The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic [Hardcover]

Flora Rheta Schreiber (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (June 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671226525
• ISBN-13: 978-0671226527
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #577,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the mind of a killer, November 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic (Hardcover)

THE SHOEMAKER is a rarity amongst books that deal with killers, in that it's not tabloidish or sensational. Additionally, Flora Schreiber does what no genre book has done, truly get behind the mind of her subject. The psychotic killer, Joe Kallinger, is the subject that Schreiber (who penned SYBIL..that many know of from the Sissy Spacek movie) so thoroughly and convincingly covers. At points you feel as if you're reading an autobiography; so in depth this book is. The portrayals of Kallinger's "visions," his lapses into the surreal and unreal, are so vivid, so real, that the reader themselves will feel as if they were in a trance or on a mind-altering narcotic. While Schreiber certainly feels for her subject, she doesn't lose sight of the fact that this man, despite his mental shortcoming that were bred from an odd childhood, did take the lives of others, including that of his own seed. Tough to find, you can't go wrong with seeking it out.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spine Chilling!, November 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Shoemaker (Signet) (Paperback)

I also read this book years ago in my early teens. As an adult, this book has left a large impression on my mind. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in psychology or serial killers.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best true crime books., January 15, 2008

By 

David Nolte "crimsoncelluloid" (Adelaide. South Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic (Hardcover)

The Shoemaker : The Anatomy of a Psychotic
I first read about this book in the US fanzine SLEAZOID EXPRESS. The writer there said that you couldn't open the book without wanting to take a shower afterwards, I tend to agree, but who ever said that reading true crime should be EASY?!
Jospeh Kallinger (who died in jail some years ago) was one sick puppy. Whether it was his castration fantasies, sexual hang-ups, paranoia,having sex with holes in walls, making of shoes for hamsters (you had to be there) or full blown psychosis he was a well rounded NUTJOB. Author Schreiber does a good job of tracing his madness all the way back to his MONSTEROUS adopted parents (what I would give to see pics of these two freaks)..it's up to the reader to decide if the abuse and torture he went through MADE him crazy or just added to a pre-existing condition and he would have been psychotic anyway. Either way, his "parents" certainly didn't help matters.
The book isn't fun reading, isn't a light read, but is challenging, depressing and confronting. All the things a good true crime book should be.