Another JCO story dealing with a killer is the novella The Triumph of the
Spider Monkey. It's much more experimental in style and I'm afraid made
rather less impression on me.
The thing that struck me about Zombie was the sense - no doubt intended -
that Quentin is a flawed human being who doesn't get things right - but he
keeps on trying. When you square that with what he *is* actually trying to
do, it gives the novel (novella? it's really quite short) a blackly comic
edge which if anything made it more disturbing for me.
Zombie won the Stoker Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Horror Writers of
America. JCO isn't a horror-genre writer as such, but she's certainly highly
respected in the genre and appears regularly in genre anthologies. (I'd rate
Son of the Morning as one of her best "horror" novels, though its subject
matter is entirely different to that of Zombie.)
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: "Provencher, Nicole D" <ndprovencher@lake.ollusa.edu>
To: <jco@usfca.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 10:01 AM
Subject: JCO: Zombie (Spoil Alert)
Zombie -
I read Zombie this evening. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to
how this story "fits in" with Oates' other works? I have not read Oates
chronologically or in any particular order (it seems more like the books
just come to me) and I was disturbed by this work more than any other I have
read. While many of Oates' stories involving female protagonists end with
the feeling that the female will go on with her life and find a way to keep
living, the idea of Quentin allowed to live and plotting and planning is
very upsetting. Is this male (killer) character revisited in any other
other works that you have run across? Any ideas on this novel anyone wants
to discuss?
Also, I noticed that Quentin counts time in this work by placing stones on
the air-conditioner by the window. Rebecca does the same thing to count
time in The Grave Digger's Daughter. A little detail - but I found it
interesting that it appeared in two completely different characters - has
anyone seen this in other works?
- Nicole (Texas)
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