(Woman) Writer is a fascinating collection of essays by the famous and prolific author Joyce Carol Oates. The essays meander wonderfully amongst subjects, including an overview of general topics relating to the art of writing, Oates' interpretations of a variety of literary works ranging from the classic to the little-known, and the bloody sport of boxing as seen from Oates' unique vantage point. The final sections of the book deal with Oates' travels to Eastern Europe, her experience of having one of her most famous stories made into a film, her observations on food and literature, her memories of Detroit, and a section of "Prefaces" to her most famous novels. The last section in particular is sure to be of special interest to Oates' many fans.
Oates is, as anyone who has followed her career knows, passionately committed to writing and fascinated by all it permutations. Her first chapters speak to the mystery of precisely how art may be said to "begin" and the equally mysterious relationship of the artist to his art. "Does the Writer Exist?" is the title of one chapter and she shows that the answer is not nearly so obvious as it seems.
"Wonderlands" is the chapter that starts off her second section, recalling the title of one of her most admired novels and the Lewis Carroll original that was such a spur to her childhood imagination. This section gives Oates' interpretations of several classics. In "Jane Eyre: An Introduction" Oates argues against the usual assumption of Bronte scholars that Rochester's crippling and blinding are a symbolic castration for "he is as masculine as ever." Her insights into the image of the double in Stevenson's “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and Shelley's “Frankenstein” are thought-provoking, the first a monster "caged in our flesh", the second "the nightmare that is deliberately created by man's ingenuity (italics in the original)".
Oates' fascination with boxing makes her chapters on that sport lovingly detailed and as revealing of their author as their violent subject. She regards boxing as "an art in which the human body itself is the instrument" and believes that when a man like Mike Tyson becomes a champion he is "a savior, of sorts, covered in sweat and ready for war."
After the "prefaces" to five of her novels, Oates closes with a long meditation on pseudonyms and their relation to the "real" self. It is only the latest addition to the theme of self and doublehood which has enriched so much of Oates' fictions as well as so many of these essays.
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