two more fiction

31 joyce carol oates new book of short stories, about murder, gridning poverty, prison, assualt, rape and other entertainments. incredibly depressing, and underwritten, i liked the lack of omnipotent narrators, the confusion of charatchers motiviotns, the half understood reasons and desires, and the in general hardness, brutality of her writing. ended with a lovely and sad peice about marylin, which was nostaglic in the oppostion to the rest of the work.

30 byatts matisse stories, safe, sentimental, borgeious, careful, lovely little things, with one called the lobster, a pretty viscious academic parody on all sides.