The perfectionist and other plays

Joyce Carol Oates

A collection of plays written by the celebrated novelist include "In Here She Is," "The Perfectionist," "Homesick," and "The Interview" Every now and then a novelist ventures onto the stage. Usually the affair ends badly, but Oates is the exception. During the past decade, the prolific fiction writer has established herself as a startling, original, highly versatile playwright who changes her style and tone as often as Oates the novelist. This new collection of her plays displays her full range. In Here She Is, which sends up the Miss America Pageant, we have Oates the satirist. In The Perfectionist, about an annoyingly anal-retentive executive and his dysfunctional family, we have Oates the Gurneyesque writer of mannered comedies. And in Homesick, about a serial killer and his victim, we have Oates the chilling chronicler of America's dark side. Some of these plays may leave readers vaguely unsatisfied; Oates doesn't always penetrate to the heart of the matter. But even in the weakest of her plays (e.g., the absurdist trifle The Interview, which sends up the celebrity-mad press), there is an interesting idea or two to chew on.