Joyce Carol Oates seems to be one of those authors that everyone hates or everyone loves...I seem to be more the latter. I love her short fiction. She writes weird, just-this-side-of-expected stories that are a pleasure to read.

This was a pick-up from the library new-book shelf that I did not expect. Every time I see a new Oates book I check it out and read it. She is an excellent writer and I am never dissatisfied.

Excellent. ( )

This relatively recent collection from Joyce Carol Oates offers a half dozen "tales of suspense." They are not supernatural horror, despite the title's allusion to the monstrous phantasms of H.P. Lovecraft. Although all written in the third person, each is thoroughly psychological, tracking the thoughts of villains and victims on the cusp of horrible events. There is a lot more person than plot in these stories, and the substance of them is the interaction of character with circumstance.

The first story "The Woman at the Window" was (according to its prior publication) inspired by an Edward Hopper painting, and I'm sure the painting in question must be 11 A.M. (1926).

These tales tend toward novella length, typically on the long side of what can be read in a single sitting, but often subdivided into chapters. The longest story in the collection is "The Experimental Subject," which is trained on the interior world of a scientific researcher seducing an undergraduate student into being unwittingly inseminated with chimpanzee sperm. Strangely, it is probably the closest of any of the stories in the book to having a "happy" outcome.

The title story that concludes the book is an account of "Horace Love, Jr.," a fairly transparent fictionalization of the biography of Lovecraft. It takes for its premise the same thesis set forth in this bit of criticism from Kenneth Callaghan:

"Lovecraft was masquerading, for the purposes of fiction, as both the son and as his own father, thereby giving himself permission to use his own father's madness for fictional purposes, and informing both himself and us, the readers, of the secret facts of his pathology that his own father was unfortunately unable to provide to him. In his fiction, if not in his life, Lovecraft was able to assume the mask, and the role, of the father, and with none of the messy aftereffects of STDs, wives, or possession by an all-consuming and all-destroying sexuality." (Lovecraft's Dark Arcadia, 86)

There is a bit of thematic resonance between "Night-Gaunts" itself and the other pieces of the collection, particularly "Sign of the Beast" and "Walking Wounded." All of these stories have vivid characters with their subjectivities unravelled in engaging prose. The endings are sometimes like a song finishing on a suspended chord--you know where the story might go, and Oates allows you to do the work of taking it there.

These weren't the greatest of Oates' short stories but they were good. The Long-Legged Girl, I just know must be inspired by the relationship of Shirley Jackson and her husband Stanley. The Experiment Subject was one of the most disturbing stories I think I've ever read. ( )

NIGHT GAUNTS AND OTHER TALES OF SUSPENSE sounded so promising to me when I requested it from Edelweiss months ago. Since then, I've only managed to complete one story, and it's one that I already read in another collection.

I've repeatedly attempted to read two other stories and I just couldn't get into them, so I'm calling it quits.

No rating, no review. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for letting me take a shot at this for free. I'm sorry it didn't work out.

The first story, “The Woman in the Window”, opens with a naked woman sitting in a window waiting for her married lover. Is there still love in her heart for this man or has it turned to hatred? Have her feelings for her remained the same?

In “The Long-Legged Girl”, a woman has decided to play Russian roulette with poisoned tea with her husband’s beautiful dance student.

“Sign of the Beast” is a disturbing tale of a young boy who Sunday School teacher shows him unwanted attention.

In “Walking Wounded”, a man working on a well-known author’s posthumous work keeps finding erotic references that seem to reflect what’s happening in his own life.

The title story, “Night-Gaunts”, explores the damnation of heredity is such a frightening way.

If I had to pick a favorite out of all of these unique stories, it would be “The Experimental Subject”. This is a nightmarish story about a lab technician who lures a naïve, unattractive young woman to be the unknowing recipient of a chimpanzee’s sperm in the hopes that she will give birth to the first “Humanzee”.

I have never been disappointed by the work of Joyce Carol Oates and she certainly doesn’t let her readers down with this selection of short stories. They are some of the most unusual, creative, horrific stories I’ve ever read. If you like your stories all neatly tied up at the end, these won’t be your cup of tea. Most of the stories leave the reader hanging but I actually enjoy wondering what happened and letting my imagination fill in the blanks. This is an excellent selection of horror tales from an author who just keeps improving.

Most highly recommended.

This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review. ( )