Oates's third novel, originally published in 1968, is the riveting story of a child murderer told by the killer himself. Nominated for a 1968 National Book Award, Expensive People is a stunning combination of social satire and gothic horror.
Joyce Carol Oates' 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 analyses 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.
Expensive People is the second novel in the Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series are A Garden of Earthly Delights, them, and Wonderland.
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(@ModernLibrary, 12 September 2006, first published 1968, 224 pages, paperback, copy from @AmazonUK, #reread)
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I read this a few years ago and am now re-reading the Wonderland Quartet. The books are thematically linked in some ways but feature different characters and are set in different parts of the US. I gave this a slightly higher rating this time around. This has a lot of parallels with JCO's novellas Zombie and The Triumph of the Spider Monkey which deal with similar events and themes. For a book about a child who killed several people it lacks gore and blood. This is a good thing. Books that deal with violent actions and events don't need to be gory and bloody. Expensive People is one of the few books I've read which is narrated in first person by the killer. It works really well here. Richard's crimes aren't the real focus of the story and they only occur across the last few pages. The real focus is his rich, neglectful parents who are quite horrible and the attitude of wealthy people towards the rest of the population. Next up is them.