Zombie

Zombie
Joyce Carol Oates

A novel (however loosely) based on the horrific crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer is clearly open to charges of sensationalism. And even a writer capable of composing at the speed and with the apparent ease of Joyce Carol Oates might be accused of slumming it in the genre of PsychoLit. Still, if you’re going to do it then it ought to be done well, and Zombie delivers with a brisk, compelling portrait in the first-person. I’m sure a big part of the attraction in such a subject is the freedom it gave Oates to let her hair down, which she does in a number of fresh and creative ways. A guilty, B-movie pleasure, then, for everyone.