The Assassins (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Joyce Carol Oates
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: New York, Politics, Twentieth century, Brothers, Death or dying, Politicians, Assassination, Widows or widowers
- Locales: New York
The Assassins: A Book of Hours is perhaps Oates's darkest and most pessimistic novel. It takes its subtitle from a canonical book that ends with the Office of the Dead, and it is concerned with characters mourning or obsessed with death.
The four characters central to the novel are Andrew Petrie, a former senator from New York and outspoken political observer; his brothers Hugh and Stephen; and his widow, Yvonne. Andrew himself is dead and appears only through memory or flashback; Hugh, Yvonne, and Stephen provide the viewpoints for the three parts of the novel, which are...
[The entire page is 1028 words long]
