The Assassins: A Book of Hours

by Joyce Carol Oates

Yvonne, Hugh, and Stephen, the widow and surviving brothers of assassinated right-wing politico Andrew Petrie are left to determine the facts of Petrie's death and to find another buffer for their empty, isolated lives

Genres: Fiction, American

568 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1975

About the author

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.

Reviews

[Robert Cage · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading JCO's catalog in it's entirety (everything.... poetry, essays, short stories, anthologies, compilations) and this is by far the most difficult, hard-to-like work I've encountered.

That doesn't make it uncompelling, it's just slow-going so far. It seems to work better as a concept than in execution.

Told in three parts, all in first person stream of consciousness narration (you will choke on the ellipses alone), it details the lives of two brothers and the widow of a sort of right-wing reformist version of JFK, Andrew Petrie, whose mysterious assassination robs each of the protagonists of their focus in life.

For Hugh, a convenient target of his hatred and contempt is now missing, for Yvonne, it's the person she'd built her life and mind around at the expense of her own, and for Stephen, it's the catalyst for his religious commitment.

There isn't much of a plot; it's almost entirely character driven, and unfortunately Oates starts out with the most insane protag, Hugh, whose ramblings go for 225 pages, many of which you can't determine if really occurred. He's the ultimate unreliable narrator.

[Micol · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 actually

[Sondra Wolferman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A family falls apart after the political assassination of one of its members. The story unfolds in a series of interior monologues written from the points of view of the murder victim's widow and two brothers. The author reveals some interesting psychological insights into the nature of sibling rivalry in the relationship among the three brothers (and one sister) of this dysfunctional family. There are even some hints along the way that one or both brothers might have been involved in Andrew's murder, although, to my disappointment, we never find out with total certainty who the real killer, or killers, are. I am also impressed with Ms. Oates's political acumen. This novel was published in the late 1970's, but in it she makes reference to, and predicts, the types of global conspiracies that are only now coming to light in the mainstream media. By the time I got to the third section on Stephen I was already getting a little bored with these characters, none of whom seemed to be all that broken up about the death of their loved one. The section on Stephen was overwritten and repetitive, as if the author had nothing much left to say and was just dragging it out in order to balance out the other two sections. The stream of consciousness style was interesting and well done, but other than that the whole thing seemed kind of pointless to me.

[Kira Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

i'm reading JCO on the urging of my writing teacher, and i am really thankful that he bugged me, because she's pretty amazing. she's got a truly staggering volume of work available to the interested reader. i am disappointed that i chose this book first because i didn't love it, but i saw the kernels of what i *would* like, so i stopped part way.

this book has an insane, frantic energy to it, created by characters who are in crisis and wobbling between sanity and insanity, that made it unpleasant for me to read. her writing is deft and piercing, i just didn't care for this one.

i would strongly recommend JCO, but skip this one.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. This particular combination of plot and character manages to ruin family, sex, politics, art, and religion. She certainly assassinates any redeeming aspects of contemporary (1970s) American society as well as any redeeming qualities in her characters. What she attempts to do with the writing is interesting, but the first section is almost unreadable because her narrator is insane. Although intentional, the style is choppy and annoying. The second and third sections smooth out considerably, but I didn't feel particularly rewarded for hanging in.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narratives were hard to follow, but this book and its characters intrigued me enough to read more by Joyce Carol Oates. Some of the descriptions were exquisite and memorable while other elements were quickly forgettable. Not her best. Would recommend I'll Take You There or Marya.

[Janine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave it 100 pages before deciding I didn't want to finish. I "get" JCO's writing style and I've been a fan of hers for decades, but just not this one.... I just didn't find it interesting enough to keep my attention. I think possibly if Hughe's section was shorter...or if it switched back and forth between the voices instead of ALL of Hughe's viewpoint first....I might not have abandoned it. I considered putting bookmarks at the beginning of each of the three viewpoints and switching back and forth, but decided not to bother. At this point in my life, I've realize there's a fairly good chance I won't live long enough to read everything I want to read, so it's not worth it to force myself to continue with a book I'm just not into. Sorry JCO.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5 stars

Definitely enjoyed this a little bit more than Do With Me What You Will. I really liked reading the different points of view in each of the three sections of the novel but I did struggle a little bit with Hugh’s point of view. Once I started to read from Yvonne’s and then Stephen’s sections of the novel, I was really focused on the story.

[Miranda · Rating 1 out of 5]

So many pages, so much unreliable narrating stream of consciousness, almost a DNF.

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

You really can just write about anything, huh.

[Downward · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Assassins is the story of three people dealing with the assassination of a former republican senator and major right wing intellectual. The senator's two brothers narratives bookend the widow's narrative, each following the other in the novel but dealing with the situation concurrently. As a technique this is strange because it forces the reader to view each concurrent entry through the knowlege of what appeared in the preceding, waiting for moments to overlap. I kept expecting for this to be much cooler than it was. What we have instead is a rambling, shambling narrative with stabs at William Gaddis-esque naturalist dialogue as the diving aesthetic decision of three wildly subjective narratives that never come together to form anything cohesive. Also: this book went on For. Ever. So skip this one. There's plenty of Oates in the sea.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Invisible Writer it is said that Yvonne is dreaming in the very end of her part of the book. I don't see any suggestion of that anywhere! I had to make myself finish this book, the only part I liked was where we get a brief glimpse into her past. The rest of it is like watching paint dry.

[Clifford Wollum · Rating 4 out of 5]

The personality of three characters are similiar but different. Great job by Joyce to have each character stand out in their own way. A fourth character that is killed at the beginning appears throughout the book.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I read (i.e. didn't skim) was just okay at best.

[Jill]

My aunt just gave me a stack of Joyce Carol Oates paperbacks. This is one of them.

[Anya · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first time reading stream of consciousness. Did not like.