Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
{{Short description|2020 novel by Joyce Carol Oates}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title =
| name = Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars.
| image = File:Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars..jpg
| image_size =
| border =
| alt =
| caption = First edition (US)
| author = Joyce Carol Oates
| audio_read_by =
| title_orig =
| orig_lang_code =
| title_working =
| translator =
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| release_number =
| subject =
| genre =
| set_in =
| publisher = Ecco Press
| publisher2 =
| pub_date = 2020
| english_pub_date =
| published =
| media_type =
| pages = 789 pp
| awards =
| isbn =
| isbn_note =
| oclc = 1246540510
| dewey =
| congress =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| native_wikisource =
| wikisource =
| notes =
| exclude_cover =
| website =
}}
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. is a 2020 novel by American writer Joyce Carol Oates, about a man who was killed by the police and the aftermath of his death on his family.{{cite news |title = Joyce Carol Oates Takes On Racism and Grief in Her New Novel |first = Bret Anthony |last = Johnston |date = June 9, 2020 |work = The New York Times |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/books/review/joyce-carol-oates-night-sleep-death-stars.html |access-date = March 31, 2022}} Its title comes from a poem by Walt Whitman.{{cite news |title = Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. by Joyce Carol Oates review – a portrait of a family and a nation in crisis |first = Hephzibah |last = Anderson |date = June 15, 2020 |work = The Guardian |url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/15/night-sleep-death-the-stars-by-joyce-carol-oates-review-a-portrait-of-a-family-and-a-nation-in-crisis |access-date = March 31, 2022}}
Plot
John Earle McClaren, nicknamed "Whitey", is a well-respected 67-year-old man who served as the mayor of Hammond, New York, and is the father of five children. Whitey, who is white, intervenes in a police stop of an Indian American man. He is tased by the police, suffers a stroke, and dies. The rest of the novel concerns the fall-out of Whitey's death for the McClaren family—Whitey's widow, Jessalyn, and his children, Beverly, Lorene, Thom, Virgil, and Sophia—including Jessalyn's relationship with a Cuban artist and Thom's pursuit of charges against the officers responsible for Whitey's death.
Reception
Reviewing the novel in The New York Times, author Bret Anthony Johnston considered it a positive installment in Oates's engagement with the topic of race, comparing it favorably to her 2015 novel The Sacrifice, though he noted that its "considerable length" may dissuade readers. Hephzibah Anderson in The Guardian called it "an uncomfortable snapshot of modern-day America" and noted its resonance with the murder of George Floyd. Kirkus Reviews described it as "a brooding, thoughtful study of how people respond to stress and loss".{{cite web |title = Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. |date = March 15, 2020 |website = Kirkus Reviews |url = https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/joyce-carol-oates/night-sleep-death-the-stars/}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Joyce Carol Oates}}
Category:Novels by Joyce Carol Oates
Category:American crime novels
{{US-lit-stub}}