Triumph of the Spider Monkey

By Joyce Carol Oates

Book Overview

Unavailable for 40 years, this seminal novel of madness and murder is acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates' powerful trip into the mind of a maniac.

Abandoned as a baby in a bus station locker, shuttled from one abusive foster home and detention center to another, Bobbie Gotteson grew up angry, hurting, damaged. His hunger to succeed as a musician brought him across the country to Hollywood, but along with it came his seething rage, his paranoid delusions, and his capacity for acts of shocking violence.

Unavailable for 40 years, The Triumph of the Spider Monkey is an eloquent, terrifying, heartbreaking exploration of madness by one of the most acclaimed authors of the past century. This definitive edition for the first time pairs the original novel with a never-before-collected companion novella by Joyce Carol Oates, unseen since its sole publication in a literary journal nearly half a century ago, which examines the impact of Gotteson's killing spree on a woman who survived it, as seen through the eyes of the troubled young man hired by a private detective to surveil her...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1785656775
• ISBN13: 9781785656774
• Release Date: July 2019
• Publisher: Hard Case Crime
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Psyche of a Frustrated Singer-Songwriter

From what I've read of Joyce Carol Oate's fiction, it appears she has a predilection for wading into and exploring the darker shadows of her character's consciousness (and she's good at it too), but every once in awhile she'll dive head first into the deep end; hypothetically exploring the thoughts of a full blown psychotic. This book is similar to her 1995 novel, "Zombie" in that we enter the twisted perspective of a psychopathic murderer from the get go and therefore the narrative is a choppy, turbulent ride as the reader travels along strange digressions and bizarre rationalizations and beliefs. There is very little outside objective background storytelling, as in psycho murderer novels like Thomas Harris' "Red Dragon". While the story of Bobbie Gotterson is fiction, it's pretty safe to assume Oates was inspired by nutty, Chucky Manson and his adventures in L.A. during the late sixties, just as I suspect "Zombie" was inspired by Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. If you enjoyed "Zombie", or think perhaps it would be interesting to spend time with the thoughts of a murderous psychopath, you may wish to check this book out. A minor (non-psychotic) digression: Joyce Carol Oates has written numerous novels, countless short stories, essays, poetry, and I've even heard a few plays here and there. Stephen King mentioned he gets called prolific but he says it has more to do with the visibility of his work and, for example, Oates leaves him in the dust. In an interesting book, "Pieces of Work", showing rough drafts by various authors and poets, Oates rewrites her short story at least five times, and rewrites the beginning at least four times. On top of all this she is a professor at Princeton. The ultimate Joyce Carol Oates mystery should be titled, "How does this person manage to write so much?"

The life of Bobbie Gotteson, Maniac

This is a very interesting account of a maniac's life, from his birth to his life of unspeakable crime, showing his inner and outer struggles, first person account. I like how it really gets into his mind and how the reader grows to feel for him. Some may find it a little disturbing, but worthwhile reader, especially for Joyce Carol Oates fans.