The Frenzy: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates
A frenzy is a state of heightened, wild, and uncontrollable
emotion, often marked by a loss of reason. It’s a feeling of emotional angst and
instability that often manifests in violent, chaotic behavior that usually leaves
some kind of destruction, whether it is emotional wreckage, reputational harm,
or even physical injuries. Joyce Carol Oates’ latest collection of stories not
only uses The Frenzy as a title, but many of the characters experience a
kind of frenzied state as a result of their relationships and interactions. I am
grateful to Random House and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of this
harrowing and haunting collection of stories. I’ve only read a few of the well-known,
anthologized stories from Oates, so I wasn’t completely prepared for how unsettling
some of these stories were; however, while this is a dark collection of
stories, it is rewarding for those readers who enjoy being knocked or rocked
off of our sense of security by both sudden events or the slow and gradual
release of more information that eventually leads to a kind of peripeteia where
characters experience a reverse of fortune due their prior acts, whether these
are acts of omission, ignorance, or relational violence. Although these stories
have that tragic structure in place, there’s almost no catharsis in these stories
since many of the characters are unlikeable. Rather they sometimes experience a
sense of cosmic irony, where the character seems to get what they deserve (“The
Frenzy” and “The Bicycle Accident”). Other stories feature characters who
struggle with changes and accepting their fates (“The Redwoods”, “Refuge”, and “Night
Fishing at Antibes”). Yet, all of these characters either experience their own
sense of frenzy or are forced to navigate a kind of frenzy from a loved one
that eventually brings about a revelation to their relationships. The Frenzy
is a collection of domestic horror stories—stories that are not supernatural,
but feature horrific and monstrous people who engage in troubling and
destructive behavior. I wasn’t expecting this kind of reaction to this book, but
Joyce Carol Oates clearly struck a nerve in me with these stories.
The stories are generally longer short stories, which allows
for some development of characters and in some cases considerable time to pass.
I loved this aspect of the book, as the extended character development allows
for a deeper sense of irony when these characters experience their peripeteia,
or reversal of fortune. “The Frenzy”, which is the first story in the
collection, starts the collection off strong and features a husband and father
who absconds to Cape May, NJ with his much younger “mistress”, who was a few
years older than his daughter. Although the shore town is somewhat deserted
during the winter, Cassidy keeps thinking about an experience he had on a boat
in Rhode Island, watching a feeding frenzy, where plankton attract smaller
fish, which attract larger fish, and eventually apex predators. It’s a scene
that’s revisited later in the story and serves as an effective metaphor and
foreshadowing event for Cassidy’s relationship with the younger Brianna. I was
shocked by the ending, and this story engaged me for the rest of the book.
“The Fear” is another interesting story that spends time
charting the relationship between two cousins, Juliet and Janette, who are
close in age and grow up together and celebrate birthdays and holidays together
until Juliet is mysteriously absent from Janette’s sixth birthday. Oates
effectively captures the uncertainty and ignorance of childhood as the adults
shield Janette from Juliet’s cancer diagnosis, which wreaks havoc on Juliet’s social
life in school and her appearance, due to reconstructive surgeries. This was
one of the more harrowing stories, not only because it deals with childhood
illness, but also because of how Janette struggles with her own feelings and
needs for attention and emotional assurance. As Juliet’s illness, surgeries,
and recovery demands more caregiving from her family, Janette experiences a
kind of withdrawal of emotions and struggles with her own feelings. As someone
who has served as a loved one’s caregiver during cancer, I can appreciate the
conflicted feelings Janette experienced as she navigates the dissonance between
her concern and care for Juliet and her own feelings of resentment and the
desire for attention that all kids experience.
“The Bicycle Accident” was another harrowing read focusing
on how a bicycle accident during a family reception completely changes the
trajectory a family’s life. However, the bicycle accident is more of a response
to Evie’s parents’ (Arlette and Kevin’s) hamartia, their fatal flaws in
judgement and awareness of a family friend, that leads Evie to gradually
disconnect from their family. While most of the events take place before and
after Evie’s accident, tracing her recovery and her pushing the boundaries of
adolescent independence, the story skips ahead into Evie’s adulthood and
Arlette’s eventual move into an assisted living home. This story also has a
reversal of fortunes and roles where caregiving and receiving are ironically
transposed.
The second group of stories, “The Call”, “The Return”, and “The
Redwoods” all have to do with death and relationships. “The Call” is one of the
shorter stories in this collection, and S., the main character who is a
daughter, wife and mother, is informed that her father has died in a hospital,
yet she is sure that her father has been dead for years. S. tries to make sense of this call and the
events of her life, including caring for her elderly parents. “The Return” is
about a writer who visits her friend, a recent widow for the second time, after
the pandemic restrictions have eased. As she visits the house, she realizes how
the house has fallen into disrepair since the death of her friend’s husband,
Thad, a well-known professor and writer. This issue of disrepair and an
inability to keep up physical property is another theme throughout the book, as
characters seem to lack the ability to maintain their surroundings and in some
cases themselves after experiencing loss or tragedy. Like the character of
Janette in “The Fear”, this narrator is also struggling to come to terms with
her friend’s loss; however, while Janette is young, the narrator and her friend
are both older, facing the same kind of existential questions that Thad
experienced before he died, and this leads the narrator to some revelations as
she notices some unsettling evidence around the home. “The Redwoods” stands out
as a kind of ghost story, but it’s also about a man (Jake) who is haunted by a chance
encounter during a hike in his early 20s. Jake seems to be unable to let go of
the regret in not talking more to a woman he encountered with a partner on a
hike, and this chance encounter has seemingly haunted him until his early death
in his 50s. He is able to return to his family, but is unable to communicate
with them, just as he was largely unable to communicate with them while he was
alive, always regretting his inaction on the trail. Again, we see a character
whose hamartia both haunts and punishes him not only for his lifetime, but his
afterlife as well. We also see how this fatal flaw of Jake’s punishes his
family as well.
The third and final section of stories all see to deal with marriages,
but these themes of illness, regret, and frenzied reactions to stress and
traumatic events carry across all of the stories. “Small Veins” is another
brief story that details a woman receiving a blood test after her husband has died.
She seems to anticipate a disease or illness, but it might just be her own mental
malaise that causes her distress and angst. “Refuge” was another disturbing
story about a woman whose husband has disappeared for nearly two months, until
she receives a frantic call from him that leaves some clues to his whereabouts.
Prior to the call, we learn more about their marriage and the kinds of
accommodations she makes to feel love for her husband, while he fails to
reciprocate. Her quest to find him, mirrored by her questions surrounding the puppy
that they adopted who also has gone missing, also allow us to learn more about
the tensions and inequities in their relationship. While Marcus, the husband,
has sought refuge in a Buddhist monastery, he doesn’t seem to have found the
kind of zen enlightenment we most associate with Buddhism. The book ends with “Night
Fishing at Antibes”, which deals with a widow’s adaptation to life without her
husband. Zahira struggles to find a sense of rhythm and purpose without her
husband, Herman, who was a scientist at an institute for advanced study. Another
recent widow, Meghan, attempts to pull Zahira out of her drudgery, but Zahira misses
her marriage and struggles to adapt to this new kind of relationship. Zahira is
surrounded by either widows who struggle to maintain their homes or seemingly
happy families and marriages, where spouses care for one another. Zahira thinks
back to a fleeting encounter she had with one of her husband’s colleagues,
Illya, who showed interest in her despite Zahira not reciprocating. While Illya
is a renowned scientist, he is much older than Zahira. Eventually Zahira and
her new friend, Meghan, visit Illya and his wife, Hester, for lunch as Illya is
recovering from several surgeries. Zahira attends the luncheon after years
prior rejecting Illya’s lunch date, with the hope that Illya may still show
some affection for Zahira. However, the lunch devolves into a manic and frantic
episode for both Hester and Illya, possibly showing Zahira that maybe she’s
better off without a husband, or at least a husband like Illya.
These stories are disturbing and unsettling, but the are
also incredible and instructive. I could see using some of these stories in an
intro to lit class, although many of the stories are dark and unsettling. Maybe
there’s another kind of modern gothic or domestic horror lit class that these stories
would fit. As I was reading them, I can see how Oates’ work resonates with
writers like Stephen King, who has moved from supernatural horrors to the kinds
of horrors that represent the banality of evil, that we may experience in our
everyday lives. Furthermore, Oates’ stories all touch on topics that we can
never escape: health, relationships, aging and time. In fact, the last story
uses Picasso’s painting “Night Fishing at Antibes” as a kind of metaphor for
staving off the ravages of time and maintaining a sense of integrity while
aging. Illya, the aging scientist near death, reminds his visitors of Einstein’s
contradictions when he says “Einstein certainly knew that in fact there is
only time: the hourglass that runs in one direction only.” It’s a reminder
to recognize that change and adaptation are natural parts of life. I also loved
that many of the stories in this book take place in Central Jersey, Bucks
County, PA and other areas around the Delaware River, areas I am familiar with.
I highly recommend this collection, but it is a collection of stories that will
challenge readers’ thinking and comfort, confronting us with some of the
monstrous and horrid eventualities of life, rather than running towards the warm
embrace of delusions and ignorance. Many
thanks to Random House and NetGalley for sharing this advanced copy.
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