Man Crazy

Man Crazy is a harrowing novel by Joyce Carol Oates, published in 1997, that chronicles the traumatic life of Ingrid Boone, a young girl whose world unravels after her volatile Vietnam veteran father abandons her and her mother following a violent crime. Adrift with her neglectful, alcoholic mother who prioritizes fleeting relationships, adolescent Ingrid spirals into self-harm, promiscuity, drug abuse, and dehumanizing exploitation at school, earning nicknames like Doll Girl for her desperate bids for affection. Her descent peaks when she falls under the sway of Enoch Skaggs, the brutal, charismatic leader of the motorcycle cult Satan’s Children, enduring gang rape, mutilation, starvation, and a sacrificial murder before a climactic police raid enables her narrow escape, therapy, and fragile path to redemption and reunion with her mother.