Cardiff, by the Sea: Four Novellas of Suspense

I’ve been reading JCO since the late 1960s, beginning with Shuddering Fall, By the North Gate, The Edge of Impossibility, Anonymous Sins and Other Poems. I have had decades of pleasure, intellectual stimulus, and dramatic/gothic thrills from reading her work. Social realism to Gothic confabulations. Cardiff, by the Sea, is the best of the four novellas in this collection, although The Surviving Child is a close second. She has been publishing for nearly sixty years at a very high level of achievement. But I wonder why she feels the need to publish work that falls below her own high standard. How many dark stories of young women, unformed, insecure, caught up in risky relationships with iffy men has she written (cf. Miao Dao and Phatomwise: 1972 in this collection)? I cannot calculate that. But she has reached the point in two of these novellas where she has run out of anything freshpsychologically, technically, emotionallyto tell us about this character type. She messes about with endings in these four novellas, wanting it both ways: The Girl in Phantomwise lived, no she died. For a real taste of her at her Gothic best I recommend Mysteries of Winterthurn and the other novels in her Gothic quintet: Bellefleur, My Heart Laid Bare, the Accursed. I have never been able to gain traction with the fifth novel in the quintet: A Bloodsmoor Romance. Happy reading.

These stories were very nearly unreadable. I absolutely could not follow any of these tales. It breaks my heart to say this because the author has obviously put in a lot of time and energy to craft them. But I have to be honest and admit that each of these stories make virtually no sense. I sent my copy back for a refund.
p.s. I purchased an ed McBain novel as an exchange, and now I am happy

She is the quintessential queen of dark Gothic-tinged suspense, always keeping you guessing. All four of these novellas are totally un-put-downable. Im sad that I have already finished them!

Four perfectly crafted novellas. In my opinion, few writers can craft a story the way Oates does. She’s able to get inside the crevices of the psyche and unravel the complexities that lie within.

After getting through the first one, I gave up. The wording was often juvenile and confusing. Plus, there was no conclusion, it just ended with no answer.

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