Synopses & Reviews
An incomparable master storyteller in all forms, in
The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares Joyce Carol Oates spins six imaginative tales of suspense. The Corn Maiden” is the gut-wrenching story of Marissa, a beautiful and sweet eleven-year-old girl with hair the color of corn silk. Taken by an older girl from her school who has told two friends in her thrall of the Indian legend of the Corn Maiden, in which a girl is sacrificed to ensure a good crop, Marissa is kept in a secluded basement and convinced that the world has ended. Marissas seemingly inevitable fate becomes ever more terrifying as the older girl relishes her power, giving the tale unbearable tension with a shocking conclusion. In Helping Hands,” published here for the first time, a lonely woman meets a man in the unlikely clutter of a dingy charity shop and extends friendship. She has no idea what kinds of doors she may be opening. The powerful stories in this extraordinary collection further enhance Joyce Carol Oatess standing as one of the worlds greatest writers of suspense.
Review
Praise for Joyce Carol Oates:
"Oates is just a fearless writer ... with her brave heart and her impossibly lush and dead-on imaginative powers." —Los Angeles Times
"If the phrase 'woman of letters' existed, Joyce Carol Oates would be, foremost in this country, entitled to it." —John Updike
"What keeps us coming back to Oates country is her uncanny gift of making the page a window, with something happening on the other side that we'd swear was life itself." —The New York Times Book Review
"Her genius happens to be giant." —The Washington Post Book World
"No living American writer echoes the chord of dread plucked by Edgar Allen Poe quite like Joyce Carol Oates." —The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Review
From Publishers Weekly:The seven stories in this stellar collection from the prolific Oates (Give Me Your Heart) may prompt the reader to turn on all the lights or jump at imagined noises. In the excruciating title tale, a novella subtitled A Love Story,” an adolescent girl leads two of her friends in the kidnapping of 11-year old Marissa Bantry to enact the ritual sacrifice of the Corn Maiden as performed by the Onigara Indians. Children or childhood traumas play significant roles in Beersheba,” in which a mans past catches up to him, and Nobody Knows My Name,” in which the birth of a sibling turns nine-year-old Jessicas world upside down. Twins figure in both the eerie Fossil-Figures” and the harrowing Death-Cup” with its sly allusions to Edgar Allan Poes William Wilson.” In A Hole in the Head,” a plastic surgeon succumbs to a patients request for an unusual operation with unexpected results. This volume burnishes Oatess reputation as a master of psychological dread.
From Kirkus Reviews:
Seven nightmarish tales written over a 15-year period.
The first and longest story is the title novella, about Jude Trahern, a precocious and evil eighth-grader who abducts a fellow classmate, Marissa, to enact a ritual human sacrifice. Brilliant, charismatic and severely disturbed, Jude chooses Marissa because of the latters status as an outsider, both new to the school and set apart by her intellectual slowness. Jude enlists two of her friends in the elaborately planned ceremony, but their enthusiasm begins to wane as things start to get spookier and it becomes clear that Jude is serious about following through on the ritual. Meanwhile, Marissas mother, Leah, becomes frantic about her missing daughter and starts to believe in the guilt of Mikal Zallman, a part-time employee at the school whom Jude has cleverly implicated. The story ends on a jarring and somewhat surreal note as Leah and Mikal develop a romantic attachment. Throughout this collection Oates is fascinated by the idea of doubling, for example in Death-Cup,” in which Lyle King tries to poison his evil twin Alastor with Amanita mushroom soup. Alastor is the evil” brother, successful on the outside but unscrupulous within, and Lyle finds out that ultimately they can never be separated. (Its no coincidence that Lyle is designing a new edition, with hand-sewn pages and letterpress printing,” of Poes William Wilson.”) Similarly, in Fossil-Figures,” brothers Edgar and Edward Waldman mirror opposing sides of the self, while in the masterful Beersheba” womanizer Brad gets his comeuppance at the hands of Stacy Lynn, who at first comes on to him seductively and then exacts a terrible revenge.
While the shadows of Poe and Hitchcock loom over these tales, its clear that Oates herself is a master at creeping out her readers.
Praise for Joyce Carol Oates:
"Oates is just a fearless writer ... with her brave heart and her impossibly lush and dead-on imaginative powers." Los Angeles Times
"If the phrase 'woman of letters' existed, Joyce Carol Oates would be, foremost in this country, entitled to it." John Updike
"What keeps us coming back to Oates country is her uncanny gift of making the page a window, with something happening on the other side that we'd swear was life itself." The New York Times Book Review
"Her genius happens to be giant." The Washington Post Book World
"No living American writer echoes the chord of dread plucked by Edgar Allen Poe quite like Joyce Carol Oates." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Synopsis
"The Corn Maiden" is the gut-wrenching story of Marissa, a beautiful and sweet, but somewhat slow, eleven-year-old girl with hair the color of corn silk. Her single mother comes home one night to find her missing and panics, frantically knocking on the doors of her neighbors. She finally calls the police, who want to know why she left her young daughter alone until 8:00 o’clock.
Suspicion falls on a computer teacher at her school with no alibi for the time of the abduction. Obvious cluesperhaps too obvious--point directly to him. Unsuspected is Judah (born Judith), an older girl from the same school who has told two friends in her thrall of the Indian legend of the Corn Maiden, a girl sacrificed to ensure a good crop.
The trusting Marissa happily went to a secluded basement with the older girls, pleased to be included, and is convinced that the world has ended and that they are the last survivors. Remaining an unaware hostage for days, she grows weaker on a sparse diet as Judah prepares her for sacrifice.
The seemingly inevitable fate of Marissa becomes ever more terrifying as Judah relishes her power, leading to unbearable tension with a shocking conclusion.
Helping Hands,” published here for the first time, begins with an apparently optimistic line: He came into her life when it had seemed to her that her life was finished.”
A lonely woman meets a man in the unlikely clutter of a dingy charity shop and extends friendliness, which soon turns to quiet and unacknowledged desire. With the mind-set of a victim, struggling to overcome her shyness and fears, she has no idea what kinds of doors she may be opening.
The powerful stories in this extraordinary collection further enhance Joyce Carol Oates’s standing as one of the world’s greatest writers of suspense.