And for each of the four divisions of the novel, readers are treated to key “I love you” discussions. Paul thinks that “ looked meticulously cared for, like a rare plant in a conservatory.” The admiration is mutual, and the two young men quickly progress in their friendship and their sexual union. Like Bronte’s Cathy, Julian Fromme is from a wealthy family, an American version of landed gentry. This story is really more akin to Bronte’s Wuthering Heights than Tartt’s The Secret History in the way it depicts two people who are passionately in love with each other to the point of destroying each other due to their mutual sado-masochistic tendencies. The most riveting aspects of These Violent Delights has little to do with murder. From these traumas and thanks to the influence of his lover, Julian Fromme, this troubled young man sets out on the road to become a cold-blooded murderer. The attack revels the intense aggression that hides beneath his unassuming exterior.
The second is the public fallout and shame brought about when he brutally attacks another high school student. Paul is from a Jewish family in Pittsburgh and he’s already to suffered two key traumas. These Violent Delights offers an insightful psychological reflection on insecurity and the lengths some white men will go to feel seen, to feel important, to feel loved.Īt the start of the novel, protagonist Paul Fleischer is transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood. But whereas I didn’t think Tartt’s novel offered any real insight into human nature or into violence itself–except maybe in its presentation of the relentless moral indifference (or ignorance) of some white Americans–I think Nemerever’s novel truly does. Indeed, I read Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (1992) just before this novel precisely because this one has been compared to Tartt’s story about a group of spoiled and affluent white college students who cover up an arbitrary murder. “‘Everyone’s treating me like a time bomb.’”īefore I started Micah Nemerever’s debut novel, These Violent Delights, I asked myself if America needed yet another story about arbitrary violence committed by bored and affluent white people. These Violent Delights is a Mixture of Horror and Deeply-Felt Pathos
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