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Wonderland (1971)

by Joyce Carol Oates

Series: Wonderland Quartet (4)

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469453,177 (3.62)1 / 20
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:

Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. Spanning from the Great Depression to the turbulent Vietnam War era, Wonderland is the epic account of Jesse Vogel, a boy who emerged from a family tragedy with his life spared but his world torn apart. Orphaned after watching his father murder his entire family, Jesse embarks on a personal odyssey that takes him from a Dickensian foster home to college and graduate school to the pinnacle of the medical profession. As an adult, Jesse must summon the strength to reach across the "generation gap" and rescue his endangered teenaged daughter, who has fallen into the drug-infused 1960s counterculture.

Hailed by Library Journal as "the greatest of Oates's novels," Wonderland is the capstone of a magnificent literary excursion that plunges beneath the glossy surface of American life.

Wonderland is the final novel in Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, A Garden of Earthly Delights, Expensive People, and them, are also available from the Modern Library.

J

From the Trade Paperback edition.

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 Book talk: Joyce c oates3 unread / 3gilroy, April 2020

» See also 20 mentions

Showing 4 of 4
Reading this, I thought of Updike's Rabbit Angstrom from time to time, probably due to the time period. This was different in many ways though, in a horrific sort of way that Oates shoves our faces into reality. ( )
1 vote viviennestrauss | Oct 17, 2015 |
Joyce Carol Oates is brilliant, and this novel portrays the full depth of her writing talent. It begins with a boy, Jesse, witnessing the aftermath of his father's killing spree on his own family and then committing suicide. He is shuffled from one place to another, abandoned by his strange grandfather and an even stranger adoptive family. Somehow he manages to finish medical school with honors, marries, has two daughters and is an acclaimed surgeon. The tragedies in his life are myriad and the ending is horrific. It couldn't have ended any differently and remained true to the essence of Jesse's life. It is beautifully written as only JCO can write. ( )
1 vote pdebolt | Jun 11, 2009 |
Ugh! Why such good reviews. Very disjointed and downright painful to read. ( )
  jhowell | Dec 23, 2006 |
From Publishers Weekly
Our review of Oates's 1971 masterpiece starring Jesse Vogel, reissued here with a new afterword, concluded: " 'Wonderland' is not a place from which one escapes unscathed but for those who care about the best in American fiction it must be visited.' "
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Library Journal
The greatest of Oates's novels.

Book Description
Originally published in 1971, the gripping story of Jesse Vogel, a neurosurgeon whose boyhood has been shattered by the tragic loss of his family.
This review has been flagged by multiple users as abuse of the terms of service and is no longer displayed (show).
  gnewfry | Feb 1, 2006 |
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We...have dreamt the world. We have dreamt it as firm, mysterious, visible, ubiquitous in space and durable in time; but in its architecture we have allowed tenuous and eternal crevices of unreason which tell us it is false. -- Borges, Labyrinths
...knowledge increases unreality... -- Yeats
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This book is for all of us who pursue the phantasmagoria of personality...
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:

Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. Spanning from the Great Depression to the turbulent Vietnam War era, Wonderland is the epic account of Jesse Vogel, a boy who emerged from a family tragedy with his life spared but his world torn apart. Orphaned after watching his father murder his entire family, Jesse embarks on a personal odyssey that takes him from a Dickensian foster home to college and graduate school to the pinnacle of the medical profession. As an adult, Jesse must summon the strength to reach across the "generation gap" and rescue his endangered teenaged daughter, who has fallen into the drug-infused 1960s counterculture.

Hailed by Library Journal as "the greatest of Oates's novels," Wonderland is the capstone of a magnificent literary excursion that plunges beneath the glossy surface of American life.

Wonderland is the final novel in Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, A Garden of Earthly Delights, Expensive People, and them, are also available from the Modern Library.

J

From the Trade Paperback edition.

.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. Spanning from the Great Depression to the turbulent Vietnam War era, Wonderland is the epic account of Jesse Vogel, a boy who emerged from a family tragedy with his life spared but his world torn apart. Orphaned after watching his father murder his entire family, Jesse embarks on a personal odyssey that takes him from a Dickensian foster home to college and graduate school to the pinnacle of the medical profession. As an adult, Jesse must summon the strength to reach across the generation gap and rescue his endangered teenaged daughter, who has fallen into the drug-infused 1960s counterculture. Hailed by Library Journal as the greatest of Oates's novels, Wonderland is the capstone of a magnificent literary excursion that plunges beneath the glossy surface of American life. Wonderland is the final novel in Joyce Carol Oates's Wonderland Quartet. The books that complete this acclaimed series, A Garden of Earthly Delights, Expensive People, and them, are also available from the Modern Library.
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