The Paperboy: A Novel

By Pete Dexter

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  
 
“An eerie and beautiful novel . . . Its secrets continue to reveal themselves long after the book has been finished.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
The sun is rising over Moat County, Florida, when Sheriff Thurmond Call is found on the highway, gutted like an alligator. A local redneck is tried, sentenced, and set to fry. Then Ward James, hotshot investigative reporter for the Miami Times, returns to his rural hometown with a death row femme fatale who promises him the story of the decade. She’s armed with explosive evidence, aiming to free—and meet—her convicted “fiancé.” With Ward’s disillusioned younger brother Jack as their driver, they barrel down Florida’s back roads and seamy places in search of The Story, racing flat out into a shocking head-on collision between character and fate as truth takes a back seat to headline news.
 
Now a major motion picture directed by Lee Daniels starring Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, David Oyelowo, and Macy Gray, with John Cusack and Nicole Kidman

Praise for The Paperboy

“Dexter is a writer who cuts to the bone. There is not a spare word in this searing tale. . . . A bravura performance by one of America’s most original and elegiac voices.”—People
 
“Hip, hard-boiled and filled with memorable eccentrics . . . The Paperboy burns with the phosphorescent atmosphere of betrayal.”—Time
 
“A wise and fascinating tale well told.”—Entertainment Weekly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307785596

Pete Dexter

Pete Dexter is the author of the National Book Award-winning novel Paris Trout and five other novels: God's Pocket, Deadwood, Brotherly Love, The Paperboy, and Train. He has been a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Sacramento Bee, and has contributed to many magazines, including Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Playboy. His screenplays include Rush and Mulholland Falls. Dexter was born in Michigan and raised in Georgia, Illinois, and eastern South Dakota. He lives on an island off the coast of Washington. Rob Fleder was executive editor of Sports Illustrated and the editor of SI Books during his twenty years at Time Inc. He was the editor of Sports Illustrated 50th Anniversary Book, Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Book, Sports Illustrated: The Football Book, and Hate Mail from Cheerleaders, among other New York Times bestsellers.

Reviews for The Paperboy

[wordsampersand · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the third novel by Dexter I've read, and the third I loved but most likely won't read again. The prose is wonderful, dripping in humid Florida atmosphere. But it's so sad and profound that I don't know if I can stomach another go-through. Who knows.

One of the things that struck me about this book is how much is dissects the cruelness of people, even in the littlest of ways. It's especially true how men treat women in The Paperboy--even the well-meaning fellers are fairly awful.

[aliastori · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent.

[johnwbeha · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I finished this book not knowing quite what I thought or what to write in this review. I usually enjoy books about newspapers and this one was good in parts; but probably fell down for me in that I couldn't feel any empathy for the main characters,

[jeffome · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this a lot......quicker read than usual, but i do love the small segmented chapters....they fit my busy life very well. Haunting, creepy, sad exploration of a pair of brothers, both very unlike each other, getting pulled into an investigation of a old local murder in a rural part of Florida in the 1960's. Fascinating study of the newspaper business, the odd obsession some seem to have with convicted murderers on death row, river dwellers, political corruption and dysfunctional families, all bundled into a relatively calm, but steady story that just flowed along effortlessly, in spite of the fact that the majority of these characters are pretty unlikable....but our narrator, and his quiet devotion to his awkward introvert brother pulls you along whether u want to or not. I just found out they made a movie of this.....very interested in seeing that now!

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting start. Fizzles out in the end

[zmagic69 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Huh. The story in this book is good but the telling of story, is really slow and filled with a lot of unnecessary detail. I get trying to add atmosphere but this book for me just seemed to drag on, and yet at the same time more detail about the killer, the sheriff who was killed and the opinions of those in town are given barely any detail.
Good story idea poor execution.

[susandennis-139327 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This isn't really a mystery either but it's a fascinating well told and well written story about a family of a father and two sons. Ward and Jack are the brothers of their newspaperman father. Ward follows in his footsteps and Jack tells the story. But this is more than just a plot - it's a really interesting read. I have had the book on my list of those to check out and now I wish I could remember who told me to read it! Oh well. It was good!

[jimrgill · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel is a spare, gritty depiction of the unpleasant nature of journalism and the depths of immorality to which some of its practitioners will sink in an effort to win recognition. But it’s also far more than that. It’s also the story of a young man’s maturation—that young man is our narrator, Jack James, who tells many stories in the course of this novel. He tells the story of Thurmond Call, a local sheriff who was murdered in cold blood on a dark country road. He tells the story of Hillary Van Wetter, the local ne’er-do-well who was convicted of the murder. He tells the story of Charlotte Bless, a sexually combustible woman who has fallen in love with Hillary and who enlists the help of Jack’s brother (and his unscrupulous colleague) in freeing Hillary. He tells the story of Ward James, Jack’s brother, an intrepid and indefatigable journalist who struggles with the truth of every story he writes just as he struggles with the profound secret that plagues his every waking moment. He tells the story of Yardley Acheman, Ward’s writing partner, whose lust for journalistic glory poisons almost every character in the novel. And he tells the story of his father—an emotionally disconnected man who is simply incapable of creating any kind of bond with his sons in the wake of his wife’s abandonment.Pete Dexter is such a masterful writer that all of these stories become one complex narrative web—the most minor tug on one strand of the narrative yields distinct and incontrovertible effects on all of the other strands. It’s impossible to separate the intricacies of Dexter’s tale as he examines universal themes like the nature of evil, the virtue of truth, the recklessness of ambition, the toxicity of denial, and the consequences of compromise in a way that makes all of these abstract ideals almost palpable. Rarely has such spare prose resulted in such stylistic power—Dexter is a writer who knows well how to tell a story.

[bnbookgirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book took me a while to get into, but, I am glad I stuck with it. It revolves around crime, a news story, and an unpredictable group of characters. The news story comes to fruition, the big prize is won, but not without dire consequences. This book requires staying power, but, the ending is really worth the journey. I enjoyed Dexter's book, Paris Trout much more than this one, but, this book is definately worth reading.

[iralell_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Something haunting about this book. Maybe it's the dead on portrayals of flawed human beings. I read a review that said Pete Dexter's characters really stick with you, and they do. They're drawn in short but revealing strokes. I was left with the impression, however, that one of the reasons they'll stick with me is that so many things were left unresolved in their stories. They nag at me like the feeling that I forgot to pack underwear for a long trip does.