Joyce Carol Oates, one of the most prolific American writers, is not a performer. She says so herself in the opening minutes of Stig Björkman’s documentary about her life, a film the director had pitched to Oates for years before she finally agreed. In fact, an introspective Oates at times questions whether she even has a personality or is simply a vessel for her stories, and even coins the subtitle of Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind. And yet watching her talk about her childhood, her personal life and most notably her work makes for a compelling film even with a hesitant subject.
Though it may have taken considerable arm-twisting over the years by Björkman, a personal friend of the author, once Oates is finally in front of the camera the viewer does sense she enjoys the chance to both talk about her craft and simply to reminisce. Insights into her working-class upbringing, education and relationship with her parents are particularly intriguing. Oates discusses how she was the first in her family to receive higher education, but then shares a charming story about how her father finally took college courses after his retirement from a blue-collar job. Doing so allowed him to relate with his daughter through letters in a way that he hadn’t before. She also touches upon the significance of learning later in life that she has some Jewish ancestry through a grandmother who never revealed that part of her identity.
We also hear about her first marriage, to writer/editor Raymond J. Smith, which spanned nearly five decades. It’s fascinating to hear how an author who traffics in grim subject matter and dark nights of the soul, grieved for him after his 2008 death. And we also see Oates giggle and blush while being interviewed alongside her second husband, Charles Gross, an avid reader whom she married after age 70 and spent a decade with before his 2019 death—which, considering the screen time he gets, comes as a surprise as merely a footnote in the credits sequence.
The most intriguing aspects of Björkman’s film, of course, surround the writers’ work, with dramatic flair added through Laura Dern’s narration of some of the author’s more impactful words. Oates explains that, though her writing is often spoken about in terms of its themes, she nevertheless simply writes about people, her characters eventually organically manifesting her fiction’s various thematic elements. Björkman focuses on several of her books in particular. Plenty of time is spent discussing Oates’ 1992 novella Black Water, a fictionalized account of the Chappaquiddick incident, in which Senator Ted Kennedy’s car crash led to the drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Oates’ captivating book is written from the perspective of the victim, and is infused with the darkness of the patriarchy, delving into how Kennedy’s press conference addressing the scandal was presented as simply a hiccup in a political career and not the wrongful death of a human. Her discussion of it here opens the door for Björkman to explore her political and social commentary, and we see a handful of her (nonproblematic) tweets, and hear her lamenting Trump’s election, which occurred near the beginning of when filming took place.
The documentary also focuses on Blonde, the 2000 Marilyn Monroe novel that is widely considered Oates’ masterpiece. And in doing so, it’s made clear how the author crafts her stories around compelling characters, whether based on real people or wholly imagined. One of her most disturbing novels, Zombie, is based on Jeffery Dahmer and is told from paraphilic serial killer’s perspective, but it only gets short shrift here, and perhaps for good reason. After all, Oates’ output is so prodigious that there’s really only room to accommodate any sort of in-depth look into a small number of her books.
What’s most striking about Joyce Carol Oates is how the author who writes such dark, often violent material—and very frequently sexually violent—is herself a very quiet, introverted person who is never happier than sitting at her desk every morning and putting in the work. Oates may not be a performer, but throughout Björkman’s film, she’s nevertheless enthralling to watch.
Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment
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