The Female of the Species - Softcover

"One of the great artistic forces of our time." The Nation "For 40 years, Joyce Carol Oates has maintained a creative dialogue with the rolling cauldron of contemporary American culture, writing unflinchingly about the oddities that bubble up into the headlines." Washington Post Book World

A young wife is home alone when the phone rings in "So Help Me God." Is the strange voice flirting with her from the other end of the line her jealous husband laying a trap, or a stranger who knows entirely too much about her? In "Madison at Guignol" an unhappy fashionist discovers a secret door inside her favourite clothing store and insists the staff let her enter. But even her fevered imagination cannot anticipate the horror they have been hiding from her. In these and other gripping and disturbing tales, women are confronted by the evil around them and surprised by the evil they find within themselves. With wicked insights, Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates why the females of the species - be they six-year-old girls, seemingly devoted wives, or ageing mothers - are by nature more deadly than the males.