Killings

Regular readers of Calvin Trillin's essays in The New Yorker know that he doesn't write about people who live the kind of lives that lead to murder in order to disparage them. In Trillin's telling, the oddball in Iowa or the trailer-park tenant in Tennessee takes on a dignity that transcends his circumstances. In Barrett Whitener's narration, that dignity is lost. He describes the characters, most of whom live in small towns and have endured more than their share of bad luck and bad decision-making, in a clipped, judgmental tone. These essays, part of The New Yorker's U.S. Journal series from the 70's, are not typical murder tales in that they tell us more about the nuances of individual lives in particular times and places than about gore and mayhem. It's too bad the narrator can't appreciate those nuances. T.F. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

February 13, 2017
Violent deaths illuminate complex lives and desperate circumstances in this expanded reissue of the classic collection of the author’s true-crime reporting for the New Yorker. Journalist Trillin (Jackson, 1964) prowls America’s small towns and county courthouses and finds homicide sagas that are both emblematic and enigmatic: a noirish sex-and-hired-murder scandal erupts in a wholesome Kansas church; two Mexican-American clans fight a bloody generations-long feud; a cocktail waitress is the catalyst for an Iowa farm family’s self-destruction; a bankrupt farmer squares off against a SWAT team while blaming Mossad for his problems; a little girl is brutalized to death by her stepfather; a Michigan man makes a statement about his failed life by opening fire on a group of teenagers; an Iowa man ends up dead for no clear reason beside booze, cussedness, and a handy shotgun. The killers’ motives for bloodshed are many—lust, revenge, honor, madness, self-defense, property disputes, constitutional rights, insurance money—and Trillin also fills in the social backdrop that nudges individuals towards violence, examining poverty, collapsing farm economies, the clash of conservatives and the counterculture, and the rise of drug gangs. Trillin’s relaxed reportage is sympathetic to everyone yet tinged with subtle irony; with telling detail and shrewd insights, he masterfully evokes the places and personalities that hatched these grim episodes.

September 15, 2017

Such a simple title for such a fascinating recounting of the many ways that people have been killed. Trillin tells us early on that these stories, originally written as columns for The New Yorker magazine, were selected for inclusion because they revealed great insight into particular places throughout our country. From a cameraman in eastern Kentucky to feuding neighbors in Virginia to a church secretary's husband in Iowa, the stories reveal lives cut short for reasons that seem clear in hindsight. Killings is, as Trillin says, "more about how Americans live than about how some of them die." The 11 hours of superb narration by Robert Fass pass quickly, but listeners should savor each story as it is relayed. Trillin's work proves that stories of "wrongful death" are timeless and always fascinating. VERDICT Highly recommended for medium and large libraries and small libraries with a true crime readership. ["Well-crafted and thoughtfully composed, lacking judgment and admonishment, these are a true piece of quality journalism": LJ 3/15/17 review of the Random hc.]--Gretchen Pruett, New Braunfels P.L., TX

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