I really enjoy Joyce Carol Oates. I honestly don't know how the woman sleeps, as much as she writes and teaches and lectures. She's just amazing. "The Man Without a Shadow" was so sad. Eli Hoopes contracted amnesia in 1964 and became a subject of a research project Margot Sharpe was lucky enough to be in on from the beginning. Thirty years of testing Mr. Hoopes goes by and Margot refuses to give him up, or to let go of her fantasy of the two of them marrying and having a life together. She's convinced herself that he really *does* remember her, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Every time she leaves the room for a minute and then returns, she has to introduce herself to him all over again. Oates goes into Hoopes point of view, how strange and unsettling his life must be. There were just two things that bothered me: one was that she never really explained what happened with his cousin Gretchen, and two that she referred to a young man in the late 1920/early 1930s as having an Elvis Presley pompadour. Other than that, it was quite good.
Who didn't love those Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid? I had one that wasn't part of the series, but it was written in the same fashion, about a girl named Angie who had to decide between electives in high school, between two different boyfriends, etc., etc. I read the hell out of that book, even though no matter what you made Angie choose, it always turned out well for her in the end (I think I still have it, tucked away somewhere. I'll have to hunt for it). This book was kind of the opposite: it starts with you waking up late for work and hungover. You go to call in sick but the secretary reminds you it's your last sick day. From there on no matter what decision you make, everything ends badly. It was pretty funny if a bit repetitive, but it was still fun.
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