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JOYCE CAROL OATES
isekeeper,
though it seemed accessible in the main. The suburb of
"New
Axis" was its setting, and also its subject, bleak and comically chaotic,
though of course circumscribed by civilization like all suburbs. New–
man's grateful, ironic style was perfectly matched with the half-dramatic
tales he had to tell; and in the end it is the author's voice we remember.
The best single thing he has done so far, in my opinion, is a long story
called "There Must Be More to Love Than Death," which appeared
in the Summer 1971 issue of
The Antioch Review.
It is a small
mas–
terpiece, the kind of delicately brutal work we might have wished
Catch-
22 to actually have been, "some bodies, words and objects" concerning
the disintegration of Airman Second Class George F. Patek, Jr.
These
works establish Newman as one of our most exciting and unpredictable
writers, one with an amazing range of styles and worlds. For Newman,
anything is now possible.
Joyce Carol
Oates
