If you are yearning for more JCO from the early years, you will love reading the four she penned about her critiques of America -- American culture, American values, American dreams. This quartet begins with 'A Garden of Earthly Delights', continues with 'Expensive People', on to 'Them' and concludes with 'Wonderland'. In her own words, JCO states that "Expensive People, with its climactic episode of self-destructive violence, was perceived as an expression of the radical discontent, the despair, the bewilderment and outrage of a generation of young and idealistic Americans confronted by an America of their elders so steeped in political hypocrisy and cynicism as to seem virtually irremediable except by the most extreme means." Oates has an eye for minute details, nuances in her characters' expressions and actions, and develops her protagonist in such a way that I was actually rooting for him to succeed. Classic JCO!
