A Widow's Story

Joyce Carol Oates is a novelist, critic, playwright, poet and author of short stories and one of America's most respected literary figures. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Princeton University and a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction.

'This is one of the most compelling books I have read in a long time. One is with her, every inch of the way, as if her story were one's own.' Observer 'There are memorable sentences on every page, little crystalline moments that leap out and stay imprinted in your mind for days afterwards. It's an extraordinary piece of work -- naked, unflinching and unforgettable.' Sunday Telegraph 'Comparisons can be made with Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" but every grief is subtly different and Oates has become a new version of herself in her ways and in her words, which reveal the processes of the writer as much as the progress of the woman.' The Times 'Oates's writing is so incisive, so beautifully revealing of what it means to "inhabit a free-fall world from which meaning has been drained", that it is difficult to open this book without crying ! a memoir so eloquent and raw as this can only make a reader aware of two things: 1) Bereavement is devastating, indescribable and impossible to bear; and 2) It will happen to us all. This memoir, and its author's continuing life, are beautiful tributes to Raymond Smith.' Independent on Sunday 'Oates's tender account of her long marriage and her brief widowhood is raw, and doesn't shrink from exposing the weakness, ugliness and selfishness of extreme grief, as well as its bitter comedy.' Daily Telegraph 'This writer is a phenomenon, and even though in the past she has shied away from personal writing, the memoir form was surely an obvious one. Perceptive, moving and oddly entertaining, "A Widow's Story" takes us on a passionate journey into the nature of loss and the mystery of love.' Daily Mail

'This is one of the most compelling books I have read in a long time. One is with her, every inch of the way, as if her story were one's own.' Observer

'There are memorable sentences on every page, little crystalline moments that leap out and stay imprinted in your mind for days afterwards. It's an extraordinary piece of work - naked, unflinching and unforgettable.' Sunday Telegraph

'Comparisons can be made with Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" but every grief is subtly different and Oates has become a new version of herself in her ways and in her words, which reveal the processes of the writer as much as the progress of the woman.' The Times

'Oates's writing is so incisive, so beautifully revealing of what it means to "inhabit a free-fall world from which meaning has been drained", that it is difficult to open this book without crying ... a memoir so eloquent and raw as this can only make a reader aware of two things: 1) Bereavement is devastating, indescribable and impossible to bear; and 2) It will happen to us all. This memoir, and its author's continuing life, are beautiful tributes to Raymond Smith.' Independent on Sunday

'Oates's tender account of her long marriage and her brief widowhood is raw, and doesn't shrink from exposing the weakness, ugliness and selfishness of extreme grief, as well as its bitter comedy.' Daily Telegraph

'This writer is a phenomenon, and even though in the past she has shied away from personal writing, the memoir form was surely an obvious one. Perceptive, moving and oddly entertaining, "A Widow's Story" takes us on a passionate journey into the nature of loss and the mystery of love.' Daily Mail