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A review by katieinca
Tales of H. P. Lovecraft by Joyce Carol Oates
3.0
4 stars for the selection here - if you've never read any Lovecraft and want a good primer in Lovecraft-y-ness, this covers a wide range of time, and has the stories you've heard people refer to most often. I could have used better supplementary material.
2 stars for the work itself. I am never going to be a Lovecraft fan. Maybe it's coming to it in 2013, familiar with different things than a reader of his time would have been. Maybe it's the casual racism. Maybe it's the overwrought prose. Maybe it's the feeling that he's getting paid by the word, and needs every penny. I trudged through most of these - The Shadow Over Innsmouth was my favorite and even that could have been half as long - and won't be looking for more.
Favorite part: an essay on writing at the end, from the man himself, including the instruction "Remove all possible superfluities - words, sentences, paragraphs, or whole episodes or elements." Right.
2 stars for the work itself. I am never going to be a Lovecraft fan. Maybe it's coming to it in 2013, familiar with different things than a reader of his time would have been. Maybe it's the casual racism. Maybe it's the overwrought prose. Maybe it's the feeling that he's getting paid by the word, and needs every penny. I trudged through most of these - The Shadow Over Innsmouth was my favorite and even that could have been half as long - and won't be looking for more.
Favorite part: an essay on writing at the end, from the man himself, including the instruction "Remove all possible superfluities - words, sentences, paragraphs, or whole episodes or elements." Right.