 | |
| Author | Joyce Carol Oates |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Genre | Thriller, Suspense |
| Publisher | The Mysterious Press |
Publication date | October 1, 2019 |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 978-0-8021-4791-2 |
Pursuit is a 2019 thriller and suspense novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in the United States by Mysterious Press on October 1, 2019.
On her way to work the morning after her marriage to Christian pre-med student Willem, Abby Zengler steps in front of a bus and is severely injured. Willem is shocked by the incident, and is unsure whether Abby had tried to commit suicide by stepping in front of the bus. Just before their wedding, Abby had confessed to Willem that her real name was Miriam, and Willem ponders how little he knows about his new wife, as he has never met her family and knows little about her life before she met him.
When Abby is well enough to speak, she gradually opens up to Willem about her traumatic childhood. The narrative switches between the present and Abby's childhood in Chautauqua Falls, a fictional small town in upstate New York.
Readers learn that Abby's mother, Nicola, married Abby's father, Llewyn Hayman, when she was seventeen years old. Nicola leaves Llewyn, who has become abusive and paranoid since returning from military service in Iraq, but Llewyn is jealous and violent. He is convinced that Nicola cheated on him while he was in Iraq, and coerces Abby (Miriam) into confirming this.
Llewyn begins stalking Nicola, leaving her threatening messages and attempting to enter her home while she is at work. He sends Nicola a postcard to make her think that he has committed suicide because of her rejection of him. Llewyn then kidnaps Nicola, handcuffing her hand to his, and brings her to his family's abandoned farm. Eventually, he takes Nicola into the woods and kills himself, his corpse still handcuffed to Nicola's arm. Nicola begins experiencing hallucinations, and dies in the woods a few days later.
Nicola's family assumes that she has run off with Llewyn and Abby begins living with her aunt at her father's family farm. A few years later, Abby finds her parents' skeletons while playing in the woods. She does not tell anyone about her discovery, but begins having nightmares.
In the present, Abby tells Willem about finding her parents' skeletons, and the couple travels to the farm. Willem finds the skeletons, photographs them, and brings the photos to the police.
Eric K. Anderson noted in an article for Bearing Witness: Joyce Carol Oates Studies that Pursuit explores the theme of mental illness in veterans through the character of Llewyn Hayman. Anderson writes, "Oates is also cognizant of the way in which violence is taught and bred into some men who enter the armed forces." [1]
Pursuit was published in the United States by Mysterious Press, then an imprint of Grove Atlantic, on October 1, 2019. [2] [3] [4]
Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Them is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the third in the Wonderland Quartet she inaugurated with A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967). It was published by Vanguard in 1969 and it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1970.
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"The Reach" is a short story by American writer Stephen King. First published in Yankee in 1981 under the title "Do the Dead Sing?", it was later collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a frequently anthologized short story written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story first appeared in the Fall 1966 edition of Epoch magazine. It was inspired by three Tucson, Arizona murders committed by Charles Schmid, which were profiled in Life magazine in an article written by Don Moser on March 4, 1966. Oates said that she dedicated the story to Bob Dylan because she was inspired to write it after listening to his song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". The story was originally named "Death and the Maiden".
Black Water is a 1992 novella by the American writer and professor Joyce Carol Oates. It is a roman à clef based on the Chappaquiddick incident, in which U.S. senator Ted Kennedy crashed a car and caused the death by drowning of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. The novella was a 1993 Pulitzer Prize finalist for fiction.
A Garden of Earthly Delights is a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, published by Vanguard in 1967. Her second book published, it is the first of her series known as the "Wonderland Quartet". It was a finalist for the 1968 annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
The Gravedigger's Daughter is a 2007 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It is her 36th published novel. The novel was based on the life of Oates's grandmother, whose father, a gravedigger settled in rural America, injured his wife, threatened his daughter, and then committed suicide. Oates explained that she decided to write about her family only after her parents died, adding that her "family history was filled with pockets of silence. I had to do a lot of imagining."
The Museum of Dr. Moses: Tales of Mystery and Suspense is a short story collection by Joyce Carol Oates comprising ten thriller and horror stories. The collection was published in 2007 by Harcourt.
"Replacements" is a short story by American writer Lisa Tuttle. It concerns a husband's surfacing insecurities as his wife's independence strengthens when she claims a bloodsucking pet for her very own.
Wonderland is a 1971 novel by Joyce Carol Oates, the fourth in the so-called Wonderland Quartet. It was a finalist for the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and it has been called one of the author's best books.
After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away is a young adult novel written by Joyce Carol Oates. First published in 2006, it is her fifth novel for teenagers.
Freaky Green Eyes (2003) is the third young adult fiction novel written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story follows the life of 15-year-old Francesca "Franky" Pierson as she reflects on the events leading to her mother's mysterious disappearance. Through what she calls Freaky's thoughts, Franky accepts the truth about her mother's disappearance and her father's hand in it.
Marriages and Infidelities is a collection of 25 works of short fiction by Joyce Carol Oates published by Vanguard Press in 1972.
Son of the Morning is a 1978 novel by American author Joyce Carol Oates. The book was first published on August 1, 1978 through Vanguard Press.
The Little Red Chairs is a 2015 novel by Irish author Edna O'Brien, who was 85 at the time of publication. The novel is O'Brien's 23rd fictional publication.
Hazards of Time Travel is a 2018 dystopian, social science fiction novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It tells the story of Adriane Strohl, a 17-year-old living in a dystopian America in 2039. After her incendiary graduation speech, she is sent back to re-education in the year 1959. Oates began writing it in 2011.
The Sacrifice is a 2015 novel by the American writer Joyce Carol Oates. Set in blighted urban New Jersey in the 1980s, it follows a young Black woman, Sybilla, who is discovered in a degraded condition in an abandoned factory after going missing. When she alleges that she was kidnapped, assaulted, and left for dead by a group of white police officers, her cause is taken up by an ambitious and unscrupulous civil rights activist and his lawyer brother, despite evidence of deceit in her story. The events of the novel are based on the real-life Tawana Brawley case, and takes place in a part of New Jersey still suffering from the aftermath of post-war deindustrialization and the 1967 Newark riots.
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a 2020 novel by American writer Joyce Carol Oates, about a man who was killed by the police and the aftermath of his death on his family. Its title comes from a poem by Walt Whitman.
The Poisoned Kiss and Other Stories from the Portuguese is a collection of short stories written by Joyce Carol Oates. It was published in 1975 by Vanguard Press.