Colette recommends "My Sister, My Love"

The prolific Oates has authored a novel based upon the unsolved homicide of JonBenet Ramsey in 1996. It is SO thinly veiled that it seems as if you are reading still another tabloid expose on the tragedy.

At 562 pages, this rambling, circuitous novel is the story of a nine year old ice skating prodigy, her family, the community in which they live - all remembered by her brother 10 years later. It is overblown, excessive, blowsy and sloppy BUT VERY COMPELLING and ,oh, so sad. Oates utilizes the traditional 'chapter' format, yet skips along in an amorphous stream of consciousness narrative with extra footnotes as an aside to clarify issues. It makes you shake your head at our society, its hypocrisy and concept of celebrity. It makes you wonder what REALLY goes on in someone else's home; it makes you wish you didn't know.
This novel is way way over the top, but a very guilty pleasure for a summer read.

Juxtapose My Sister, My Love with her 1992 Black Water, another novel loosely based upon an actual event; Black Water is as taut as this is overabundant.