Expensive People Paperback - 1998

Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. In Expensive People, Oates takes a provocative and suspenseful look at the roiling secrets of America's affluent suburbs. Set in the late 1960s, this first-person confession is narrated by Richard Everett, a precocious and obese boy who sees himself as a minor character in the alarming drama unfolding around him. Fascinated by yet alienated from his attractive, self-absorbed parents and the privileged world they inhabit, Richard incisively analyzes his own mismanaged childhood, his pretentious private schooling, his "successful-executive" father, and his elusive mother. In an act of defiance and desperation, eleven-year-old Richard strikes out in a way that presages the violence of ever-younger Americans in the turbulent decades to come.A National Book Award finalist, Expensive People is a stunning combination of social satire and gothic horror. "You cannot put this novel away after you have opened it," said The Detroit News. "This is that kind of book--hypnotic, fascinating, and electrifying."Expensive People is the second novel in the Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, A Garden of Earthly Delights, them, and Wonderland, are also available from the Modern Library.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Details

• Title Expensive People
• Author Joyce Carol Oates
• Binding Paperback
• Edition [ Edition: Repri
• Pages 320
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Virago Press (UK), London
• Date September 3, 1998
• ISBN 9781860494840 / 1860494846
• Weight 0.7 lbs (0.32 kg)
• Dimensions 7.81 x 5.06 x 0.67 in (19.84 x 12.85 x 1.70 cm)
• Dewey Decimal Code FIC