Expensive People

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 Americas 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.

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.