I know, I know... Oates is awesome. Read your Oates. I just couldn't get into these. They all seemed like experiments in styles created by other people. I'll have to revisit these another time. ( )

I know, I know... Oates is awesome. Read your Oates. I just couldn't get into these. They all seemed like experiments in styles created by other people. I'll have to revisit these another time. ( )

This is Joyce Carol Oates' third collection of short stories, published in 1970 soon after she won the National Book Award. The stories were originally published in such venues as Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Yale Review, and Atlantic Monthly, and some were featured in "Prize Stories: The O Henry Awards".

The stories are dark and difficult, intense, sometimes to the point of emotional violence; some are frightening, while others are just discomfiting. A few seem (to this reader) challenging to understand, if not self- indulgently obscure. Throughout, Oates' talent at invading (creating) the psyche of her characters -- particularly the female characters -- is well demonstrated.

Among the most notable stories are "Unmailed, Unwritten Letters", "Demons", "Boy and Girl", "Four Summers", the eponymous and “The Wheel of Love”. The most impressive and memorable story is “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been”, which was used as a basis for a 1985 film, "Smooth Talk". ( )

Her best single volume. ( )