Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

One of the guests and attendees of the Los Angeles Times Book Festival this year is Joyce

Carol Oates, whose newest book is a collection of selected stories from

1966 to 2006 called High Lonesome. Of these stories, 11 of them are brand new,

or at least first published in book form, and there are 25 selected. As I was reading, I was amazed all over again

to see how many different kinds of stories are contained here.

But in particular, I noticed that in a short story that I have come to think of as characteristic of you,

something has happened before the story began, and something will happen after the story is over.

And the story is really middle, consciousness between events.

And I found it very interesting to see how many of the events, as the stories have progressed

over time, how the story is no longer a set piece.

There's an early story here upon the sweeping flood,

which really provides a set piece flood that's astonishing,

and the amount of physical action in the story is overwhelming.

But as the art progresses, it seems as if you have allowed yourself to enter consciousness rather than event.

That's so interesting, Michael. I'm actually working on a short story at this very moment, and what you say is very relevant.

I had not thought of it that way, but I have to absorb this. It's a very

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