Customer Reviews

The Paperboy

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read "Paris Trout" (which I picked up wondering what the City of Light and fish have to do with one another) and was hooked. Pete Dexter writes books about people you don't really want to know -- racists, violent men, drunks, people who are depressed to the point of dragging you down with them -- but he gets his hooks in you on page one and never lets go. "Paperboy" is basically about failure and how close we are to it even when it seems that life is going OK -- something can come into our lives that takes it all apart. The story is magnificently told in prose so tight that you can almost hear typewriter keys clicking away (Pete Dexter's books don't read like they were produced on a word processor). Best of all, there are the many places in the book where the words "as if" or "like" appear. Nobody does descriptive comparisons better. This is a great book, just like the other Pete Dexter books -- you just can't go wrong with him.

Pete Dexter is one of the most overlooked writers around. His style is beautifully lyrical, insightful with great characterization. Granted, his stories are dark examples of the human condition but well worth the journey. If you want a fast-moving plot, a pretty story or happy endings, you won't find them here. What you will find is some of the best writing you will ever read. I must admit to a bias here because Pete and I worked together in the '70s at a couple of newspapers so I consider him a friend. But I'm also a book editor and reviewer and read a lot, and I've read all Pete's books and consider this one of the best. Now, if he'll quit writing movie scripts ("Rush" and "Michael" to name a couple)long enough to write another fine novel, we'd all be happy!

I enjoyed reading this book, and I've decided that being an enjoyable read is worth 3 stars. There were a couple of things that bothered me about it though.

It starts off as sort of a murder mystery, with a group of reporters investigating the murder of a sheriff in a sparsely populated county. The narrator is the brother of the reporter who heads the investigation. The plot eventually moves away from this theme, and becomes sort of jammed between a character study of the narrator and his brother, an indictment of media morality, and some sort of Greek-style tragedy. The overall effect is that the book wanders a bit, and doesn't seem to be able to decide what it's trying to do. It almost seemed like whenever the book got perilously close to making a statement, it backed off and went in a different direction. This is something of a pet peeve of mine, as I think sometimes writers do this kind of thing to seem mysterious and profound, under the assumption that being understandable means being simple and shallow.

Other than that, the book was well written and for the most part the characters were interesting, although most of them were not very likable. I think the book would have been better if the narrator's brother Ward, who was perhaps the central figure of the book, had a detectable personality instead of just acting like a journalistic robot. The book was saved by the narrator, whom it was possible to sympathize with, and even like.

Overall I would mildly recommend it, but don't feel like it is a must read.

Dexter sentences are so sharp and clean he cuts right to the essence of each character and situation. So many people talk about tight pros and crisp writing that it's a cliche, but this is the real thing. His material is violent and masculine but I think with his talent he could write about nearly anything and make it interesting. The Paper Boy shows us how hard it is to get to the truth about anything. This is a novel that will outlast Dexter himself. Highly recomended along with Paris Trout and Brotherly Love. I wish Dexter would write another novel, and I bet his next one is about Hollwood. The corruption and BS out there ought to be good grist for his mill. HB

Telling a dark story about investigative reporting and the people involved in it, Pete Dexter sets his story in 1965 - 1969, in Moat County, Florida. Jack James, the narrator, is a college dropout who works as a driver and general gofer for his idealistic brother Ward, a reporter for the Miami Times, and his writing partner, Yardley Acheman, an attention-seeking dandy. The two writers are investigating the possibility that Hillary Van Wetter, convicted of the murder of the sheriff in the town where Ward grew up, may have had an alibi--along with an incompetent attorney. Charlotte Bless, an attractive woman who has a fetish for death row inmates like Hillary, aids them by providing mountains of files she has collected about the murder.

As Ward and Yardley investigate, Dexter explores the newspaper business. Questions they raise about Van Wetter's legal counsel, a famous good-ol'-boy attorney, affect the reputation and popularity of Ward James's father, owner of the local newspaper, sending his ad revenues plummeting. When Ward is physically unable to continue working on the story, Acheman and an editor from Miami rush the story into print and the second phase of the novel begins.

Ward James and Yardley Acheman reflect the drive of reporters to succeed and their tendency to identify personally with their stories. The aftereffects of the reporters' investigation into the Van Wetter case, which constitute phase two, grow exponentially, further affecting the reporters, Ward James's father, Charlotte Bless, and, obviously Hillary Van Wetter, as the national media become involved. Along the way, Dexter raises ethical questions, not just about the ethics of reporting, but about the ability of the press to control outcomes and public perceptions. Ultimately, he raises the issue of whether justice is served when the egos of reporters and the desire to sell newspapers cause the media to lose their sense of perspective and cloud their judgment about what is right.

Dexter, an outstanding writer of (sometimes earthy) dialogue, is brilliant in his selection of revealing details, especially the mannerisms of his sometimes odd characters--how they move, speak, and respond to direct questions. Ultimately, most face ironic destinies. While this novel may not have the intense thematic focus of Paris Trout, which won the National Book Award in 1988, it raises important issues regarding the press, and in the process tells an exciting story about the search for justice. n Mary Whipple

This is one of those books where you can't turn the pages fast enough. I sat up all night reading it. It's a devastating satire of post-Watergate investigative journalism, a splendid neo-noir, and one of the most tragic, haunting stories you will ever read. The plot involves the investigation of a murder in a small Southern town. Dexter writes twists and turns that are shocking, but seem chillingly inevitable once you've put down the book. I can't recommend this strongly enough. "There are no intact men." Amen.

Pete Dexter is truly an amazing artist! This book will haunt you long after completing it. Take your time, read it slowly, the pacing is as important as the content. An engrossing, and at times harrowing, study of family ties, duty, pain, personal history, and ultimately self-destruction.

Quite similar in tone to Paris Trout and Brotherly Love. As with Dexter's other novels, the book revolves around the characters studies. The author implies that while one person's life is defined by what they have done, another's is defined by what they have not done. For those in the latter category, determining if something is truly missing or simply thought to be missing from their lives can prove to be the character's salvation or undoing. Apart from the characters, the scene descriptions, particularly of the Florida swampland, are quite well written. You can almost feel the mud between your toes.

The Paperboy is a compelling tale of personal commitment and perserverence gone awry. Pete Dexter's terse but poetic writing enables the reader to become involved with the quirky characters immediately. The story is completely engrossing, with the moral "message" less obvious than his more famous "Paris Trout".

The genre is difficult to chatacterize. It is a character study rather than a thriller, although the tale is quite suspenseful, with a convicted murderer's innocence or guilt being central to the plot. Equally involving is the relationship of the newspaper editor and his sons, one of whom is the investigative reporter, the other the story's narrator. This is one of those novels you insist that your friends read, if only to experience the quality of Dexter's writing and his insight into human frailties

Pete Dexter may very well be the best American author alive today. My brother gave me a copy of "God's Pocket" and I returned the favor with "Paris Trout". We were both hooked then. We didn't think anything could be better but then we read "The Paperboy" and until I get my hands on another Dexter book, "The Paperboy" stands as the best book I have ever read. I do not want to say anything to give away the story but there is no doubt in my mind that Hannibal Lecter would be very uncomfortable in the same room as Hillary Van Wetter, the main villainous protagonist in the Paperboy. You will carry images around in your head long after you finish this book...some you may not want to, but you will not regret having read it.