A review by eowynshelmet
The Paperboy by Pete Dexter

4.0

There is some amazing writing here -- taut, surprising, incredibly perceptive. Take this description of the man kicked to death by the sheriff in the first pages, former car salesman Jerome Van Wetter

who was discharged finally not for being a drunk -- which he was, but drunks, in fact, are not always bad salesmen;someone has to sell cars to other drunks -- but because, even after he had been at the dealership many years and was as familiar a showroom fixture to loyal Plymouth buyers as the new models themselves, something in his deportment frightened customers off. He could not overcome it with clothes or talk of the state champion Little League team or his smile. The smile, in fact, only made things worse. I know this having once been left alone with that smile and the new line of Plymouths while my father and Mr. Duncan went into the office to close a deal on a Chrysler. The indistinct malevolence which Jerome Van Wetter carried hung off him at unexpected angles in much the way his suits hung on his bones, but gathered to its purpose in his eyes. There was a predatory aspect to the way they fell on you, expecting something, waiting, a tiny interest finally stirring, like a slow smile, as he found the little places inside you where he did not belong. He seemed to understand the effect he had on customers, and wore sunglasses indoors.

On the surface, the book first appears as a mystery. But I think it's more a study of the different sides of love built around the corruption of the reporters who are trying to uncover the truth behind Van Wetter and then the sheriff's murder. I never doubted these characters for a moment and the setting rang very true.

Don't watch the movie, BTW. Awful.