A Widow's Story

by Oates, Joyce Carol

• ISBN13: 9780062020505
• ISBN10: 0062020501
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-07
• Publisher: Ecco Pr

Summary

Critics across the country have raved about Joyce Carol Oates's groundbreaking memoir A Widow's Story, lauding its blazing honesty and raw emotion, calling it "immensely moving," "searing," "enthralling," "brave," "slyly mordant," and "astonishingly candid."

Author Biography

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the PEN/ Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. In 2003 she received the Commonwealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature, and in 2006 she received the Chicago Tribune Lifetime Achievement Award.

Table of Contents

The Vigil
The Message	p. 3
Car Wreck	p. 5
The First Wrong Things	p. 10
"Pneumonia"	p. 19
Telemetry	p. 23
E-mail Record	p. 27
E. coli	p. 29
Hospital Vigil(s)	p. 32
Jasmine	p. 33
Vigil	p. 36
E-mail Record	p. 44
Memory Pools	p. 46
"I'm Not Crying for Any Reason"	p. 48
The Call	p. 54
Free Fall
"The Golden Vanity"	p. 63
Yellow Pages	p. 74
The Arrow	p. 78
E-mail Record	p. 82
Last Words	p. 86
"You've Said Good-bye"	p. 87
Double Plot	p. 93
Cat Pee	p. 98
Probate	p. 100
"Sympathy Gift Basket"	p. 106
The Betrayal	p. 112
The Artisans	p. 113
E-mail Record	p. 115
The Basilisk
"Beady Dead Eyes hike Gems"	p. 121
The Lost Husband	p. 123
"How Are You?"	p. 127
"Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter"	p. 131
The Nest	p. 134
Ghost Rooms	p. 144
E-mail Record	p. 153
Fury!	p. 159
Oasis	p. 170
Bruised Knees	p. 175
A Dream of Such Happiness!	p. 177
"We Want to See You Soon"	p. 179
Moving Away	p. 182
"Won't Be Seeing You for a While"	p. 189
"Can't Find You Where Are You"	p. 191
"1 Am Sorry to Inform You"	p. 193
Purgatory, Hell
"Neither Joyce Nor I Can Come to the Phone Right Now"	p. 203
The Military Order of the Purple Heart	p. 206
In Motion!	p. 217
In Motion!-"Still Alive"	p. 224
In Motion!-"Mouth of the Rat"	p. 229
In Motion!-"The Wonder Woman of American Literature"	p. 235
In Motion!-"You Can't Sit There"	p. 241
"Never Forget"	p. 246
The Widow's Secret	p. 248
Congratulations! I	p. 249
Congratulations! II	p. 252
E-mail Record	p. 259
The Cache	p. 263
Morbidity Studies	p. 267
The Intruder	p. 271
"You Looked So Happy"
Too Soon!	p. 275
"Leaving Las Vegas"	p. 279
"The Unlived…"	p. 282
Crude Cruel Stupid "Well-intentioned"	p. 284
"If…"	p. 287
"Never, Ever That Again"	p. 288
The "Real World"	p. 289
Little Love Story	p. 294
Tulips	p. 297
Please Forgive!	p. 302
"Happy, and Excited"	p. 311
Blood in the Water!	p. 319
Walking Wounded	p. 322
Dead Woman Walking	p. 324
Taboo	p. 332
"Ashamed to Be 'White'"	p. 335
It Made No Difference	p. 342
Sinkholes	p. 349
The Garden	p. 364
The Pilgrimage	p. 368
"You Looked So Happy"	p. 372
Black Mass I	p. 374
Black Mass II	p. 387
"Good Girl!"	p. 396
The Resolution	p. 400
"Did Ray Like Swing?"	p. 404
"Title"	p. 405
"Your Husband Is Still Alive"	p. 411
Epilogue
Three Small Sightings in August	p. 413
The Widow's Handbook	p. 416
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.