Friday Flashback: Rec. #114: The Journalist and the Murderer

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: In The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcolm explores the moral complexities of nonfiction writing. She argues that even when you're telling someone else's story, you're always just telling your own, for your own reasons. Controversy!

Comparable to: Like a behind-the-scenes tour of true crime books such as In Cold Blood (and of less prestigious ones, too).

Representative quote: "Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible." [first sentence]

You might not like it if: It seems like it's a book you should read, and that pretty much turns you off.

How to get it: Widely available for sale, and your library probably has it. Not Kindle-able (yet). Now also Kindle-able!

Connection to previous Wreckage: Susan Orlean, author of Saturday Night (Rec. #15) and The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup (Rec. #126), was one of the writers who agreed with Malcolm's basic premise, admitting that ethical struggles are a necessary evil in journalism.




[Originally posted 4/28/11.]