Man Crazy

by Joyce Carol Oates

I love Oates books, most of them anyway. When I look for someting contemporary she is my first choice.
Why is she so compelling? Her stories are always raw, explicit in their details. She brings you awfully close to her characters; their vomit, abuse and shortcomings. At the same time she is vauge about what is really going on, provides you with a puzzle, bits missing and bits broken.

Man Crazy is Oates at her best, and I hold Blonde to be her best work. It is a story about a beautiful girl growing up with her beautiful but troubled mother. Ingrid, the girls name, simply craves to be loved to the extent that every man can have her, abuse her and discard her. There is blood, love and suffering throughout the book. You just can't look away or stop reading.