Killings

By Calvin Trillin and Carolyn Trillin

Book Overview

True stories of sudden death in the classic collection by a master of American journalism "Reporters love murders," Calvin Trillin writes in the introduction to Killings. "In a pinch, what the lawyers call 'wrongful death' will do, particularly if it's sudden." Killings, first published in 1984 and expanded for this edition, shows Trillin to be such a reporter, drawn time after time to tales of sudden death. But Trillin is attracted less by violence or police procedure than by the way the fabric of people's lives is suddenly exposed when someone comes to an untimely end. As Trillin says, Killings is "more about how Americans live than about how some of them die." These stories, which originally appeared in The New Yorker between 1969 and 2010, are vivid portraits of lives cut short. An upstanding farmer in Iowa finds himself drastically changed by a woman he meets in a cocktail lounge. An eccentric old man in Eastern Kentucky is enraged by the presence of a documentary filmmaker. Two women move to a bucolic Virginia county to find peace, only to end up at war over a shared road. Mexican American families in California hand down a feud from generation to generation. A high-living criminal-defense lawyer in Miami acquires any number of enemies capable of killing him. Stark and compassionate, deeply observed and beautifully written, Killings is "that rarity, reportage as art" (William Geist, The New York Times Book Review ). Praise for Killings "Riveting tales of murder and mayhem. . . . [Calvin] Trillin is a superb writer, with a magical ability to turn even the most mundane detail into spellbinding wonder. Armed with this wealth of material, he utterly shines. Every piece here is a gem." -- The Seattle Times "What Mr. Trillin does so well, what makes Killings literature, is the way he pictures the lives that were interrupted by the murders. Even the most ordinary life makes a terrible noise . . . when it's broken off." --Anatole Broyard, The New York Times "Fascinating, troubling . . . In each of these stories is the basis of a Dostoevskian novel." --Edward Abbey , Chicago Sun-Times "The stories . . . are unforgettable. They leave us, finally, with the awareness of the unknowable opacity of the human heart." --Bruce Colman , San Francisco Chronicle "[Trillin] writes brilliantly. . . . These stories still hold up, as classics." -- The Buffalo News "In his artful ability to conjure up a whole life and a whole world, Trillin comes as close to achieving the power of a Chekhov short story as can anyone whose material is so implacably tied to fact." --Frederick Iseman , Harper's Bazaar "I have a book for you true-crime addicts if you're caught up on the podcast Serial, the cascade on TV of 48 Hours and Dateline NBC episodes. . . . It's time to pick up Calvin Trillin's Killings ." -- The New York Times Book Review "Well-crafted and thoughtfully composed, lacking judgment and admonishment, these are a true piece of quality journalism, which clearly continues to captivate audiences." -- Library Journal "With telling detail and shrewd insights, [Calvin Trillin] masterfully evokes the places and personalities that hatched these grim episodes." -- Publishers Weekly

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399591893
• ISBN13: 9780399591891
• Release Date: February 2018
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Couldn't wait to return to the next essay

So unlike the modern obsession with glamor or headline-grabbing murderers or victims, this enthralling book collects a set of stories about killings that probably never should have happened. I almost felt as if I were back in the decades in which the essays were first written, from 1969-1982, so vivid are the details of setting and character. Exemplary journalistic writing. I have only one minor complaint, not even enough to subtract a star. That is, I wanted to know more about the ultimate outcomes of the cases. I'd like to see an updated edition with more information!

Return this to print: it's a classic!

This book is the stuff of a classic and should not have been allowed to go out of print. The measure of a good to great book as far as I am concerned is that it represents not only the issues of the individual but also sends out definitive postcards from a certain time and place. Reading this collection of crime reportage that originally appeared in The New Yorker magazine in the author's "U.S. Journal" series, from 1969 to 1982, I am astounded how Trillin intuited the local and global struggles that continue to define the post 1960's social watershed in American precincts beyond more cosmopolitan cities. Trillin says that the story inherent in a sudden death-homicide, suicide or accident-is more often about how people live or the society in which they move. He finds understanding the place essential to understanding the crime. Most of the deaths are due to murder (the Penguin paperback cover blurbs say all are, but that's not true), and most take place in neighborhoods and among people of which townsfolk would say, but that wouldn't happen here and to them. Even when the death occurs in Miami (a prominent defense attorney), a barrio in Riverside, California, or in Tucson where alarms and guard dogs had become a way of life, the death is still a surprise. KILLINGS is first class journalism. The author's prose is fluent, immediate, and his information is beautifully ordered. You never know at the outset of a given story who will be the killer or the killed. He keeps himself entirely out of the action and is never judgmental. In an afterward he notes that one of the key players in a story later said of what appeared in the magazine, "If he had come two weeks later, he would have written a different story." Trillin agrees that this can be true-a writer enters the story at a particular plateau and much of the finished product depends on the known facts and current emotions on that plateau. All the same, while reading these stories, I had keen memories of the times and culture from which they sprang, and they still stand as short, accurate histories. Learning at a later time, for instance, who actually killed that defense attorney would not change the long term lessons of his story.

If I could give it ten stars, I would!

Once again, I find myself titling a Calvin Trillin review, "If I could give it ten stars, I would!" Trillin is a national treasure. You've heard of Poet Laureates; well, Trillin ought to be our national Deadpan and Danged Funny Laureate. What may not be immediately evident on first reading his work is that the subtle humor that ripples throughout most of his stuff disguises an extraordinarily sharp mind and a nose for a wonderful story."Killings" examines the sudden deaths of a dozen or so ordinary Americans. Although Trillin touches on the manner of their deaths, what "Killings" is really about is the detail of these victims' lives. It is utterly absorbing and that rarity, a book you will enjoy even more on the second or third read than on the first. Trillin's apparent artlessness ensures that he, as author, never gets in the way of his wonderful, wonderful stories. Highly recommended!