Pursuit A novel of suspense

Joyce Carol Oates, 1938-

Book - 2019

"As a child, Abby had the same recurring nightmare night after night, in which she wandered through a field ridden with human skulls and bones. Now an adult, Abby thinks she's outgrown her demons until, the evening before her wedding, the terrible dream returns, forcing her to confront the dark secrets from her past that she has kept from her new husband, Willem. The following day-less than 24 hours after exchanging vows-Abby steps out into traffic. As his wife lies in her hospital bed, sleeping in fits and starts, Willem tries to determine whether this was an absentminded accident or a premeditated plunge, and he quickly discovers a mysterious set of clues about what his wife might be hiding. Why is there a rash-like red mark cir...cling her wrist? What does she dream about that causes her to wake from the sound of her own screams? Slowly, Abby begins to open up to her husband, revealing to him what she has never shared with anyone before-the story of a terrified mother; a jealous, drug-addled father; and a daughter's terrifying captivity. With a suspenseful, alternating narrative that travels between the present and Abby's tortured childhood, The Pursuit is a meticulously crafted, deeply disquieting tale that showcases Oates's masterful storytelling"--

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Subjects
Genres
Suspense fiction
Mystery fiction
Thrillers (Fiction)
Psychological fiction
Detective and mystery fiction
Novels
Published
New York, NY : The Mysterious Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic 2019.
Language
English
Main Author
Joyce Carol Oates, 1938- (author)
Edition
First Grove Atlantic edition
Physical Description
216 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780802147912
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Menacing images of skulls and skeletons have haunted Abby since she was a little girl. There had to be a link to the reality that was her life, but she was too young and too unmoored to make the connection. Her father had run off and was, perhaps, dead. Her mother, too, and Abby's life with an aunt who reluctantly provides the most basic of homes for her is a lesson in abject poverty. So when Abby meets Willem, an honorable, devout man who promises to cherish her and keep her safe, their marriage seems like the answer to her prayers. Except the ghastly images won't go away. Burdened with the fear that she is unworthy of Willem's love, Abby is involved in a near-fatal accident the day after their wedding. But was it an accident or an intentional act of self-harm? Staccato pacing and Oates' deftly malevolent yet nuanced characterizations contribute to this fast-paced examination of the destructive and restorative nature of obsessive love.--Carol Haggas Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Billed as a novel of suspense, this creepy thriller from Oates (My Life as a Rat) reads more like an extended short story. Abby Zengler lies in the ICU of a New Jersey hospital after accidentally stepping in front of a bus--or was it an accident? Willem, Abby's husband of less than a day, is at her bedside, stunned at the swiftness with which their happiness has turned to horror. The couple's misfortune serves as the frame around an infinitely darker and more disturbing composition. The tale within a tale, which Willem ever-so-gradually teases out of his wife, centers on the doomed relationship between Abby's mother and soldier father, who years before returned from Iraq to their hometown of Chautauqua Falls, N.Y., abusive, paranoid, and irrationally jealous. Though the pair vanished from Abby's life at age five, the trauma left in their wake remains so emotionally devastating that she can handle only glimpses of what transpired in her nightmares. The reader may well feel the same way. Oates reinforces her place as the grand mistress of ghoulishness. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Assoc. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A young woman is haunted by a past she doesn't understand in this brief but powerful story of domestic violence.In her latest novel, Oates (My Life as a Rat, 2019, etc.) is in full domestic gothic mode. Like any bride, Abby Hayman is hopeful that she's stepping into a new and happy life. But she has more reason than most to long for transformation. Her parents disappeared when she was 5 years old. After a haphazard upbringing, at 20 she's pulling her life together. She's even put behind her the terrifying nightmares of skeletons hidden in tall grass that tormented her childhoodor so she thinks. Those visions return with a vengeance just before she marries Willem Zengler, a devoutly Christian pre-med student. The day after their wedding, she gets off a bus, then steps in front of it. Was it an accident or a suicide attempt? She's so seriously injured she can't answer the question, spending nine days in a coma and still feeling confused when she awakes. When Willem says, "We need to get to that moment, Abby. When you can tell me what you see," he might be talking about the accidentor about her screaming nightmares. The first part of the book focuses on Abby and her shadowy memories. It intensifies as Oates switches to the points of view of Abby's parents. Her mother married young and raised her baby alone while her husband was serving in the military in Iraq. When he returns, his wife hardly knows him: In the Army "he'd cultivated a cruel use of seemingly ordinary speech, given a mock-Southern inflection. Like a butter knife honed razor-sharp." That cruelty will quickly escalate into PTSD-fueled madness. The book is so submerged in the nightmares that intrude on Abby's life that it's a little shocking to be reminded, by such prosaic items as iPhones and MRIs, that the story takes place in the present, in the real world.A compelling domestic horror story reaches into a young woman's nightmares of her childhood in search of what's real. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.