Finding Joyce Carol Oates in Lockport, New York

I'm on a Joyce Carol Oates kick myself. Currently reading -- OK, listening to the audio version of -- Middle Age: A Romance (2001), which doesn't unfold in a surrogate setting for Lockport or Millersport. It's takes place, primarily, in Salthill-on-Hudson, an exclusive community about a half-hour's train ride north of New York City.

Prior to this, I listened to Black Girl/White Girl (2006), Missing Mom (2005), My Sister My Love (2008), and The Falls (2004).  I swear Oates was inspired to write The Falls after watching Geraldine Page in the 1961 movie Summer and Smoke.

East Avenue entrance of the Lockport Public Library

Excerpt: Would there be a Joyce Carol Oates if there were no Lockport? 

She has asked the question of herself—without answering it. Here’s the most obvious answer: Yes, but she would be a different Joyce Carol Oates. 

Oates was born in Lockport, grew up there and in nearby Millersport. Went to school there, ate lunches in downtown restaurants, attended movies in the Palace Theatre, hung out in the public library, walked the streets of the town. And when she was 18, she left, never to return except for short visits. And to write about it. 

Niagara County, where Lockport is located, is Eden County in some of her novels and stories. Sometimes Eden County also seems to be Erie County. “We Were the Mulvaneys,” a 1996 novel, is set in Eden County, in a small town something like Millersport. “You Must Remember This,” a 1987 novel, is set in Port Oriskany, which feels like Lockport. 

“I’ll Take You There,” a 2002 novel, is set in Strykersville, which feels like Millersport. (There’s a Strykersville in Wyoming County, but Oates’ town is eight or nine miles southwest of Port Oriskany, the wrong location and distance for the Wyoming County town.)