Joyce Carol Oates: Conversations (ISBN 0865381186)

A Long-Awaited Updating:
It had been years since anyone gathered Oates' recent interviews and discussions under one cover, and this collection is a good one. Drawing for its subject matter the texts of articles and conversations regarding (but mostly by) Oates, from such sources as The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, Playboy, and more than a dozen other publications, Johnson, Oates' second most ardent fan after me, has done a sound job as editor of this project. These discussions show Oates as a thoughtful individual, often puzzled by the state of human society, and it is easy to see from her words how her efforts to comprehend the goings-on in this life manifest so often in her books. Within "Conversations" one can learn of Oates's views on Marilyn Monroe, subject of her novel Blonde, her attitudes on race, religion, violence, politics, family, love, the supernatural, and contemporary and past America. Most of all anyone who reads this book will become better informed about Oates' masterful insights into the malleable craft of writing. At times it is desirable to know little about a writer and therefore to have a more filtered and directed experience in reading her or his material, and at other times it is not (such as Sylvia Plath, whose life story has been fried into her works to the point a neutral reading is an impossibility) but with an iconic figure such as Joyce Carol Oates, background knowledge can greatly enhance an appreciation of her nearly one-hundred published books. I really enjoyed Joyce Carol Oates: Conversations, and I'm very glad Mr. Johnson took the time to put this work out there. He has my appreciation.