Killings, Calvin Trillin
Killings, Calvin Trillin
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Killings

Author: Calvin Trillin

Narrator: Robert Fass

Unabridged: 11 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/04/2017


Synopsis

True stories of sudden death in the classic collection by a master of American journalism

“Reporters love murders,” Calvin Trillin writes in the introduction to Killings. “In a pinch, what the lawyers call ‘wrongful death’ will do, particularly if it’s sudden.” Killings, first published in 1984 and expanded for this edition, shows Trillin to be such a reporter, drawn time after time to tales of sudden death. But Trillin is attracted less by violence or police procedure than by the way the fabric of people’s lives is suddenly exposed when someone comes to an untimely end.  As Trillin says, Killings is “more about how Americans live than about how some of them die.”

These stories, which originally appeared in The New Yorker between 1969 and 2010, are vivid portraits of lives cut short. An upstanding farmer in Iowa finds himself drastically changed by a woman he meets in a cocktail lounge. An eccentric old man in Eastern Kentucky is enraged by the presence of a documentary filmmaker. Two women move to a bucolic Virginia county to find peace, only to end up at war over a shared road. Mexican American families in California hand down a feud from generation to generation. A high-living criminal-defense lawyer in Miami acquires any number of enemies capable of killing him. 

Stark and compassionate, deeply observed and beautifully written, Killings is “that rarity, reportage as art” (William Geist, The New York Times Book Review).

Praise for Killings

“Riveting tales of murder and mayhem. . . . [Calvin] Trillin is a superb writer, with a magical ability to turn even the most mundane detail into spellbinding wonder. Armed with this wealth of material, he utterly shines. Every piece here is a gem.”—The Seattle Times

“What Mr. Trillin does so well, what makes Killings literature, is the way he pictures the lives that were interrupted by the murders. Even the most ordinary life makes a terrible noise . . . when it’s broken off.”—Anatole Broyard, The New York Times

“Fascinating, troubling . . . In each of these stories is the basis of a Dostoevskian novel.”—Edward Abbey, Chicago Sun-Times

“The stories . . . are unforgettable. They leave us, finally, with the awareness of the unknowable opacity of the human heart.”—Bruce Colman, San Francisco Chronicle

“[Trillin] writes brilliantly. . . . These stories still hold up, as classics.”—The Buffalo News

“In his artful ability to conjure up a whole life and a whole world, Trillin comes as close to achieving the power of a Chekhov short story as can anyone whose material is so implacably tied to fact.”—Frederick Iseman, Harper’s Bazaar

“I have a book for you true-crime addicts if you’re caught up on the podcast Serial, the cascade on TV of 48 Hours and Dateline NBC episodes. . . . It’s time to pick up Calvin Trillin’s Killings.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Well-crafted and thoughtfully composed, lacking judgment and admonishment, these are a true piece of quality journalism, which clearly continues to captivate audiences.”—Library Journal

“With telling detail and shrewd insights, [Calvin Trillin] masterfully evokes the places and personalities that hatched these grim episodes.”—Publishers Weekly

About The Author

Calvin Trillin has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1963, when the magazine published “An Education in Georgia,” his account of the desegregation of the University of Georgia. He is the author of thirty books. His nonfiction includes About Alice, Remembering Denny, and Killings. His humor writing includes books of political verse, comic novels, books on eating, and the collection Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin.Robert Fass is the Audie Award–winning narrator of more than 125 unabridged audiobooks. An eight-time Audie nominee, he has earned multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and is equally at home in a wide variety of styles, genres, characters, and dialects. To learn more, visit robertfass.com and follow @RobertFass1 on Twitter.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sam on March 08, 2015

One night years ago, as a crime reporter in Stockton, CA, I was asked to cover the killing of a man whose real name escapes me at the moment. I went to the hospital to speak to the family. His son grew enraged that I wanted to talk at such a delicate moment. But I calmed him and said I wanted to writ......more

Goodreads review by Eric on January 28, 2013

There are many things to be impressed with in Trillin's writing—the sly voice, the seamless reportage, the narrative momentum—but it's the economy of these stories that really wows. In the space of 10 pages or so, Trillin sketches tales that are gripping, detailed, and ambiguous, yet makes each feel......more

Goodreads review by ALLEN on July 19, 2018

Calvin Trillin is a tremendous writer. I've read his "Tummy Trilogy" twice and hope to again before I die. His political writings, no matter how dated, still enlighten and outrage. After a small binge of true-crime sagas, including VULGAR FAVORS (the killing of fashion designer Gianni Versace), MIDN......more

Goodreads review by Valerity (Val) on March 18, 2017

I got an ARC for Kindle from Netgalley and Random House True Crime for this book Killings which has been updated with new stories added for this 2017 edition by the author Calvin Trillin. This is an interesting collection of true stories of deaths of people by all sorts of sudden means. They are all......more

Goodreads review by Randee on May 22, 2017

I discovered Calvin Trillin as a teenager and have never stopped reading him. I love his sly, dry wit that bursts through everything he writes. A lot of his books are about food and/or he and his family's travels to get a decent meal. Many of his books are a collection of his columns which range fro......more


Quotes

“Riveting tales of murder and mayhem. . . . [Calvin] Trillin is a superb writer, with a magical ability to turn even the most mundane detail into spellbinding wonder. Armed with this wealth of material, he utterly shines. Every piece here is a gem.”The Seattle Times

“What Mr. Trillin does so well, what makes Killings literature, is the way he pictures the lives that were interrupted by the murders. Even the most ordinary life makes a terrible noise . . . when it’s broken off.”—Anatole Broyard, The New York Times

“Fascinating, troubling . . . In each of these stories is the basis of a Dostoevskian novel.”—Edward Abbey, Chicago Sun-Times

“The stories . . . are unforgettable. They leave us, finally, with the awareness of the unknowable opacity of the human heart.”—Bruce Colman, San Francisco Chronicle

“[Trillin] writes brilliantly. . . . These stories still hold up, as classics.”The Buffalo News

“In his artful ability to conjure up a whole life and a whole world, Trillin comes as close to achieving the power of a Chekhov short story as can anyone whose material is so implacably tied to fact.”—Frederick Iseman, Harper’s Bazaar 

“I have a book for you true-crime addicts if you’re caught up on the podcast Serial, the cascade on TV of 48 Hours and Dateline NBC episodes, the hundreds of hours of Law and Order and its various offspring—oh, and the nearly eight-hour O.J.: Made in America and the ten or so hours of Making a Murderer. It’s time to pick up Calvin Trillin’s Killings.”The New York Times Book Review

“Trillin’s subjects are diverse and poignant. Each story captures not only a physical setting but also the tone of the era in which it occurred. Well-crafted and thoughtfully composed, lacking judgment and admonishment, these are a true piece of quality journalism, which clearly continues to captivate audiences.”Library Journal

“Violent deaths illuminate complex lives and desperate circumstances in this expanded reissue of the classic collection of the author’s true-crime reporting. . . . With telling detail and shrewd insights, [Calvin Trillin] masterfully evokes the places and personalities that hatched these grim episodes.”Publishers Weekly