"Whether probing the psyche of serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, evaluating the championship mettle of Mike Tyson, or illuminating the work of Herman Melville, the art of Rene Magritte and Edward Hopper, and the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Joyce Garol Oates displays an astonishing breadth of knowledge and interests. In this collection of nearly fifty essays, articles, and reviews, one of our country's leading literary figures and social critics explores myriad facets of the American experience, in fiction and beyond, from Fitzgerald to Plath. Melville to Updike, Flannery O'Connor to Timothy McVeigh."--Jacket.