Verrie gets her picture in Time. She is one of Oates' funniest and most memorable characters. She keeps detailed minutes of all the dark, mysterious things that go on in town. Years later, though, as the thirtieth reunion approaches, Evangeline is the only one in her class who begins to suspect the truth about what really happened on the night John Reddy's mother's lover was murdered. Everything that can go wrong does.
Tents fall down.
Women who used to be good girls give the town's mayor a fatal heart attack by ravishing him in a swimming pool. But worst of all, John Reddy Heart fails to appear. In her new novel, the author chronicles this mythmaking process with great skill and humor, presenting characters whom we've all met at school at one time or another, and one character most of us have met repeatedly in our media-enhanced fantasies. As excitement over the missed appearance circulates, old romances are awkwardly rekindled and hearts rebroken. Old scores get settled.