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Fiction. Short Stories. In the title story, a white aspiring professor is convinced she is being followed. No need to panic-she has a handgun stowed away in her purse, just in case. But when she turns to confront her black male shadow, the situation isn't what she expects. In "The Rescuer," a promising graduate student detours to inner-city Trenton, New Jersey, to save her brother from a downward spiral. But she soon finds out there may be more to his world than to hers. And in "The Last Man of Letters," the world-renowned author X embarks on a final grand tour of Europe. He has money, fame, but not a whole lot of manners. A little thing like etiquette couldn't bring a man like X down, could it? In these biting and beautiful pieces, Oates confronts, one by one, the demons within us, demonstrating that sometimes, it's not the human side that wins out.… (more)
User reviews
"Demon" gave me a severe case of the hee-bee-geebies! And, "Toad Baby" sort of freaked me out!
Sadly, I really didn't like "The Rescuer" - the longest story in the collection. And overall, I did not like the last
This collection (once again) featured Oates' eerie ability to explore the depths of those minds many would rather ignore or deny altogether. However, High Crime Area was just too ... bleak and hopeless - for me, right now. It took nearly a month to read all eight stories, and it was
Narrators Julia Whelan, Ray Chase, Donna Postel, Luci Christian, Tamara Marston, and Chris Patton are all excellent. (Chris Patton is a new favorite narrator of mine!) Without any overacting or dramatization, each narrator brings out the gradual, subtle horror of each of these stories. Recommended for readers of psychological suspense or literary fiction tinged with horror.
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