As in Oates's more naturalistic novels, the characters in Bellefleur are a tissue of obsessions and emotions: the mad grandfather Hiram Bellefleur, who has his skin turned into a drum after his death; the hedonistic Gideon who pursues selfish masculine pleasures while his wife Leah indulges her thirst for power by attempting to regain the lost Bellefleur lands; their psychic daughter Germaine; the recluse Jedediah; the convict and mass-murderer Jean-Pierre Bellefleur; the hulking brute Esau; the runaway genius Bromwell. Oates's canvas is wide, and it is difficult for the reader to focus on any one character. Inevitably they dissolve into stereotypes, save for Gideon, who maintains a flawed humanity through all of his fantastic experiences, and Jedediah, whose retreat from the rest of the passionate Bellefleurs is patently understandable to the reader. Caught in the flow of historical events, unable to use their vast power and resources effectively...