A young woman tumbles into a nightmare of decadent desire and corrupted innocence in a superb novella of suspense from National Book Awardwinner Joyce Carol Oates. Art and arson, the poetry of D. H. Lawrence and pulp pornography, hero-worship and sexual debasement, totems and taboos mix and mutate into a startling, suspenseful tale of how a sunny New England college campus descends into a lurid nightmare. "A small gem.... Oates does not disappoint, nor does she waste a word."—The Washington Post Book World Oates often takes on sensational subject matter ... yet rarely has she done so with the churningly quiet understatement of ... Beasts."—Los Angeles Times "A cunning fusion of Gothic romance and psychological horror story, and one of her best recent books."—Kirkus Reviews "Oates's new novel is a slim one, but it packs a serious punch."—Associated Press "Delicious ... Beasts is something of a jeu d'esprit noir.... The novella length is exactly right for it."—The New York Review of Books
A born storyteller, Oates has been spinning yarns since she was a little girl too young to even write. Instead, she would communicate her stories through drawings and paintings. When she received her very first typewriter at the age of 14, her creative floodgates opened with a torrent. She says she wrote "novel after novel" throughout high school and college -- a prolificacy that has continued unabated throughout a professional career that began in 1963 with her first short story collection, By the North Gate.
Oates's breakthrough occurred in 1969 with the publication of them, a National Book Award winner that established her as a force to be reckoned with. Since that auspicious beginning, she has been nominated for nearly every major literary honor -- from the PEN/Faulkner Award to the Pulitzer Prize -- and her fiction turns up with regularity on The New York Times annual list of Notable Books.
On average Oates publishes at least one novel, essay anthology, or story collection a year (during the 1970s, she produced at the astonishing rate of two or three books a year!). And although her fiction often exposes the darker side of America's brightest facades – familial unrest, sexual violence, the death of innocence – she has also made successful forays into Gothic novels, suspense, fantasy, and children's literature. As novelist John Barth once remarked, "Joyce Carol Oates writes all over the aesthetical map."
Where she finds the time for it no one knows, but Oates manages to combine her ambitious, prolific writing career with teaching: first at the University of Windsor in Canada, then (from 1978 on), at Princeton University in New Jersey. For all her success and fame, her daily routine of teaching and writing has changed very little, and her commitment to literature as a transcendent human activity remains steadfast.
Oates's Black Water, which is a thinly veiled account of Ted Kennedy's car crash in Chappaquiddick, was produced as an opera in the 1990s.
In 2001, Oprah Winfrey selected Oates's novel We Were the Mulvaneys for her Book Club.
Beasts was the first book I read by Oates, and I wasn't disappointed- by far, I was captured in her unique writing style that had me breathless within the first chapter. Being a student myself, I can easily relate to the constant forbidden attraction one may acquire for a Professor. . . Even more so for one that teaches the fine art of sensual poetry.
The story was simple, I could easily see it happening- The over all concept was pure enough to keep attention and draw questions afterward. A great book to begin with, when starting with this author.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 19, 2002
This is by far one of her best works of fiction. A fast paced story that tears at your mind awakening questions, only to answer them much later. As you read you see a dark story of betrail, secrets and darkenss unfold before you. She has out done herself her. I recommend this read to any one that is able to expand their mind and succumb to the darkness that is created by others. As you read you start to believe that this may be a true story and in some ways it may have happened. Oates depicts the human ability to fall into a trap of love and how those feelings can lead you to forget who and what you are, only to find out what evil you have been apart of. A story of influence and naiveness.
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Posted January 29, 2002
Joyce Carol Oates is the college sophmore who never grows up. She writes as though she is in the perpetual grip of some bitter feminist professor, railing incessantly against the exploitation of her sex. Indeed, she's published a string of these novellas in which giddy youung women are impressed by the aura of some authority figure, only to meet devastating consequences. (See also: 'The Rise of Life on Earth' and 'Black Water') She uses sexual exploitation the way John Grisham uses racism, as a pulpit from which she can preach her tired little sermons. It's only fitting that Oprah should feature her writing. It is, after all, the kind of smarmy, meaningless pornography that bored housewives would relish. It's Lifetime Television sprinkled with a few pretty words.
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Posted December 6, 2001
Caution: Beasts is a very appropriate name for some of the human characters in this book. Some readers will be disgusted by the misbehavior in this book. I was. The book also abounds in the usual offensive four and five letter words . . . as well as the most offensive six-letter one, which will make people who dislike foul language feel like they have been draped in it. One of fiction¿s classic roles has been to strip away the veneer of civility and conventionality to reveal the untamed self that pulses at or just below the surface. Beasts takes apart the day-to-day reality of academic life to reveal the darkness lurking beneath Catamount College in a Bennington-like setting during the 1970s in the Berkshires of southwestern Massachusetts. The narrator of the novella¿s story is Gillian Brauer. She is startled to see a 200 year old totem, ¿Maternal Figure,¿ in the Louvre during a trip in February 2001. Her first thought is, ¿It wasn¿t burned after all.¿ She goes on to think, ¿This is not a confession.¿ Memories cloud in. ¿We are beasts, this is our consolation.¿ ¿We are beasts, we feel no guilt.¿ With this powerful beginning, you immediately will want to know what this story is all about. Using flashbacks, you next retreat back to Heath Cottage, Gillian¿s small dorm, at Catamount College on the night of January 20, 1976. The dorm¿s fire alarm has been pulled. What¿s happening? This first flashback builds the mystery, and you will find yourself wanting to race to turn the pages to find out more about the mystery of what has happened at Catamount . . . and to Gillian. Gillian is an impressionable junior with a taste for poetry . . . and a crush on her professor, Andre Harrow. The crush pulls her forward towards obsession, and she soon finds herself following Harrow¿s wife, Dorcas (no surname). In her poetry class, Gillian finds it difficult to reveal her deepest feelings and secrets. Harrow constantly encourages her to ¿Go deeper! . . . Go for the jugular.¿ Each student is writing a journal to help with this process of self-revelation, and the material is read in class. There¿s a competition to expose the most, and the students find themselves riveted by the experience. Each seems to share Gillian¿s ¿love¿ for Harrow. Where will it all lead? The story proceeds almost like a detective novel to explain the events that led up to Gillian¿s experiences in the book¿s first two scenes. Bit by bit, you will pick up hints, clues, and facts. Then, suddenly the whole mosaic comes together in an unforgettable picture that will haunt you. The tension and the mystery in the book are nicely developed and balanced. You will enjoy the development of Gillian¿s character, because you will feel like she is part of you by the time the story ends. I was left thinking about how the experiences described in the book would have changed my life, had they occurred to me. Shine the light of truth to push back the cover of darkness from falsity! Protect innocents! Donald Mitchell, co-author of The 2,000 Percent Solution and The Irresistible Growth Enterprise
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Overview
A young woman tumbles into a nightmare of decadent desire and corrupted innocence in a superb novella of suspense from National Book Awardwinner Joyce Carol Oates. Art and arson, the poetry of D. H. Lawrence and pulp pornography, hero-worship and sexual debasement, totems and taboos mix and mutate into a startling, suspenseful tale of how a sunny New England college campus descends into a lurid nightmare. "A small gem.... Oates does not disappoint, nor does she waste a word."—The Washington Post Book World Oates...