Joyce Carol Oates is known mainly for her shockingly blunt, horrifyingly realistic portrayals of young girls caught in the turbulence of adolescence. Her latest novel, published in 1997, "Man Crazy" is no exception. It tells the sad, strange story of Ingrid Boone, a child who grew up with a criminal, on-the-lam father and an emotionally absent mother, leading her to seek love from anyone who showed her the least bit of kindness. <Tab/&…showed first 75 words of 886 total…

…showed last 75 words of 886 total…characters, and is able to draw from that. Joyce Carol Oates' twisted view of society and its treatment of women is an important one that seems to dwell deliberately on the seedy underbelly of the human experience. Reading a Joyce Carol Oates short story or novel is a uniquely enlightening experience that, no matter how painful, should be had. "Man Crazy" is a continuation of Oates' excavation of the one common human soul everyone shares.