Dear Husband by Joyce Carol Oates
HarperCollins, $26.99
Beautifully written but gritty as a pile of sandy picnic sandwiches, these stories of women on the verge of disaster do not make relaxing bedtime reading. The first story - a study of how, in crisis, the maternal instinct over-rides the sexual drive, is called Panic and, as a newcomer to Oates, I imagined (hoped) it was the heart-starter. But no, throughout the 14 stories that make up this book, the plots become steadily more harrowing.
Oates' writing style is straightforward and her characters are slowly, yet indelibly, recognisable. You even start to like some of them. She dives headlong into her stories with a directness that keeps you turning the pages long after you realise you're in for another distressing read. The descriptions are so real you can almost smell them.
Likewise, every story has a message and every heroine is slightly damaged or plain crazy. My favourite was the second story, Special, which looks at a mother's ability to choose between saving one child at the expense of another - and her husband.
Then there's The Blind Man's Sighted Daughters, which examines the age-old struggle between siblings over which one of them will stay home and give up their life for the father. Naturally, everybody loses.
In Landfill, Oates examines the terrible price some will pay to be popular, while their mothers, sensing their offsprings' imminent peril, grieve at home.
There are many conclusions to be drawn from this collection of domestic stories from the world's richest nation: marriage and an intact family is no guarantee of happiness; nor is a husband; nor children; nor loving parents. On the other hand, divorce and selfish mothers (and fathers) don't get a great hearing either. What does seem to push women down the slippery path is loneliness, mental illness and everyday neglect.
Which is not to say this is a bad book, it's just not for the faint-hearted. Overall, this is a brilliant, discerning study of life (for one reason or another) in the hard lane. It heightens your senses to other peoples' lives. I defy anyone to pass through their community without keeping an eye out for the dispossessed, sad and lonely characters who populate this at once marvellous and unsettling collection.
Carroll du Chateau is an Auckland reviewer.
