American Melancholy is the title of Joyce Carol Oates’ latest collection of poems. These poems have appeared over the last couple of decades in top-name publications where we mortal poets wish we were published. While there are a few obviously personal poems, most of the poems are political, or political in a personal way, and have a lot to say about what America has become. My favorites include “Doctor Help Me,” a poem about abortion, “Hatefugue,” and “To Marlon Brando in Hell.” Oates is a skilled writer and worth studying if you’re a poet looking to learn how to write effectively.

Here’s what Publishers Weekly says:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-303526-3

Cardiff, by the Sea is a book of four novellas by Joyce Carol Oates. The first one (which  comes in at 170 pages, so I would call it a novel) is the title story about an adopted woman who inherits a house from her unknown biological grandmother in Maine. She goes there to claim her inheritance and is sucked into a dreamy nightmarish world and learns her biological father killed his spouse and children (except her) – or did he? The second one (my favorite), Miao Dao, focuses on a feral cat who becomes a ghost that intervenes to protect the young girl protagonist from abusive males – or did it? The third one, Phantomwise: 1972, concerns a young female graduate student who becomes entangled with predatory male professors. The final story, The Surviving Child, concerns a female protagonist who marries the widow of a famous woman poet who killed herself – or did she? In all the stories, characters behave in improbable ways that are jarring and there are strong gothic elements. Here’s what New York Journal of Books says:

https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/cardiff-sea-four-novellas