The (Other) You

by Joyce Carol Oates Narrated by Kate Reading, Malcolm Hillgartner

Overview

A powerful reckoning over the people we might have been if we'd chosen a different path, from a master of the short story

In this stirring, reflective collection of short stories, Joyce Carol Oates ponders alternate destinies: the other lives we might have led if we'd made different choices. An accomplished writer returns to her childhood home of Yewville, but the homecoming stirs troubled thoughts about the person she might have been if she'd never left. A man in prison contemplates the gravity of his irreversible act. A student's affair with a professor results in a pregnancy that alters the course of her life forever. Even the experience of reading is investigated as one that can create a profound transformation: “You could enter another time, the time of the book.”

The (Other) You*is an arresting and incisive vision into these alternative realities, a collection that ponders the constraints we all face given the circumstances of our birth and our temperaments, and that examines the competing pressures and expectations on women in particular. Finely attuned to the nuances of our social and psychic selves, Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates here why she remains one of our most celebrated and relevant literary figures.*

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2021 - AudioFile

In this story collection, prolific author Joyce Carol Oates explores "might-have-beens" among a variety of characters. Kate Reading provides a strong and steady narration, as usual, boldly putting forth Oates's direct syntax and a no-nonsense style. Narrator Malcolm Hillgartner has a more formal voice that keeps listeners at arm's length with its chilly tone. Both narrators are well-matched performers for Oates's tales of loss, disappointment, and regret. Whether the story follows one woman's examination of the life she could have had or revisits an older man's heartbreak, the audiobook is clear-eyed and methodical in its approach. Listeners are left to react with their own emotions. Reading and Hillgartner present the stories with a neutral clarity that suits Oates's work. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

"Trenchant and moody."  — New York Times Book Review

"...A series of well-written stories about the what-if wonders of a life that’s been, well, lived...Oates is a master of tension and form, her writing dashing across the page to an often devastating conclusion. Her singular style works well here, fueling the stories even as you oftentimes dread them."  — USA Today

"Oates delivers a dark, moody collection permeated by themes of obsession, remorse, and violence. . . . Oates's mastery of the form remains fierce and formidable in this unsettling collection of lamentations and missed opportunities."
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Crackling with pent-up emotion and deadly devices, a suite of neatly intertwining stories by a masterful storyteller. . . . Few short story writers do as much in so few words as the economical, enigmatic Oates.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177267043
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,186,335

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