This was Neugeboren's first novel, published in 1966. It's as timely today as it was then. Joyce Carol Oates' latest collection, progresses. In even the most mild of people, rage churns. These are litanies of defeat.
Oates paints love as madness.
Every life bears material for a thriller, Oates suggests. Witness Gretel Nissenbaum of the title story. What remains is the paraphernalia of death. You can't stop reading. A boy named Danny murdered the old lady who lived next door when he was 10 years old.