book data
269 ratings, 3.79 average rating, 39 reviews
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published
August 1st 1989
(first published 1993)
by Penguin (Non-Classics)
binding
Paperback, 320 pages
literary awards
1988 National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee
isbn
0140122060
(isbn13: 9780140122060)
description
In this novel of social drama, a casual murder in the small Georgia town of Cotton Point just after World War II and the resulting court case cleave o...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 377)
Read in August, 2008
In so many cases of Good vs. Evil, Evil is more interesting. Authors often like the challenge, it seems, of opening our eyes to the reasons Evil does what it does. We may come away with an understanding that fits our theories of human nature. Evil's thought processes, when explained, may ring true, and bad behavior may be driven by unfortunate circumstances as much as anything else. Depending on the degree of the depravity, we may even apply the familiar "There but for the grace of God&...more
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I like Pete Dexter. I do. But I don't think he'd like me. I don't know if likes people in general, and, given that he was once near-fatally pummeled by a bat-wielding mob of them, why should he?
This is a well-written account of people treating each other abominably. Is it cruelty for cruelty's sake, or is there something more substantial to take away from it? Let me know if you find anything. Dexter's prose especially takes flight during the sequences when the title character is sexu...more
This is a well-written account of people treating each other abominably. Is it cruelty for cruelty's sake, or is there something more substantial to take away from it? Let me know if you find anything. Dexter's prose especially takes flight during the sequences when the title character is sexu...more
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Read in September, 2008
PARIS TROUT, the National Book Award Winner for Fiction in 1988, is a flawless work. Paris Trout is a resident of Cotton Point, Georgia; an arrogant solitary man who abuses his wife both psychologically and physically, he commits a crime which sends reverberations throughout the community.
Paris’ mental state deteriorates as he fights against being held accountable for his senseless actions. His attorney and his wife both realize he is disturbed. A feeling of doom seeps into the story and bui...more
Paris’ mental state deteriorates as he fights against being held accountable for his senseless actions. His attorney and his wife both realize he is disturbed. A feeling of doom seeps into the story and bui...more
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Another excellent read! I don't know why I've never read this one before. It's been around since 1988.
I found it a real page turner. If you like a book with interesting characters you will like this one. It's another of those books about the south in the 1950's. While reading it I kept remembering parts of it which I think I saw in a movie. I must look it up.
I found it a real page turner. If you like a book with interesting characters you will like this one. It's another of those books about the south in the 1950's. While reading it I kept remembering parts of it which I think I saw in a movie. I must look it up.
Read in May, 2008
This book tackles the delicate subject of black/white relations in a small Georgia town shortly after World War II.
Paris Trout, a white self-centered businessman that has absolutely no concern for anyone else's well being, shoots and kills Rosie, a black fourteen year old girl. Paris Trout then becomes a walking nightmare to anyone who gets in his way. The book centers on the aftermath of the shooting, alternating each chapter to different characters' perspectives, and how they are affected b...more
Paris Trout, a white self-centered businessman that has absolutely no concern for anyone else's well being, shoots and kills Rosie, a black fourteen year old girl. Paris Trout then becomes a walking nightmare to anyone who gets in his way. The book centers on the aftermath of the shooting, alternating each chapter to different characters' perspectives, and how they are affected b...more
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Characters that will really get to you, they'll get in your head and stay there for a while.
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Benaboo by:
the crazy guy who told me to quit stealing his thoughtsrecommends it for: liberals
Great book. Trout was an island of a man whose noble, persistent wish was to maintain the purity of his bodily fluids. Others saw his wish as wayward, and his struggle to persevere while maintaining a higher moral code led to his downfall and demise. Trout is a metaphor for free-market commerce; and its greatest and most valuable treasure is the evidence of its own purity (labeled, secured, and dated). It is above the masses, needed by the masses, acknowledged highly in public, yet its seeming ...more
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This was probably the worst novel I ever had to read for a class. It won the National Book Award (it beat Beloved, by the way), but it's absolutely dismal and completely far-fetched. What seemed to be a "Southern gothic" novel is really just a collection of stereotypes and ideas taken from established Southern literature. It's gratuitously violent and sexual, and it reads as if it should have been intended as satire rather than a serious, sincere work.
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Read in August, 2007
Paris Trout uses racial tension to flesh out a very different story, that of a white man gone mad with control issues. While I thought the book was going to be another meditation on racism in the south, it focused instead on one man's decent into madness and the isolation that people not of white, wealthy means felt at one time or another during the 1930's in a southern community. Recommended for a quick read.
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Read in February, 1994
recommended to Mcgyver5 by:
Josh Feit
This was an unsettling novel. Very well written, it has the feel of hiding in a broom closet stifling giggles while a hated co-worker goes on an ax rampage. It would be a good companion for To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird was reassuring and representative of the thoughtful and rational, while Paris Trout gives unwelcome insight into America the unhinged.
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Doublejack by:
Stefani
When my girlfriend recommended this book to me, I shrugged her off. It looked like pretty standard fare and not at all what I was in the mood for at the time. Then, just a few days later she was out of town, and I was out of books to read, so I picked it up.
She was right, of course. I loved it. It's a nice, tight, dark drama and character study. I recommend it.
She was right, of course. I loved it. It's a nice, tight, dark drama and character study. I recommend it.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of southern fiction and thrills
Though Dexter's prose leaves something to be desired at moments, this book is still beautifully and amazingly written. He has an uncanny ability for writing physical gestures, making scenes very tactile; the violence is visceral and the sex is convulsive, and still the story is complex enough that it isn't cheapened by either.
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This is a tough book to read - not because it is difficult, because you hate, hate, hate, hate the person you are reading about so much. But there is undeniable truth is what is written, which is why you should read the book. As with all great books, it tells you the truth you really didn't want to hear.
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Read in November, 2006
Although the injustices of this racist and hateful man had me wanting to put this book down time and time again...I actually ended up zipping through this one. The main character infected everything he came into contact with, but the people's resolve to carry on and survive made me believe in the human spirit...
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Read in November, 2008
Although parts of this novel are so graphic I nearly couldn't read them, the story is saved by the excellent writing. I wouldn't call it a "light" read by any stretch, but when you need something dark to get lost in, especially if you like the Faulkneresque South,this is the read for you.
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Read in May, 2007
Everybody was reading this whilst I was shooting Lost. Dennis Hopper is playing the eponymous role in the upcoming movie version. Personally, I imagined him as Harry Dean Stanton. Either way, I'm glad I read this before the movie comes out. I encourage you to do the same.
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Read in January, 1991
recommends it for:
readers who read for three-dimensional characters
I read this book 16 years ago - and I still rememeber it very well. The characters made quite an impression. I remember that I considered it very well written, with powerful emotional dynamics among the characters. Mood and emotion are created with finesse.
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recommends it for:
people who liked Capote's IN COLD BLOOD or Grisham's A TIME TO KILL
Gritty portrayal of a small-town loan shark who ends up killing a young black girl when he goes to collect on a debt. Shocking in the degree to which the man goes unpunished, the whole town is, in a sense, punished by him as his crime drives him crazy.
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Disturbing and illuminating all at the same time. Its like some took characters out of Harper Lee's classic To kill a Mocking bird and coated them in the patina of the real world.
One of my favorites.
One of my favorites.
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Read in March, 2008
This book was read on a stretch of bad, morose books. If you weren't on Prozac before, after the stretch of hopeless wretched lives I've read about youd need a double dose. I need a little happiness.
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