As I've mentioned in my other Oates reviews, while her talent is undeniable and undeniably wide-ranging, when she returns to the Gothic, to the horror genre, she is clearly at home, and her literary skills push the genre to its highest level.  This book is a fine example.  It's about a disappearance - or a murder, and it's about a relationship - or a confession, perhaps.  The book never makes it fully clear, but it gives grave and open hints at yawning black chasms of uncertain depth. You can fall into this book and just keep falling.  What a marvel.