Word: artful
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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This sudden, inexplicable eruption of violence typifies what many find troubling about Oates' fiction. If the purpose of art is to provide a comprehensible context, an explanatory train of circumstances, for human activity, then Oates certainly falls short. She knows this risk and consistently runs it anyhow. Her obsession remains the untidy world where everyone actually lives, where headlines daily scream out the unthinkable and where nice people find themselves behaving in ways they can barely imagine, much less condone. The McCulloughs' marriage, despite outward appearances, is far from perfect; the author deftly reveals the stresses and fault lines that...
...civilized society and the Grand Guignol is tricky work, and Oates' success has varied from book to book. But American Appetites offers a thoroughly credible version of what is both unbelievable and disturbingly familiar. Her prose is headlong. There are cliches; sentences do not ask to be examined for artful felicities. Pausing seems beside the point. The rush is utterly convincing. Any definition of art that excludes this novel is probably too narrow...
...ART: An abiding passion for trenchant realism...
...ART DIRECTOR: Rudolph Hoglund...
...ART: Nigel Holmes (Executive Director); Arthur Hochstein, Irene Ramp (Deputies); Billy Powers, Ina Saltz, John F. White, Barbara Wilhelm (Assistant Directors); Angel Ackemyer, James Elsis, Carol March (Designers); Nickolas Kalamaras Layout: Steve Conley (Chief); John P. Dowd (Deputy); Stefano Arata, Joseph Aslaender, David Drapkin, Lisa Sampson, Nomi Silverman, Kenneth Smith, Eugene Tick Maps and Charts: Paul J. Pugliese (Chief); Cynthia Davis, Joe Lertola, E. Noel McCoy, Nino Telak, Deborah L. Wells...