Joyce Carol Oates

this was good btw

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/06/the-unruly-genius-of-joyce-carol-oates

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/16/magazine/joyce-carol-oates-interview.html

The only book of hers I've read is an early one, A Garden of Earthly Delights. I thought it got off to a very slow start and gradually picked up steam. I didn't feel compelled to read the rest of the books in the quartet, though. Maybe someday.

I've never read anything of hers but I loved that interview. Very inspiring. Surprising she's not more of a feminist icon — survived two husbands, no kids, life totally devoted to The Work — but maybe her actual writing harms her reputation in that regard.

Whatever I managed to read of hers was usually pretty good, but maybe she just wrote too much and these days is kind of weighing in on matters on social media in a way I don’t need to know about. As I recall Martin Skidmore was a big fan, maybe he appears upthread.

I most remember her for those four early novels - The Garden of Earthly Delights, Expensive People, them, and Wonderland.

There have been so many since, but I don't think I've read any of them except for You Must Remember This and What I Lived For

I like her posts on twitter, they are really heartfelt and as somebody said, swing for the fences

haha I was so harsh on her above, and it's true that she was very unpleasant, but I also love her on twitter (for being unpleasant, half the time).

Joyce Carol Oates’s Relentless, Prolific Search for a Self
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/27/joyce-carol-oates-profile