The corpse of a predatory paedophile is found in a waterlogged reserve

The corpse of a predatory paedophile is found in a waterlogged reserve

Joyce Carol Oates’s new novel, Fox, offers a prolonged dive into the murkiest of waters. Told by way of a chronology that is sometimes challengingly fractured, it follows the dreadful career of a literature teacher named Francis Harlan Fox at the elite Langhorne Academy in South Jersey. Fox appears to be charismatic, well liked and good at his job. His classes frequently end in applause, his students are devoted to him and he is described as “ha…