About “You must remember this”

Set in an industrial, working-class town in upstate New York, the novel chronicles the marriage of parents Lyle and Hannah, the political aspirations of their son Warren, and the obsessive relationship between 15-year-old Enid Maria and her uncle Felix, a professional boxer twice her age. The story explores the tension between societal conformity and personal desire, focusing on how family members navigate the boundaries between the permissible and the forbidden in the 1950s.

Praise for “You must remember this”

“Ms. Oates has, if anything, sharpened her feel for gritty urban settings and the passions and despairs that flame up there. The inner voice of adolescence is convincingly intense—it plays effectively against the raging and choked-down voices of adulthood.”

— New York Times

Book details

Published
1987
Latest edition
1987 · ISBN 9780452280199
ISBN
9780452280199

Frequently asked questions

How many pages is You must remember this?

You must remember this by Joyce Carol Oates has 448 pages.

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Book descriptions, author biographies, award records and review quotes on this page are courtesy of Penguin Random House.