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Ben Keisler's Reviews > Expensive People
Expensive People (Wonderland Quartet, #2)
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Another intriguing novel, but closer to 3.5* than a full 4*.
A child of 1960's suburbia myself, and having moved back and forth between city and suburbia for my whole life (barring an anomalous two year interlude in an odd corner of the Midwest), I don't feel Oates has truly illuminated the distinctive patterns of this aspect of American life, but rather has illustrated (well-illustrated) all of the typical Pleasant Valley Sunday All Made of Ticky Tacky statements that have preceded and succeeded her. Yes, the people are shallow, materialistic, don't recognise true culture are status obsessed and nothing good can come out of it.
Well, I did!
But putting that aside I still enjoyed the mix of odd characters who are mysteries to themselves and to each other, the corporate executive doing a job that no one else can understand, the writer who hides her brilliance and feels unsuited to her childhood family, her suburban Paradise, her occasional escapes to New York City and to her roles as Mother and Wife.
And although it has been done before many times, the various meta-fictional devices of commenting on the intentions and role of the writer of this fictional memoir, the inserted reviews, the story by Natashya add an enjoyable complexity to the novel.
It will be on to Them, the next book in the series, although not right away.
A child of 1960's suburbia myself, and having moved back and forth between city and suburbia for my whole life (barring an anomalous two year interlude in an odd corner of the Midwest), I don't feel Oates has truly illuminated the distinctive patterns of this aspect of American life, but rather has illustrated (well-illustrated) all of the typical Pleasant Valley Sunday All Made of Ticky Tacky statements that have preceded and succeeded her. Yes, the people are shallow, materialistic, don't recognise true culture are status obsessed and nothing good can come out of it.
Well, I did!
But putting that aside I still enjoyed the mix of odd characters who are mysteries to themselves and to each other, the corporate executive doing a job that no one else can understand, the writer who hides her brilliance and feels unsuited to her childhood family, her suburban Paradise, her occasional escapes to New York City and to her roles as Mother and Wife.
And although it has been done before many times, the various meta-fictional devices of commenting on the intentions and role of the writer of this fictional memoir, the inserted reviews, the story by Natashya add an enjoyable complexity to the novel.
It will be on to Them, the next book in the series, although not right away.
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