The Assignation

The Assignation
by Joyce Carol Oates

The Assignation
List Price: $13.00
Our Price: $8.75
You Save: $4.25 (33%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.42 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-08-01
ISBN: 0880014407
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Ecco
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780880014403
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of The Assignation

Book Review: Collection of stories 40 years in making
Summary: 4 Stars

This review related to the hardcopy version of the same book. I have never read any of Joyce Carol Oates' books before, but I do know about her and the fact that she is often compared to John Updike in terms of her being a prolific writer. She publishes almost a book per year in addition to her full time teaching job at the Ivy League University. This is comprehensive collection of her stories written in the period of the last 40 years. The early ones seem to be about people who change in many ways after experiencing dramatic events in their lives. Those could be tick attacking woman's scalp, drive by shooting, or witnessing armed robbery. Her later stories seems to be about middle-aged women strong enough to stand up to their husbands and lovers and even have a lover or two while married, or in some sort of relationship. These women are empowered, strong and almost giddy about their choices. My favorite stories are "Secret" and "Homestead". I wish I could find these stories compelling, but I do not. Most of them seem to follow some formula that are not allowing story to stick around for the long time...

Summary of The Assignation

A woman's lover seems not to recognize her on the street. A teenage girl accepts a ride from a stranger in a rust-speckled Cadillac. An old man is obsessed by the memory of his innocent childhood intrusion on a half-dressed aunt.

In forty-four very short, very powerful stories, Joyce Carol Oates fashions brief, intensely compact dramas out of the unwieldy material of human experience. The stories in The Assignation are infused with a "radiant intensity," wrote James Atlas in the New York Times Book Review, and they convey the depth and scope of a novel in a few charged pages. The Assignation is an electric display of the talents that make Joyce Carol Oates one of our finest short story writers.

Short Stories Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Short Stories Books
The Roald Dahl Treasury ImageThe Roald Dahl Treasury
by Roald Dahl
Jonathan Cape; Published: 1997; Hardcover; Book
The Red Pony (Twentieth-Century Classics) ImageThe Red Pony (Twentieth-Century Classics)
by John Steinbeck
Penguin Classics; Published: 1994-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.28
Price in other shops: $12.00
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain ImageA Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
by Robert Olen Butler
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1993-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.15
Price in other shops: $12.95
Guys and Dolls: The Stories of Damon Runyon ImageGuys and Dolls: The Stories of Damon Runyon
by Damon Runyon
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1992-11-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $42.81
How We Are Hungry ImageHow We Are Hungry
by Dave Eggers
PENGUIN; Published: 2006-02-23; Paperback; Book
Dressing Up for the Carnival ImageDressing Up for the Carnival
by Carol Shields
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.79
Price in other shops: $15.00
East, West ImageEast, West
by Salman Rushdie
Vintage Books; Published: 2006-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.93
Price in other shops: $10.50
Local Girls ImageLocal Girls
by Alice Hoffman
Vintage/Ebury (a Division of Random; Published: 2000-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.25
Price in other shops: $17.75
Someone to Watch Over Me: Stories ImageSomeone to Watch Over Me: Stories
by Richard Bausch
Harper Perennial; Published: 2000-05-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.60
Price in other shops: $13.00
Faithless: Tales of Transgression ImageFaithless: Tales of Transgression
by Joyce Carol Oates
Ecco; Published: 2001-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.04
Price in other shops: $15.90
Similar Books and other products
Beasts (Otto Penzler Books) ImageBeasts (Otto Penzler Books)
by Joyce Carol Oates
Da Capo Press; Published: 2002-11-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.37
Price in other shops: $13.95
Solstice: A Novel ImageSolstice: A Novel
by Joyce Carol Oates
Ontario Review Books; Published: 2000-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.01
Price in other shops: $14.95
Them (Modern Library) ImageThem (Modern Library)
by Joyce Carol Oates
Modern Library; Published: 2006-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.13
Price in other shops: $16.00
Zombie: A Novel ImageZombie: A Novel
by Joyce Carol Oates
Ecco; Published: 2009-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.67
Price in other shops: $13.99
I Am No One You Know: Stories ImageI Am No One You Know: Stories
by Joyce Carol Oates
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-04-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.08
Price in other shops: $13.99
A Widow's Story: A Memoir ImageA Widow's Story: A Memoir
by Joyce Carol Oates
Ecco; Published: 2011-02-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: $27.99
Faithless: Tales of Transgression ImageFaithless: Tales of Transgression
by Joyce Carol Oates
Harper Perennial; Published: 2002-06-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $15.99
I Am No One You Know: Stories ImageI Am No One You Know: Stories
by Joyce Carol Oates
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.60
Price in other shops: $13.99
Faithless: Tales of Transgression ImageFaithless: Tales of Transgression
by Joyce Carol Oates
Harper Perennial; Published: 2002-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops: $14.95
The Gravedigger's Daughter: A Novel (P.S.) ImageThe Gravedigger's Daughter: A Novel (P.S.)
by Joyce Carol Oates
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops: $15.99