Paris Trout

Paris Trout is a novel of great speed and explosive power, and it begins this way and never really lets up. It is Dexter's great achievement here: he creates and atmosphere of suspension and tension that can be, at times, nearly unbearable. He has also crafted a character, Paris Trout, so sinister in his dimensions that the reader can not help but feel sorry for him despite his innumerable acts of evil. Trout is both cipher for events and the catalyst for the events themselves in this novel which bears his name. Again, Dexter does this to great effect. Paris Trout is an enigma. His motivations are buried in some deep, hardly discernibly place, moving darkly and with little apparent motivation (beyond some obvious ones, like race hatred and greed for money). Yet this dark spot in the novel is the story's hinge, whereby all the action moves. Dexter creates a novel that is rich in psychological movement and style and at the same time a comment to the colossal errors of American culture at large in the pursuit of justice.

Paris Trout centers around a character of the same name. Though he is clearly a psychopath, he has money and is a business man, so his violent nature is ignored by the citizens of his small town, Cotton Point, Georgia. The book opens with an attack by Trout on a local black family. The town's white population does not want to be seen siding with a black family against a white man, so, from then on they turn a blind eye towards Trout and allow him to bully the legal system. Also involved in this hard boiled drama are Trout's wife Hanna and Harry Seagraves, Trout's good-guy lawyer. The book is framed as the story of a very bad man terrorizing a sleepy town, but the amazing thing about it is the way Dexter slowly turns the tables until it becomes clear that the complacency of the townspeople is a far greater sin than the murderousness of someone who lives among them. Though it reads like genre fiction with gripping suspense and at times remarkable violence, the subtle play on the psychology of a small town elevates the book to a remarkable literary novel. Although, I should say, if this book were not as deep and were merely a legal thriller, I would still have found it to be fantastic based on the strength of Dexter's writing. A great book.

In the mood for a nice little murder story? Well, don't look here. This tale of murder is as bad as they come; there is no subtlety, no ironically cute plot twists. Author Pete Dexter takes readers by their hands and whispers, "Come follow me if you have the courage, and I will show you the depravity of man." This brutal, unblinking honesty has become Dexter's trademark, and few writers can match his skill. "Paris Trout" is a novel readers will have a hard time walking away from once they've finished the last sentence. Dexter's prose is so powerful that audiences may catch themselves actually feeling sorry for Trout, the story's main character. Few times in fiction has a character been so convinced of his own righteousness, so obsessed with his own cause, while he sets out to destroy all those who have betrayed him.

There is no question that Dexter is a wonderful wordsmith. He knows how to arrange language for the effects he wants. What makes this book much better than just a well written, literate story of racism and murder, however, is the vivid picture Dexter draws of the main character, Paris Trout, and the townspeople who tolerate him. Trout is a sociopath who inspires fear in all those around him. His brutal and selfish actions, however much despised by his peers, are tolerated rather than confronted. The portrait of his wife - equally vivid - is a sobering and sad picture of someone struggling to make a stand for herself. Much of the tension in the book comes from the relative inarticulateness of the characters and the sense of something horrible underlying the action.This book is a step up from most sterotypical stories of redneck racists in small Southern towns. Dexter writes with the authority of someone who knows the place, knows the language and knows these people. When finished with the book, the reader feels that he knows them too. A reading experience that's hard to forget.

One of the best contemporary American fiction books I've read in a while. Powerful and suspenseful ... I had to put it down once or twice because Dexter's descriptions are so graphically vivid. For this reason, it isn't for the faint of heart.A made-for-cable film adaption was done several years ago with Dennis Hopper, Barbara Hershey, and Ed Harris. Worth checking out.