Fox
Table of Contents
Fox
Fox is the latest novel to be checked off my to be read list. I have been an avid Joyce Carol Oates fan for a number of years, and to say I was excited to read her newest novel is an understatement.
It is one of my goals to read every novel that Joyce Carol Oates has ever written. I still have a long way to go, but I’m slowly but surely checking them off the list as I go.
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“The greatest of all challenges for a man: falling in love. (That is, with someone beyond the age of consent.)”
Joyce Carol Oates, Fox
Have you read Fox? Come on in and let me tell you about it!
About Fox
Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic.
When two brothers discover Fox’s car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be.
A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, victim vs. predator, Joyce Carol Oates’s Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche while asking profound moral questions about justice and the response evil demands.
A character as magnetically diabolical as Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley and Vladimir Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, Francis Fox enchants and manipulates nearly everyone around him, until at last he meets someone he can’t outfox. Written in Oates’s trademark intimate, sweeping style, and interweaving multiple points of view, Fox is a triumph of craftsmanship and artistry, a novel as profound as it is propulsive, as moving as it is full of mystery.
Thoughts on Fox
“No harm will come to Little Kitten with just a wee little snuggle! That’s a promise.”
Joyce Carol Oates, Fox
I have always admired Joyce Carol Oates for her ability and courage to tackle dark and taboo subjects. She doesn’t sugar coat anything in her writing. I’ve always said her novels are not for the faint of heart, and this is definitely no exception.
After reading Frieda McFadden’s The Teacher and getting the same vibes initially from Fox, I was what I’m going to call, pre-pissed about this book. Because The Teacher was so gross to me, that I was already mad, thinking I was about to read the same thing, just from a different author. But that really isn’t the case. I misjudged this, despite Joyce Carol Oates being one of my favorite authors. I was very, very wrong in this judgment.
Where Frieda tries to romanticize and normalize teachers abusing children, Joyce Carol Oates does the absolute opposite, and I have nothing but respect for that. She makes the reader feel revolted by these actions, and needing to throw up multiple times. Fox has the appropriate tone for the subject matter. I had to take breaks from reading this several times. It is long, but it is a difficult read. Which I realize is Oates’ intention. But I wasn’t expecting it at that level, even knowing what I’m signing up for with her books.
This is a long read at 640 pages, and nowhere near an easy read. But it packs a punch, and right from the start. I was ten percent into the book and struggling. But there is no way around it, I just had to get through it. But it gets better and easier to read.
“Your destiny is sheerly hypothetical. A blessing, or a curse? A knife with a double-edged blade, any way you grasp it your fingers will bleed.”
Joyce Carol Oates, Fox
Oates does an incredible job of illustrating exactly what a predator looks like, thinks, and how he acts around others. Predators are always watching, calculating how to handle others, how they appear to others. It gives the feeling that predators are often narcissistic in many ways, because their appearance and how others view them is so important, and essential for their ability to hide in plain sight as well.
I was revolted from the start, but also found myself sucked into the book and invested in it at the same time. I had questions, which propelled me to continue reading. This is where being an adult is ridiculous, and needing sleep, making meals, among other things. The more I read, the more I wanted to keep reading and find all the answers to my questions.
I remember talking to my husband about it, as I was about halfway though reading it, mentioning the detective and his investigation. My first thought was, why? Like, who cares? A dead pedophile is the best kind. Whenever I read about one being murdered in prison, my first thought is, not all heroes wear capes. So what is the point of Frances Fox’s “murder” being investigated? Is it really a murder? What happens when they find the person who did everyone else a favor?
I found myself hating Frances Fox, but because I hated him, I needed to know who finally murdered him. The more I read, the more invested I was in the mystery.
Final Thoughts on Fox
“He isn’t worried. He will be rid of the ferret-faced girl whenever he wishes, rid of any of them, all of them, Little Kitten included, whenever he wishes. He is Mr. Fox. Snap of his fingers, easy as pricking a bubble, press delete, he’s the puppet-master.”
Joyce Carol Oates, Fox
I am calling Fox by Joyce Carol Oates a five star read. Because it is a story that is going to stay with me long after I’ve moved on and read other books. I haven’t decided how I feel about this fact yet, but it is an unforgettable novel.
It is unforgettable because of how it made me feel. I think anyone with any sort of morality will be revolted by this book. But also, the ending was perfect. It was exactly what I wanted it to be, and I really appreciate that. Sometimes Oates leaves the endings of her books deliberately ambiguous, but she didn’t here, and I think that was exactly how this one should be.
This novel is unsettling, compelling, realistic, thought provoking, and one that will likely stay with you a while. Easily one of the best from Joyce Carol Oates.
Discussion
Have you read Fox or any other writing from author Joyce Carol Oates? Are you a fan? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
About the Author
Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde.
Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
Purchasing Fox
If you are interested in buying the hardcover version of Fox, click here.
Click here for the Kindle version.
Click here for my favorite Kindle I currently own.
More from Joyce Carol Oates
Did you enjoy my review of Fox? Need another great Joyce Carol Oates book to read? Here are my favorites!
48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister
Fox
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