There's a problem with novellas. If they're done well, you are bound to want more.

Joyce Carol Oates' new novella Beasts (Carroll & Graf) is a good illustration of this problem. At a paltry 138 pages, there is hardly enough room for Oates to fully flesh out her story. And the story begs to be delved into further.

The narrative centers on Gillian Brauer's relationship with a very interesting couple. Brauer, a junior at Catamount College in Massachusetts in 1975, falls madly in love with her poetry professor, Andre Harrow. Over the course of a semester the reader is shown her obsession for Harrow and her eventual entrance into his life.

Harrow's wife, Dorcas, also plays a major role in Brauer's tale. Dorcas is a French sculptor whose sexually charged wooden totems have caused controversy in the small New England town. Brauer is shown as being jealous and in love with Dorcas simultaneously.

The majority of the book focuses on the buildup of Brauer's feelings toward Harrow and how she deals with them internally. More than half the pages have flown by before anything even happens between Harrow and Brauer.

By the time anything does happen, the book hurries to come to a conclusion and what originally had the potential to be a fascinating story seems rushed. The climax to Brauer's relationship comes out of nowhere and left this reader asking, "Is that it?"

Brauer had barely started her relationship with this very intriguing and very evil couple and suddenly it's over.

There's no sort of explanation for why these two do what they do. (You'll have to read it for yourself; there's no way I can go into it in this newspaper.)

There's not even a confrontation between the main characters.

It's almost like Oates took the easy way out by punishing the evildoers without much explanation.

One positive thing that is worth mentioning is Oates' wonderful grasp of the English language. Even at times where the story is lacking or hurried, Oates manages to tell the story very beautifully, examining the inner thoughts of her main character as only a master writer could. The reader is taken directly into Brauer's mind and begins to feel a firm grip on her psyche right before Oates abruptly ends her story.

That's really all there is here: a rushed story with abundant potential that falls short.

The writing is good though, better than almost anything that becomes a bestseller today.

Joyce Carol Oates shows that even after nearly 40 years of writing, she is still one of the most prolific writers around, even if this story does not live up to it.