July 7, 2007

Book 38: I Am No One You Know

I Am No One You Know
Joyce Carol Oates

Callie recently asked me, "How do you evaluate a collection of short stories?" Seeing as I'm not a true literary critic (being hopelessly amateur in my endeavors here), I don't know if my answer was correct in any high literary sense, but my general idea is to try to get a picture of the collection as a whole. This works particularly well when the collection has been written by a single author, rather than being compiled. This particular collection of short stories constitutes a heavy tome of psychological studies that focus on the unexpected, hidden lives of people we think we know or think we are. Each of the main characters in this book could be someone you meet on the way to work, the barista in Starbucks or the high-powered lawyer who helps you sift through your parents' will. "The Girl with the Blackened Eye" has never told anyone of her harrowing ideal; even her husband isn't privy to that particularly gruesome week of her history. Yet here she is, laying it out for us and committing her emotional trauma in ink for a general audience. Her believability only underscores the thrilling power of each and every one of these stories.

Often, the reader is confused as to who may be right or wrong when a certain moral quandary comes up; we are left to figure it out along with the narrators and characters themselves. This is surprisingly genuine and touching- the stories may seem to end abruptly, but perhaps that is because their leading men and ladies don't know where they're heading, either. Every story is satisfying and deserves a moment of deep thought. Oates consistently invokes psychological and moral ambiguity within her stories and they somehow resist the urge to become weighty morality plays. Each tale, each life has its own set of problems and solutions, and each invites the reader to examine complex situations from uneasy angles. On the surface, it seems natural that a suburban divorcee should shy away from a convict, but when even she doubts her racial neutrality we are not automatically inclined to support her. We may initially balk at the idea of student-teacher love, but here is a case that defies expectations and encourages the reader to at least entertain possibilities beyond the initial negative reaction.

Oates poses constant challenges to her reader, but challenges at just the right level of difficulty. No situation is cut and dry; Oates gives us plenty of chances to doubt the veracity of the narrators and to argue along silently as they doubt themselves. Neither are the moral issues presented abstract and therefore meaningless. The stories are entirely tangible and readable, and this is what the collection in its entirety hinges on. "I am your son," one narrator says to an Alzheimer's-ridden man, "I am no one you know." Rather than being no one we know, Oates's characters could be anyone we know, from a passing glance to the intimacy of, well, intimacy. In this book the reader finds issues never expected to be met head-on, but which silently nag nonetheless. The reader is silently encouraged to look beyond the facade and realize that these narrators are, in fact, people we know, if we only bothered to look.

Grade: A

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