Synopses & Reviews
In
Paris Trout, Pete Dexter tells the mesmerizing story of a shocking crime that eats away at the social fabric of a small town, exposing the hypocrisies of its ways and shattering the lives of its citizens.
The crime is the murder of a fourteen-year-old black girl and the killer is Paris Trout, a respected white citizen of Cotton Point, Georgia, and a man without guilt. His crime haunts the men and women of this town. Harry Seagraves, a prominent citizen and Trout's defense attorney, has nightmares about it. Trout's wife, Hanna, bears the abuse of his paranoia, which grows as the town reacts to the crime and puts Trout on trial. As he becomes more obsessed with his cause and his vendettas against those who have betrayed him, Trout moves closer and closer to the edge of sanity, finally exploding with more violence and rage.
Review
"Mr. Dexter's strongest suit is his exquisite understanding of the finely meshed engines of greed, appetite and self-interest that drive a small town....Mr. Dexter's great accomplishment is to remind us, with lucidity and stinging frankness, the lengths to which we will go to deny our own racism and to reassure ourselves that we are innocent." Deborah Mason, New York Times Book Review
Review
"Mr. Dexter's prose is lucid and efficient, but without much color or individuality. The story gets swiftly told; it is an interesting story, though not one that I found engrossing or of much moral weight." Robert Towers, New York Review of Books
Review
"[S]et in Faulkner country...leading up to a horrific and convincing climax...it is free of Faulkner's convoluted style. The prose is taut, the feeling for time and place exact....[T]here is nothing stereotyped in the way {Dexter} handles his characters....It's a solid achievement heightened by wit and a flawless ear and eye." George Melly, New Statesman & Society
Review
"With a touch of the mastery that graces the best fiction about the South, Dexter has conjured up characters stroked broadly, voices that ring true and vignettes crafted in miniature in a way that haunts....This is a reckless novel. A very fine writer knows he has taken large gambles and aimed at the highest level of Southern fiction. He has made a score." Pete Axthelm, Newsweek
Review
"Pete Dexter's powerfully emotional novel doesn't have any brakes. Hang on, because you won't be able to stop until the finish." Chicago Tribune
Review
"Compelling
a disturbing and most rewarding novel that seems less to have been written than dictated by the collective unconscious of a shattered town." USA Today
Review
"A psychological spellbinder that will take your breath away and probably interfere with your sleep." Washington Post Book World
Review
"A masterpiece, complex and breathtaking." Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
A respected white citizen of Cotton Point, Georgia, Paris Trout is a shopkeeper, a money-lender, and a murderer of blacks. And his friends, family and foes do not realize the danger they face in a man who simply will not see his own guilt.