She Treads Softly: Dis Mem Ber

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Dis Mem Ber

Dis Mem Ber and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense
by Joyce Carol Oates
The Mysterious Press: 6/6/17
eBook review copy; 256 pages
ISBN-13: 9780802126528

Dis Mem Ber by Joyce Carol Oates is a highly recommended collection of seven dark, carefully crafted short stories.

Contents:
Dis mem ber: Eleven year-old Jill is captivated but a little frightened of Rowan Billiet, an older relative.
The Crawl Space: A widow keeps driving by the house she lived in for over two decades.
Heartbreak: The rivalry between two sisters intensifies when an attractive male step-cousin visits.
The Drowned Girl: A university student becomes increasingly obsessed with the drowning of another girl.
The Situations: A father cruelly shows his children that he is the one in charge.
Great Blue Heron: A recent widow recalls watching a Great Blue Heron with her husband and begins to identify with the bird.
Welcome to Friendly Skies!: "Welcome aboard our North American Airways Boeing 878 Classic Aircraft! This is North American Airways Flight 443 to Amchitka, Alaska - Birdwatchers and Environmental Activists Special!"

All of the writing is superb in this collection of stories published in 2016. While I tentatively agree that there could have been more stories added to this collection, I liked the theme these stories presented, with the last story being an exception. Each of the other six stories had a psychologically vulnerable female protagonist. Each of the women (or girls) had an obsession that would result in some unexpected action, or is the result of a precarious situation. They are all in some kind of danger. The last story adds a comedic touch that also takes a dark turn.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of The Mysterious Press.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.