I Am No One You Know
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
15
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
Bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates returns with a collection of nineteen startling stories that bear witness to the remarkably varied lives of Americans of our time.I Am No One You Know contains nineteen startling stories that bear witness to the remarkably varied lives of Americans of our time. In "Fire," a troubled young wife discovers a rare, radiant happiness in an adulterous relationship. In "Curly Red," a girl makes a decision to reveal a family secret, and changes her life irrevocably. In "The Girl with the Blackened Eye," selected for The Best American Mystery Stories 2001, a girl pushed to an even greater extreme of courage and desperation manages to survive her abduction by a serial killer. And in "Three Girls," two adventuresome NYU undergraduates seal their secret love by following, and protecting, Marilyn Monroe in disguise at Strand Used Books on a snowy evening in 1956.These vividly rendered portraits of women, men, and children testify to Oates's compassion for the mysterious and luminous resources of the human spirit.
Reviews with the most likes.
JCO writes with a sense of immediacy that's like an IV drip for me. I haven't figured out exactly what it is about her writing that I find so compelling (because I know it's not for everyone), but I think it has something to do with the way she's able to allow us into characters' consciousnesses that feels really real. Like, I'm sitting here feeling the same feelings her characters feel... but they are such delightfully nuanced feelings. I also love that she writes these pseudo-thrillers of short stories; they inspire dread, not fear (though some are downright creepy) which is perfect for me because I'm way too suggestible. Also cool that almost all of the stories take place in upstate NY!
