Haunted (1994)

I keep meaning to address the subject of duds in story collections and anthologies. I'm so used to finding them in every one I read that I almost suspect it might be a matter of mood and/or just comes with the territory. This is the first collection I've read by Joyce Carol Oates, and it seemed to me almost perfect—nearly every story very good or better, and some, such as the title story, among the best I know. Two other collections of hers I've looked at since don't come close so maybe I had something like beginner's luck here. It does have weaker pieces, and at least one ("The Model") that doesn't seem like horror at all. Oates is very good at writing short stories and seems well aware of the range offered by horror. She includes an afterword specifically on horror that spells it out, as if she is explicitly committing to it. It feels like she can effortlessly access the fears all women know and live with and incorporate them naturally into her stories. They feature ghosts, monsters, haunted houses, serial killers, maybe even a vampire or werewolf or two. But behind all of it are the anxieties of being a woman in this society—taken for granted, fearful of violence, and struggling to be enough. It's not just sexual assault (a given in the worlds of these stories) but all the unfair and conflicting expectations to be strong, nurturing, submissive, and successful, along with the fears of failing to live up to any of these expectations. You can learn a tremendous amount from these stories, I suspect, about what it's like being a woman at the turn of the 21st century. Best of the best here include the title story, which deftly serves up a stew of simmering anxiety from haunted house to serial killer to irrational gnawing guilt and shame, followed by "The Doll," a munge of self-imposed you-can-do-it-all ambition with classic doll story elements done exceptionally well. I also liked seeing Oates dedicate the collection to editor-at-large Ellen Datlow, who I'm just coming to know via her vast production of anthologies over the past 30 years or so. Haunted is remarkably good, not least because the stories, each one, are so consistently so good.

In case the library is closed due to pandemic.