Review: Joyce Carol Oates returns with a suspenseful prep-school tale

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At close to 700 pages, Joyce Carol Oates’s new novel Fox can seem like a task, meant to be considered at a deliberate pace over weeks. Fox By Joyce Carol OatesHogarth Press672p $32Reviews of the novel have repeatedly mentioned its use of suspense. How awful.”Dialogue rarely flows in the novel; comments from characters are interspersed with reflective asides, impulsive condemnations or cautious hypotheses. The arc of all the characters in Fox is credible, even that of Fox; it’s a great credit to the book. Christianity figures into the novel: Oates is herself an ex-Catholic.