls out of her vagina. I mean, you're nearly 70 years old - and this is what you think is worth writing about? Serial Killers?
“Tales of Mystery and Suspense” is a serious misnomer. There’s no mystery at all about these stories, except perhaps why someone with a writing talent as incandescent as the author’s should use it to write stories that are essentially nothing more than snuff porn. Even Jenna J. wouldn’t stoop this low.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go take a very long shower.
Maybe you should consider going on a nice relaxing cruise, Ms Oates? Or helping out at your local senior center?
WHY DO YOU LIKE SERIAL KILLERS SO MUCH? You don't know me, but I've been aware of you for years. I knew that you were out there, amassing that massive oeuvre of yours. Racking up all that critical acclaim. I'd lose track of you for a few months and, next thing I knew, there you'd be yet again. Plastered across the New York Times book section. With three more books to your credit. The Jenna Jameson of the literary set.
It all just seemed a bit overwhelming to me. For years I was convinced that you were a syndicate, perhaps some combination of
ACE ACTOR SLOE JOY
ORACLE ACT JOE SOY
COLA JAY CREOSOTE
RACY CAT JOE LOOSE
JOCOSE TRACY ALOE
Anyway, last weekend I stumbled across this collection of “Tales of Mystery and Suspense” that you published in 2007. The price was right (marked down to $5.98). From the dustjacket it seems like this is the fifth such collection that you’ve written.
So, credit where credit is due, Ms Oates. You surely got some mad writing skilz. From a technical point of view, the ten stories in this collection are ridiculously impressive (OK, except for that 60-page boxing story which it’s a safe bet that nobody actually finished). That unreliable narrator in “Suicide Watch”, the creepy atmospherics of “The Museum of Dr. Moses” – brilliant execution, I gotta admit.
But you know what, Ms Oates? I wouldn’t recommend this collection to my worst enemy. These stories were uniformly ugly, brutal and twisted. They disturbed me, but only because I don’t understand what kind of author would feel the need to write so many of them (well, actually, I do – the same kind of author that is fascinated by the ritualized brutality of boxing). I mean, yeah, the first story where you put yourself so convincingly in the mind of the serial killer – sure, that’s impressive. But, over and over again – it has all the entertainment value of watching a 70-year old contorsionist shoot ping-pong balls out of her vagina. I mean, you're nearly 70 years old - and this is what you think is worth writing about? Serial Killers?
“Tales of Mystery and Suspense” is a serious misnomer. There’s no mystery at all about these stories, except perhaps why someone with a writing talent as incandescent as the author’s should use it to write stories that are essentially nothing more than snuff porn. Even Jenna J. wouldn’t stoop this low.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go take a very long shower.
Maybe you should consider going on a nice relaxing cruise, Ms Oates? Or helping out at your local senior center?
October 14, 2017
Most of the one and two star reviews for this book seem to be along the lines of 'it's too dark and messed up! what is wrong with this author!' while my feelings are more 'this was so mind-numbingly dull I could hardly keep my eyes focused enough to actually get through it'. I'm not sure what exactly that says about me, but I'm also one of those people that gets hungry watching Hannibal so I guess I already knew my gore-o-meter was a bit out of whack. Yes these stories are 'gruesome' but it's all done in such a contrived and tired way that you're expecting every 'horrible' twist so it just makes it boring.
Also the breakdown of stories are very uneven I feel. This is definitely not a 'horror anthology' so don't read it if that's what you want. The only stories that I would actually classify as horror are Feral and the title story, which were probably the best in the book but too predictable to be worth much. A few others could be described as mystery-thriller but for the most part I would just consider a lot of these to be contemporary fiction, which is my most hated genre. Also a lot of them don't feel like complete stories, like she just lost interest halfway through and ended it.
The following paragraph is going to contain 'spoilers' but like I said the stories are so cliched that it doesn't really matter that much.
We'll just start with the title story. Yeah it's gruesome but honestly the second the narrator is like 'my weak-willed mother married this older doctor they live in the middle of nowhere in his medical museum' you know exactly how it's going to go, there's nothing new here. The same goes for Feral. Oh my child drowned and he came back ~not the same~ and now he's weird and bites people. Oh the shock. I'm not sure what was supposed to be the point of The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza but it was the most boring boxing story I've ever read and if she was trying to keep us in suspense about whether Colum won or lost I think it's pretty clear that you don't win a fight and then kill yourself. The Valentine story was also pretty messed up I guess but when you've got a creepy ex husband talking about how he's luring his wife to his house because he has a present for her you KNOW he's either killed himself already or he's gonna kill her.
There's also this thing that female horror writers of the older generation do - well at least I've noticed it here and also w/ Shirley Jackson in We Have Always Lived in the Castle - where it's like every female character is small and cowering in the presence of male characters who are always expansive and over-powering and there's always the mention of 'the smell of male sweat' or something equally weird to me. And I get it in a way, because while the world is still not great for women, it is massively better than it was even for the last generation and I know these women are writing from their own experience and feelings with men and I'm honestly not trying to belittle what they must have been through but to me personally it just all seems a bit much. Like yeah if I'm alone in a parking lot at night and there's some huge guy across the way it's gonna make me nervous but not just like ...being in a room with my father or something. I don't know. It's just always something that makes me roll my eyes and I know that really that's me coming from a place of privilege but I still don't enjoy that style of writing and basically all these stories are like that.
Also the breakdown of stories are very uneven I feel. This is definitely not a 'horror anthology' so don't read it if that's what you want. The only stories that I would actually classify as horror are Feral and the title story, which were probably the best in the book but too predictable to be worth much. A few others could be described as mystery-thriller but for the most part I would just consider a lot of these to be contemporary fiction, which is my most hated genre. Also a lot of them don't feel like complete stories, like she just lost interest halfway through and ended it.
The following paragraph is going to contain 'spoilers' but like I said the stories are so cliched that it doesn't really matter that much.
We'll just start with the title story. Yeah it's gruesome but honestly the second the narrator is like 'my weak-willed mother married this older doctor they live in the middle of nowhere in his medical museum' you know exactly how it's going to go, there's nothing new here. The same goes for Feral. Oh my child drowned and he came back ~not the same~ and now he's weird and bites people. Oh the shock. I'm not sure what was supposed to be the point of The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza but it was the most boring boxing story I've ever read and if she was trying to keep us in suspense about whether Colum won or lost I think it's pretty clear that you don't win a fight and then kill yourself. The Valentine story was also pretty messed up I guess but when you've got a creepy ex husband talking about how he's luring his wife to his house because he has a present for her you KNOW he's either killed himself already or he's gonna kill her.
There's also this thing that female horror writers of the older generation do - well at least I've noticed it here and also w/ Shirley Jackson in We Have Always Lived in the Castle - where it's like every female character is small and cowering in the presence of male characters who are always expansive and over-powering and there's always the mention of 'the smell of male sweat' or something equally weird to me. And I get it in a way, because while the world is still not great for women, it is massively better than it was even for the last generation and I know these women are writing from their own experience and feelings with men and I'm honestly not trying to belittle what they must have been through but to me personally it just all seems a bit much. Like yeah if I'm alone in a parking lot at night and there's some huge guy across the way it's gonna make me nervous but not just like ...being in a room with my father or something. I don't know. It's just always something that makes me roll my eyes and I know that really that's me coming from a place of privilege but I still don't enjoy that style of writing and basically all these stories are like that.
July 2, 2011
This is another book I obtained through GR bookswap. I am randomly picking up some JCO books based on what is available. JCO has soooooo many books. Random seems to be as appropriate a methodology as any. I hope to read her biography soon to see if I can understand what makes her tick.
The Monster at the End of This Book Storyvision Edition was, I am sure, the template for the short stories by Joyce Carol Oates in The Museum of Dr Moses. Or maybe Stephen King was the ghostwriter for this book. You can count on a jack-in-the-box ending for each of the ten stories. They are gruesome versions of The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry.
I love short stories and the JCO’s offerings here range from 3 to 60 pages. A five pager leads off and is done with one lonely period at the end. In spite of that extremely long stream of consciousness sentence, you do have to pause occasionally to take a breath. There are some commas and exclamation marks to suggest places you might do that. The story does end with a bang.
The Museum of Dr Moses is one of JCO’s more recent books, published in 2008. It is suspense fiction. If you do not already know that, you find out pretty quickly.
One of the ways that a story appeals to the reader is when it strikes a familiar cord. The story “Feral” brings some of my feelings and experience to bear. This is about a six year old boy who has a life threatening experience and undergoes changes in his personality as a result. The changes and the description of those changes is Stephen King-ish. The parents imagine the impact of that experience on their young son based on their life with him. In my case, I have a young daughter adopted at the age of 3½ from China. Those years in China are, for us, an unknown period. What might the psychological effects be of being abandoned, living in an orphanage and foster home and having an untreated physical disability? How did those unknown years participate in creating the child we now know and love? We live with that unknown but without the bizarre events of the fiction story. As they say in fiction, “Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.”
In this small book we see gradual disclosure that often still leaves a surprise at the end. There is a good deal of real suspense on the first reading. I am not sure how it would be if you read it a second time, knowing the conclusion. Of course, there is enough Joyce Carol Oates out there so that you never need to read anything twice!
In a book of short stories you are not required to like (let alone understand) all the stories……Right? But if someone understands the three page story “Stripping,” please clue me in.
The Monster at the End of This Book Storyvision Edition was, I am sure, the template for the short stories by Joyce Carol Oates in The Museum of Dr Moses. Or maybe Stephen King was the ghostwriter for this book. You can count on a jack-in-the-box ending for each of the ten stories. They are gruesome versions of The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry.
I love short stories and the JCO’s offerings here range from 3 to 60 pages. A five pager leads off and is done with one lonely period at the end. In spite of that extremely long stream of consciousness sentence, you do have to pause occasionally to take a breath. There are some commas and exclamation marks to suggest places you might do that. The story does end with a bang.
The Museum of Dr Moses is one of JCO’s more recent books, published in 2008. It is suspense fiction. If you do not already know that, you find out pretty quickly.
One of the ways that a story appeals to the reader is when it strikes a familiar cord. The story “Feral” brings some of my feelings and experience to bear. This is about a six year old boy who has a life threatening experience and undergoes changes in his personality as a result. The changes and the description of those changes is Stephen King-ish. The parents imagine the impact of that experience on their young son based on their life with him. In my case, I have a young daughter adopted at the age of 3½ from China. Those years in China are, for us, an unknown period. What might the psychological effects be of being abandoned, living in an orphanage and foster home and having an untreated physical disability? How did those unknown years participate in creating the child we now know and love? We live with that unknown but without the bizarre events of the fiction story. As they say in fiction, “Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.”
In this small book we see gradual disclosure that often still leaves a surprise at the end. There is a good deal of real suspense on the first reading. I am not sure how it would be if you read it a second time, knowing the conclusion. Of course, there is enough Joyce Carol Oates out there so that you never need to read anything twice!
In a book of short stories you are not required to like (let alone understand) all the stories……Right? But if someone understands the three page story “Stripping,” please clue me in.
January 23, 2008
Joyce Carol Oates has a dark side that I don't understand and don't particularly like. I was assigned to her in high school for an author study and so have always been interested in her work. But her horror stories seem more on terrorizing the reader than building a story. Most of her images are disturbing, not haunting. There are rarely motives involved, only violence, and the surreal stories are so surreal they seem like a convention to manipulate the reader than to explore alternate realities. Some of her stories are clearly a writing exercise. Compare her short horror stories with Stephen King and you can see what I'm talking about. They both are disturbing, violent, and at times surreal. But (and I can't believe I'm endorsing King) King creates a satisfying horror while Oates is just disturbing.
Read
September 18, 2007"Hi! Hoywa doin'!"--An annoying jogger gets his. Is it what he deserves? That's the question that bugs me. Seems to be just a tale of senseless violence. The short-short has extremely good rhythm, and would make an entertaining spoken word piece.
"Suicide Watch"--A well-off father visits his meth addict son in prison, trying to uncover the fate of a missing grandson. The son is an unreliable narrator...or is he?
"The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza"--Tedious, thus far. A study in masculinity, and those most masculine men, boxers. Worst part of it is, it's a long short story.
"Valentine, July Heat Wave"--Revisits the domestic gore of certain E.C. Comics stories; some jibby-jabby philosophy that's easy to ignore is used to explain why the dead narrator is narrating up to the climax. You kind of already know what the wife is going to find in her old bedroom, her valentine all mildewy n' maggoty n' blackly cloth'd in flies.
"Bad Habits"--How having a serial killer as a father can be a terrible experience. I felt very--no, extremely--depressed after reading it.
"Stripping"--Only a page and a half, but still manages to piss me off with its trite psychological "pinning" of the serial killer mentality. Killers are lonely, killers kill whores. Whores are filthy. And...and everybody is on the meth. I really hate stories written in the second-person, unless they're Choos Your Own Adventures. You wash yourself and you wash yourself, you're filthy and you drop the soap and it all comes flooding back to you... Mehch.
-----
The curious should also consult: http://jco.usfca.edu/works/stories/mu...
"Suicide Watch"--A well-off father visits his meth addict son in prison, trying to uncover the fate of a missing grandson. The son is an unreliable narrator...or is he?
"The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza"--Tedious, thus far. A study in masculinity, and those most masculine men, boxers. Worst part of it is, it's a long short story.
"Valentine, July Heat Wave"--Revisits the domestic gore of certain E.C. Comics stories; some jibby-jabby philosophy that's easy to ignore is used to explain why the dead narrator is narrating up to the climax. You kind of already know what the wife is going to find in her old bedroom, her valentine all mildewy n' maggoty n' blackly cloth'd in flies.
"Bad Habits"--How having a serial killer as a father can be a terrible experience. I felt very--no, extremely--depressed after reading it.
"Stripping"--Only a page and a half, but still manages to piss me off with its trite psychological "pinning" of the serial killer mentality. Killers are lonely, killers kill whores. Whores are filthy. And...and everybody is on the meth. I really hate stories written in the second-person, unless they're Choos Your Own Adventures. You wash yourself and you wash yourself, you're filthy and you drop the soap and it all comes flooding back to you... Mehch.
-----
The curious should also consult: http://jco.usfca.edu/works/stories/mu...
March 7, 2016
My first exposure to Joyce Carol Oates and it was an enjoyable experience. Excellent short stories, some quite perfect, most very good. Her writing style is quite different from anyone else that I've read. I love how she is able to create a mood with her writing, to describe a picture. All of the stories managed to leave me feeling unsettled and there were often nice little twists that you didn't see coming. More suspenses than mysteries, but that doesn't matter. The Hunter was probably my favourite, felt like an episode of the best crime series. Some of the endings left me confused, but that is probably a good thing, but that is the only reason that I give it a 4 instead of a 5. However, each story is a gem and I highly recommend. Another author I'll have to explore more.
December 23, 2018
3.5 rounded down.
JCO sure does have a dark side...yet it's human nature, right? Many of the stories just hint at the evil, and thekillers alleged criminals would never be convicted in court. Did he or didn't he? Well, probably....because this woman is the puppeteer. Really, doesn't she look like the queen of goth?
JCO sure does have a dark side...yet it's human nature, right? Many of the stories just hint at the evil, and the
December 26, 2018
Excellent writing aside, some of these stories didn't quite hit every note for me. But there were enough that did. in particular, the story "Bad habits." Excellent.
March 12, 2015
Joyce Carol Oates is one of America's best, and most unclassifiable, writers - she's considered a "literary" author, but writes across genres at will; I've read her short stories in mystery magazines, best-of-the-year science fiction, fantasy and horror volumes, and everyplace in-between. This 2007 volume, The Museum of Dr Moses, contains 8 short stories and 2 novellas published between 1998 and 2007, in magazines ranging from F&SF to Ellery Queen to Ploughshares to McSweeney's to Playboy, with a couple published in original anthologies edited by the likes of Otto Penzler and Dennis Etchison (separately, of course!). She is probably the only writer in the world who can take a subject that not only doesn't appeal to me, but actually repulses me (here, the world of boxing) and write a novella so intrinsically compelling that I will savour the 60 pages that it takes her to tell the story ("The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza"); yet she can tell an equally compelling story in 3 pages ("Stripping") that is, in its implications, more repulsive than anything else in this volume. She is, in short, a gem, especially in short form; I like her novels too, but she really excels in the shorter format. My favourites here include "Valentine, July Heat Wave" (which I admit I'd read before), "The Hunter," "Feral," and the title story. If you want a master class in how to inculcate deeply rooted psychological truth in short form writing, you can do no better than to study Joyce Carol Oates. She's amazing. And yeah, obviously, recommended, though you might need a strong stomach for some of her tales!
May 2, 2018
I have waited for years to pull this from my shelf and read it. What a disappointment. It unfortunately did not hold my attention and Had to be started and stopped repeatedly. Even that didn’t help. I considered putting it into the very small groupnof books that I was not able to finish, but soldiered on. Not every book is to be enjoyed by every person.
December 17, 2012
JC Oates has the almost creepy knack of getting under the skin of disturbed, and disturbing, characters, that throws an interesting curve to otherwise conventional tales of mystery and horror. In this collection of ten short but suspenseful stories, she sometimes assumes the perspective of criminals and twisted would-be-murderers, with the use of the second-person voice, that coerces the reader to contemplate the psyche of such personalities at close range - with often successful if unsettling results.
A jilted husband narrates his tale of extreme passive-aggressive revenge on his wife in "Valentine, July Heat Wave", a father of twin sons manipulates them into a harrowing conclusion in "The Twins: A Mystery", while three children grapple with the confusing and awful aftermath of a father's conviction for serial murder in "Bad Habits", and a guilt-ridden mother berates herself for her moment of distraction that almost costs her young son's life, but it is doubtful if she really gets him back fully from the near-drowning in "Feral". Perhaps one of the shorter pieces, "Suicide Watch", felt most engaging to me, as a father visits his son in a criminal mental facility, trying to understand and deal with the wreck his son has become, while desperate to find out where his missing grandson is, as the clock ticks away, dimming the prospects of rescuing the boy, yet tussling with the gut-wrenching possibility that to uncover the mystery from his son's incoherent recounts, it means confronting another awful truth.
Totally absorbing.
A jilted husband narrates his tale of extreme passive-aggressive revenge on his wife in "Valentine, July Heat Wave", a father of twin sons manipulates them into a harrowing conclusion in "The Twins: A Mystery", while three children grapple with the confusing and awful aftermath of a father's conviction for serial murder in "Bad Habits", and a guilt-ridden mother berates herself for her moment of distraction that almost costs her young son's life, but it is doubtful if she really gets him back fully from the near-drowning in "Feral". Perhaps one of the shorter pieces, "Suicide Watch", felt most engaging to me, as a father visits his son in a criminal mental facility, trying to understand and deal with the wreck his son has become, while desperate to find out where his missing grandson is, as the clock ticks away, dimming the prospects of rescuing the boy, yet tussling with the gut-wrenching possibility that to uncover the mystery from his son's incoherent recounts, it means confronting another awful truth.
Totally absorbing.
August 22, 2012
Dreamlike and elegant. I see my nightmares in her voice. From vengeful disillusionment in "Hi! Howya Doin!" to the dramatically historical boxing mystery of "The Man Who Fought Roland LaStanza", Joyce Carol Oates captures the fragrance of disturbed, the after taste of melancholy.
In the short story mystery of boxer Colum Donaghy, Oates dips into the root of her insightful search for understanding traumatic relationships. She whispers, "Nothing so disturbs us as another's hatred for us. Our own secret hatreds, how natural they seem. How inevitable." (page 31). This observation is carried into each of the stories, no matter how short or unique, echoing the phrase, "...how natural they seem...". As though, in "Bad Habits" the children of a serial killer face naturally disturbing repercussions. As though, in "The Museum of Dr. Moses", we understand, although we truly wish we didn't, what is naturally housed in the 'Red Room'. As though, in Oates' natural style, she dares to capture the soul of evil in the story, "Stripping" - repeating the idea of simplicity as she states, "...the simplicity of the naked body armored in flesh covered in wire-hairs thrumming with life..." (page 184).
Impressed with depth and intensity, this collection of short stories unravel those deeply held, basic emotions of loneliness, rage and fear. Be honest with yourself as you read these stories, hate can form reality.
In the short story mystery of boxer Colum Donaghy, Oates dips into the root of her insightful search for understanding traumatic relationships. She whispers, "Nothing so disturbs us as another's hatred for us. Our own secret hatreds, how natural they seem. How inevitable." (page 31). This observation is carried into each of the stories, no matter how short or unique, echoing the phrase, "...how natural they seem...". As though, in "Bad Habits" the children of a serial killer face naturally disturbing repercussions. As though, in "The Museum of Dr. Moses", we understand, although we truly wish we didn't, what is naturally housed in the 'Red Room'. As though, in Oates' natural style, she dares to capture the soul of evil in the story, "Stripping" - repeating the idea of simplicity as she states, "...the simplicity of the naked body armored in flesh covered in wire-hairs thrumming with life..." (page 184).
Impressed with depth and intensity, this collection of short stories unravel those deeply held, basic emotions of loneliness, rage and fear. Be honest with yourself as you read these stories, hate can form reality.
June 27, 2017
An unnervingly friendly morning jogger meets his fate. A man interrogates his junkie son about the whereabouts of his missing grandson, who may or not have been killed in the upstairs bathtub. After a traumatic incident, a seemingly normal child goes feral. And a pair of twins revisit their controlling father in his decrepit old house. This is just a taste of what's in store here; this is my first JCO short story collection, and it was a treat. I love her disturbing imagination and rich ideas, and the themes of family dysfunction and breakdown, and moreover the 'what happens after?' these life-changing events and the notion that horror begins at home. I also love how she totally subverts our expectations as we read; we seem to identify with many of these characters, see our reflections in them (especially in the first person), only to realise the horror at what they/we truly are when it holds to the light. I think the opener "Hi! How You Doin" is my favourite here; it explores that idea of perspective so well. One man's hello literally turns deadly for him, and her prose is so engaging and captivating, I literally couldn't put it down. The beauty of her short stories is that it gives you a more concise vision of her thoughts and ideas, boiled into several pages and with more space for contemplation and consideration. This is a great short story collection and looking forward to reading more of her short stories (I also loved "Heat")!
October 31, 2017
Having already read 2 novels from author Joyce Carol Oates including the 5 star rated "Blonde", I had high expectations on this novel. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I guess she's a better writer on women issues than on mystery and suspense. This book contains 10 short stories falling in the genre of mystery and suspense. However, I'm not sure short stories are really suitable to write mystery and suspense stories. This short story book is actually the first book I read that is intented for those 2 categories. Out of 10 short stories, 2 are the most important in length "The man who fought Roland LaStarza" and "The museum of Dr. Moses" (50 and 60 pages respectively). It should have been better to expand these 2 stories into long fiction novel. When reading all of these stories, I didn't find any mystery nor suspense in the stories. The stories were quite predictable in advance. A good mystery and suspense stories need to be long to allow the author to add many contradicting clues, evidences, possibilities on the final outcome of what, who, and why so that the reader can't guess anything.
I guess it is the author's choice to write short stories that is more in question here. Of course, if I hadn't read a book from her before and had no idea who she was, I would have rated this novel 3 stars like most short stories books I've rated so far.
I guess it is the author's choice to write short stories that is more in question here. Of course, if I hadn't read a book from her before and had no idea who she was, I would have rated this novel 3 stars like most short stories books I've rated so far.
January 3, 2016
Oates does a masterful job channeling her inner Poe here. A series of ten disturbing, disorienting shorts that stick with you long after putting the book down.
Gawd, I love this book. She finds the horror in everyday, mundane life and rubs our collective face in them. "But by random chance, this could be you." Oates is an academic, and her writing isn't always easily accessible, but it's well worth the effort. (Note: the stories aren't always wrapped up in a neat, tidy bow, and every question isn't always answered. But hey, that's life. And death)
Of course, I have a couple of favorites here. In 'The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza,' a woman revisits the life and death of a close family friend, a boxer who didn't like to play by the rules, written or otherwise. In 'Feral,' mother watches her six-year-old undergo a frightening personality change after he almost(?) drowns in a swimming pool accident.
This is the first of Oates' books I've read. I'll be reading more, very soon.
Gawd, I love this book. She finds the horror in everyday, mundane life and rubs our collective face in them. "But by random chance, this could be you." Oates is an academic, and her writing isn't always easily accessible, but it's well worth the effort. (Note: the stories aren't always wrapped up in a neat, tidy bow, and every question isn't always answered. But hey, that's life. And death)
Of course, I have a couple of favorites here. In 'The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza,' a woman revisits the life and death of a close family friend, a boxer who didn't like to play by the rules, written or otherwise. In 'Feral,' mother watches her six-year-old undergo a frightening personality change after he almost(?) drowns in a swimming pool accident.
This is the first of Oates' books I've read. I'll be reading more, very soon.
March 17, 2017
4.5 stars. Suicide Watch, one of the stories in this collection, is the darkest, most horrific piece of fiction I have read. It's not that Oates' writing is more violent or gory than other writers- it's that her use of language, her psychological insight, her perception, makes her characters so real- and therefore so utterly disturbing. That people have such violent reactions to Oates' stories shows the enormity of her talent- I myself became nauseous (literally, extremely nauseous) while reading Suicide Watch and it haunted me for days afterwards.
I also had a visceral reaction to the story from which this collection takes its title, The Museum of Dr. Moses. The "gore" is fairly subtle, but in Oates' hands the effect is close to sickening. However, first and foremost, Oates writes with great sensitivity, always probing at human nature, especially the dark side of human nature, without fear, without callousness, always making her reader think.
I also had a visceral reaction to the story from which this collection takes its title, The Museum of Dr. Moses. The "gore" is fairly subtle, but in Oates' hands the effect is close to sickening. However, first and foremost, Oates writes with great sensitivity, always probing at human nature, especially the dark side of human nature, without fear, without callousness, always making her reader think.
February 11, 2017
I love disgusting, gruesome stories with deaths that I don’t expect. Fortunately, Joyce Carol Oates is highly regarded in disgusting, gruesome stories. They were brutal bloodbaths at times. The characters were normal, average people who meet untimely demise, which is the likely icing on top of any cake by Oates.
I’ve always loved her style, and this collection made me hate suspense stories even more (in a good way). My favorite out of it was “The Twins: A Mystery”—it reminded one of “Saw” and it was pretty intense. Great collection.
I’ve always loved her style, and this collection made me hate suspense stories even more (in a good way). My favorite out of it was “The Twins: A Mystery”—it reminded one of “Saw” and it was pretty intense. Great collection.
May 28, 2013
A friend recently told me that he intellectually understands Joyce Carol Oates is a talented writer, but that it is still often unpleasant to read her work. This collection of stories epitomizes that sentiment. The subject matter is as dark as can be. She's writing about evil, after all. At times, I did have to push myself to carry on, but except for in one or two stories, I was drawn in by the characterizations and descriptive writing. The prose really does seem to flow easily from Oates' mind to the page.
Try this....if you dare.
Try this....if you dare.
May 30, 2017
Creepy. Real uncomfortable.
You read fast, hurtling into the story line because Ms Oates writes like a rapid fire gun. Sentences are short and suncint. You barely are able to keep up with the weird and strange things and atmosphere that she described and then KAPOWW the punch at the end of the storyline.
That's short story fiction for you. i guess these stories are not so much mystery stories but more of the suspense kind. Can make some people's skin crawl too.
Written on front cover of book - "Relentlessly disturbing"- Elle. ......Yep, that's it.
You read fast, hurtling into the story line because Ms Oates writes like a rapid fire gun. Sentences are short and suncint. You barely are able to keep up with the weird and strange things and atmosphere that she described and then KAPOWW the punch at the end of the storyline.
That's short story fiction for you. i guess these stories are not so much mystery stories but more of the suspense kind. Can make some people's skin crawl too.
Written on front cover of book - "Relentlessly disturbing"- Elle. ......Yep, that's it.
March 19, 2018
This the first writings of Joyce Carol Oates that I have read ... and I am totally spooked-out by this author. Horror is difficult to write, and we all think of Stephen King when it comes to horror, BUT author Oates is something else. There is no rawness in the words, no grossness of the passages, yet there were times when i was chilled to the bone. I don't think I'll be reading her works at night!!!!
Four stars to this awesome author, but I'm just not into horror ..... but I was horrified!
Four stars to this awesome author, but I'm just not into horror ..... but I was horrified!
March 27, 2024
Although I have stories by Ms. Oates in various anthologies this is the first book of stories I have read by her and I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates fine writing or enjoys suspense fiction. I intend to read more by her but for now I am just overcome by the amount she has published! I am in awe and wonder how she does it!
July 25, 2011
Oates' stories, especially the title story, give me that delicious, frightened feeling while reading...the certain knowledge that this cannot be going any place I want to go...I want to stop reading but I can't stop reading.... Marvelous.
March 20, 2009
completely mesmerizing. it's a writing lesson. what she does in 20 pages, most people can't do in 200. stunning!
July 26, 2010
CREEPTASTIC. No one does it better than Joyce Carol Oates. This one will keep you up at night!
April 2, 2012
Each one of these stories is like a kick in the crotch to mediocrity. JCO 4 Life, Bitches!
November 13, 2016
Love these, especially the shorter ones! Oates is the best at creepy, creeping suspense.
December 14, 2017
A collection of short stories that are textbook JCO. I particularly enjoyed the story about the boxer. Not her best, but definitely not disappointing.
April 30, 2023
2-1/2 STARS. Excellent prose, sum of stories,...meh..
Read
April 18, 2023I don’t know if I trust Joyce Carol Oates. This collection of short stories was better than the title of the title story made it seem like it should. One of the issues that made me distrustful in general is that this collection had a “theme” to it, that is Tales of Suspense. But in reality the stories were better than that made it seem like they might be.
So of the stories, several stood out as being fairly strong.
The opening story “Hi How Ya Doing?” was short and impacting but more than anything the furious pace made it good. I guess because of the subtitle of the book I knew to wait for the show to drop, so to speak, or else the moment that happens would have felt random and sudden, instead it was kind of a nice payoff.
Another story that worked for me was the long story “The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza” which is definitely the best in the collection. In this one, there’s a rewarding narrative distance between the story itself and the narrator, and there’s a “mystery” involved but it’s the kind of mystery created through family privacy. The boxing writing, which is a classic American art, was very satisfying. It’s easy to forget how talented Joyce Carol Oates is on her best days.
The story “Twins” also more or less worked for me and had a feeling of Resident Evil 7, since it involves watching a video tape.
The title story is not great and most of the collection is a little forgettable.
Over all, this is not a great collection, but it’s a more or less good collection. Taking the onus of literary fiction off of it helps, and then it becomes a crime/horror collection, in which case, it’s fine.
I do warn you that I might go on a bit of a Joyce Carol Oates digression to maybe finally put my fascination with her to bed. I will talk more about my general feelings and reticence with her in a future post.
So of the stories, several stood out as being fairly strong.
The opening story “Hi How Ya Doing?” was short and impacting but more than anything the furious pace made it good. I guess because of the subtitle of the book I knew to wait for the show to drop, so to speak, or else the moment that happens would have felt random and sudden, instead it was kind of a nice payoff.
Another story that worked for me was the long story “The Man Who Fought Roland LaStarza” which is definitely the best in the collection. In this one, there’s a rewarding narrative distance between the story itself and the narrator, and there’s a “mystery” involved but it’s the kind of mystery created through family privacy. The boxing writing, which is a classic American art, was very satisfying. It’s easy to forget how talented Joyce Carol Oates is on her best days.
The story “Twins” also more or less worked for me and had a feeling of Resident Evil 7, since it involves watching a video tape.
The title story is not great and most of the collection is a little forgettable.
Over all, this is not a great collection, but it’s a more or less good collection. Taking the onus of literary fiction off of it helps, and then it becomes a crime/horror collection, in which case, it’s fine.
I do warn you that I might go on a bit of a Joyce Carol Oates digression to maybe finally put my fascination with her to bed. I will talk more about my general feelings and reticence with her in a future post.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews