In her lengthy literary career, now-octogenarian author Joyce Carol Oates has wandered into pop genres, most notably horror. Her most recent novel, started in 2011 but not published until late 2018, begins as something akin to a YA dystopia before quickly time-traveling into something else.

The high-school valedictorian in a near-future dystopia, a sort of 1984 meets “Harrison Bergeron” by way of a broad range of current socio-political trends, runs afoul of her government. They send her for re-education, back in time to an aggressively mediocre Midwestern college in the 1950s.

Then things turn strange.

Back to the Future this is not.

The book creates a strong sense of foreboding and paranoia even during long passages where our twice-named protagonist does little beyond engaging in her daily affairs. At her best, Oates remains a surprising and often subtly dark creator.

The revelations about Wainscotia's…

Click, click
The heels of ruby roots kiss
twice, though the adage rings true
Mother Earth sits in her kitchen, wears an apron,
stirring wanderlust with spoons

Turn me a deer
Fill me aloft
Set me to running
Friend me a forest and
Paint me true.

Incantations, rust
Feet calloused to hooves
Savaged and unsalvageable
a permanent shift and
Brand new shoes.

She stamped me clean; silent
Oaths climbing caves (…

You didn't intend to come here. It's cold in winter, even in the settled parts of the state left over after the last World War - the cities abandoned in the wake of the Panic coming back alive with coffee shops, Somalian restaurants, bookstores. The cherry on the spoon rising over Loring - even the skyline mostly unchanged but for broken-toothed skyscrapers.

This is godforsaken. You didn't intend to come here. Asphalt production being what it is, it's a…