In Rough Country: Essays and Reviews by Joyce Carol Oates; Ecco, 396 pages ($14.99 paper original.) It's last October. Joyce Carol Oates is standing in Lockport's Palace Theater “inaugurating a lecture series in honor of a legendary Lockport resident, beloved teacher John Koplas. . . Instead of the 20 to 40 people I'd envisioned in the library, there is an audience of 800 crowded into the now 'historic' theater, even in the balcony; on the marquee where once such names as Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Cary Grant were emblazoned, now there is Joyce Carol Oates.”