The Diary of a Rapist
by Evan S. Connell
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The 1960s: news of riots, war, unheard-of behavior, and rampant crime crowds the papers and the airwaves. Spurned by his wife at home and by superiors at work, Earl Summerfield hunkers down in his cramped San Francisco apartment and keeps a diary that is a scratched record of a world going to pieces. The words he overhears, the words he wants to say, swim in his head, turning into fantasies of ambition, love, and retribution. He is sorry for himself. He is angry at everyone. He takes to show more going out at night, slipping into other people's houses. He is looking for something, and he fixes on one woman. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Taxi Driver avant le lettre? Recommended to fans of Lagerqvist's The Dwarf, American Psycho, or The Killer inside Me, or maybe Why Does Herr R Run Amok.
Keep at it until the end when it assumes a Darger-like lyrical intensity.
Keep at it until the end when it assumes a Darger-like lyrical intensity.
My god, I am a sucker for depictions of madness, and Earl Summerfield runs the gamut of many ways human madness can express itself. This is not the tale of someone descending into madness. It is the tale of a full-bore madman from the very beginning.
I generally do not read reviews of books before I review them myself but I read some other opinions out there before I began this review. There are some for whom Earl Summerfield is the precursor to the modern Everyman, a person made mad by the world around me. For me this did not ring true. Earl was not made mad. He is mad. He is mad because he is a misogynistic paranoid with violent tendencies. This conclusion did not make this book any the less a compelling read. Connell could not have show more done a better job painting a picture of a repellent, insane human being.
Read the rest of the review here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/?p=263 show less
I generally do not read reviews of books before I review them myself but I read some other opinions out there before I began this review. There are some for whom Earl Summerfield is the precursor to the modern Everyman, a person made mad by the world around me. For me this did not ring true. Earl was not made mad. He is mad. He is mad because he is a misogynistic paranoid with violent tendencies. This conclusion did not make this book any the less a compelling read. Connell could not have show more done a better job painting a picture of a repellent, insane human being.
Read the rest of the review here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/?p=263 show less
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Author Information
30+ Works 5,297 Members
Evan S. Connell was born August 17, 1924 in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1947. His first work, The Anatomy Lesson and Other Stories, was published in 1957. His first novel, Mrs. Bridge, was published in 1959. The sequel, Mr. Bridge, was published ten years later. In 1990, both novels were adapted into the show more film Mr. and Mrs. Bridge starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. He wrote more than 15 books during his lifetime including Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn, The Patriot, The Diary of a Rapist, The Connoisseur, Deus Lo Volt!, and Lost in Uttar Pradesh. He died on January 10, 2013 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Diary of a Rapist
- Original publication date
- 1966
- First words
- January 1
Last night Bianca shook me awake and told me to stop grinding my teeth. Nothing gives her more satisfaction than to humiliate me.
So one year ends, another begins
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- Members
- 222
- Popularity
- 146,819
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.32)
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 7
