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A review by directorpurry
Compulsion by Meyer Levin
1.0
CW: child death, corpse mutilation, sexual assault, threatened rape, homophobia, antisemitism, villainization of mental illness
Ew ew ew. No.
I did not enjoy this book.
While decidedly a product of its time, this book was written without consent of any of the parties involved in the actual Leopold and Loeb murder case. Not only were the killers' mental states bandied around with wild language that's completely incorrect today, they were also made homosexual to play up how "bad" and "not normal" they were. Most of the characters were dealing with a lot of internalized antisemitism that's barely acknowledged during the story. (I mean, I don't know about you but I don't know many Jews that say, "No, I'm not going to be Jewish anymore because I personally identify with Jesus, another former Jew." Like... what?)
Also. Not at all plot relevant, but the author/narrator character decided to leave in a fun story about how when he (the character) was reporting on WWII in Germany, he and another journalist nearly raped a woman because they thought it would be a Real and Authentic War Experience™. So we love that.
Ew ew ew. No.
I did not enjoy this book.
While decidedly a product of its time, this book was written without consent of any of the parties involved in the actual Leopold and Loeb murder case. Not only were the killers' mental states bandied around with wild language that's completely incorrect today, they were also made homosexual to play up how "bad" and "not normal" they were. Most of the characters were dealing with a lot of internalized antisemitism that's barely acknowledged during the story. (I mean, I don't know about you but I don't know many Jews that say, "No, I'm not going to be Jewish anymore because I personally identify with Jesus, another former Jew." Like... what?)
Also. Not at all plot relevant, but the author/narrator character decided to leave in a fun story about how when he (the character) was reporting on WWII in Germany, he and another journalist nearly raped a woman because they thought it would be a Real and Authentic War Experience™. So we love that.