Lost Daddy

This story is interesting because is starts off with the words " the mommy". Throughout the rest of the story, Joyce Carol Oates uses "the mommy" and "the daddy" to explain the mother and father of a young, four year old boy. At first you cannot tell that their marriage has many problems, but as the story goes on the father tells his son things that annoy him about his wife. The father thinks that because the boy is so young he wont retain any of the information he shares, and Tod will surely not share any of it with his mother. Tod and his father go for a walk, this walk ends up being a plan of the father's to try to catch his wife in the act of doing something she isn't supposed to be doing. You do not know if he suspects that his wife is cheating.

I liked this story because you really had to pay attention to the details, certain characters that were brought up, had one meaning but then you could forget about them. This isn't a story that you should read just for fun because in order to really understand the meaning you must read it a couple of times, even discussing it with a friend who has read it.

Death Certificate

This story by Joyce Carol Oates is my favorite that i have read by her so far. It is about a woman who goes to the courthouse of her hometown, where she grew up. She had to get a death certificate for someone who is not named and you do not know their relationship. While she is waiting for the man to get back from his break so he can give her the papers, she gets more frustrated by the minute. After about 5 minutes a man comes in that she recognizes. She remembers him from her high school years, they were intimate and had dated a couple of time. They talk and laugh, but she soon gets to the point. She wants him to give her another chance because she has changed.

I really enjoyed this story because of the mystery of who the death certificate show the death of. Originally, you can't wait to find out who the woman is going to the courthouse for. But as the story goes on, you can tell that it has no affect on the outcome of the story. You really want to know who it is but you never find out. I really suggest that every one read this story.

Bitch by Joyce Carol Oates

In this story the writing technique of the authors writing changes. She repeats the beginnings of sentences a lot, using them for five or six sentences after that. A lot of the sentences are written in a confusing way, as if backwards. "Before the ambulance and the hospital and the elevator to the eighth floor which had become her life things had not been exactly good and yet not-good in a way of meaning not-bad, considering." I had to re read this a couple of times before realizing that she meant the girls life was not good or bad, just normal. This story is written as a person would think, their mind jumping to different places and questioning things on the way.

This story was very different than the rest of her stories as I said, and i think this is one of the reasons I liked it. Although it was slightly confusing it made you want to know why the girls father called her Poppy. It made you wonder what had happened to her father and what her life was like before and after. That is the one thing that stayed consistent with the story, being very ambiguous. I would recommend this story for people in our class to read.

Sourland By Joyce Carol Oates

The second story i read in Sourland, was "Bonobo Momma". This short story was about a girl about the age of 14 who had terrible back problems. Her spine was curved in the shape of a "z" and when she walked it was very lopsided. Her estranged mother who was barely ever around, came to visit her. The girl had just recovered from the last in a chain of back surgeries to try to fix her spine alignment. She was in a lot of pain and her mother didn't seem very interested in how she was doing. Her mother was stubborn and loud, so when they had been waiting too long at a restaurant, she called them out and left. Her daughter was in a lot of pain and by the end of the story her mother called her a cab to take her home and told her she would see her soon.

I can somehow relate to this because my mom works very hard and long hours. I feel bad for the daughter because she just had pain full surgeries and her Mom was shipping her off back home. It must be hard to have a parental unit that is very infatuated with themselves that they hardly spend time with you. Joyce Carol Oates did a very nice job of writing this short story because although you knew the daughters feelings, the author did not tell you too much. The ending was not to ambiguous which i liked. I recommend this short story because it is an interesting read.

Sourland By Joyce Carol Oates

The first short story i read was Babysitter. This story is about a mother leaving her kids with their nanny to go to an appoinment. As the mother drives to her appointment she is thinking about her kids and her husband. She is wondering if this is the right thing to do. You get that hint that she is going to a hotel room to have an affair with a man. The interesting part is that this man won't tell her his name or much about him. At first she feels like this is the right thing to do. But as they begin to start the misdeads, she realizes that he wants her gone right after they are finished. She feels lost because she was late getting home to her kids and she feels bad for her husband. On her drive back home she brings up that their is a child snatcher on the loose.

I liked this story beause it opens up with a lot of description. " Midday, early spring, sunshine in steel bars flashing on the river, she drove to meet him where he'd summoned her." This opening really draws me in to read more and see where this story was going. I feel as if i were her, Joyce Carol Oates did a great job of making her emotions seem very real. I liked how at the end you weren't quite sure of what happened. The ambiguious ending made you want to read more of her stories and see what was in store.