Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Colwin, Laurie (Vol. 23) - Joyce Carol Oates

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JOYCE CAROL OATES

"The Lone Pilgrim" cannot be recommended to those whose hearts have been pierced by the cynical notion that stereotypical "romantic" situations are not viable as art, or who expect from a writer a great deal more, by way of characterization, than ebullient catalogues of hairstyles, clothes, sports, nicknames, hobbies, apartment furnishings and quirks of diet. Yet Miss Colwin writes with such sunny skill, and such tireless enthusiasm, that her overmined subject matter becomes insignificant, and one reads with fascination the steps by which lovers in one story after another stumble upon their forthright declarations [of love]…. The stories' disingenuous female narrators, and the author's charming if puzzling observations ("Falling in love outside of marriage is the ultimate, and every other gesture is its shadow"), are adroitly concocted; and at least one story, "A Girl Skating," which touches upon issues rather more weighty than romance, is very...

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1. Introduction
2. Dorothy Rabinowitz
3. Helen Chasin
4. Anne Barnes
5. Gabriele Annan
6. Joyce Carol Oates
7. Allen Wier
8. Anatole Broyard
9. Letty Cottin Pogrebin
10. Saturday Review
11. Holly Eley
12. Copyright

1. Joyce Carol Oates