Why They Kill by Richard Rhodes
Lessons on writing
A book can be whatever the fuck you want it to be.
This book is a nonfiction investigation into the causes of violence. Rhodes interviewed a guy (Dr. Lonnie Athens) who worked his whole life researching the topic.
Intermingling long passages from this dude’s book with biographical details, case studies of violent crimes and analysis of other research in the field, Rhodes wrote a crazy book that’s hard to pin down.
Sometimes with reading, you gotta trust your gut and go with it, even if you don’t quite understand. Is it history, is it science, is it social science, is it gonzo? Who cares when it’s true?
Rhodes and Athens have the stones to go where few fear to tread. Killing, trauma, childhood abuse, this book is about the darkest shit we got. But their dogged pursuit, their intolerance of bullshit, their burn-the-boats a-political-ness makes this a fascinating read where you feel like you, the reader, was put front and centre.
Sometimes a book feels like it was written cause the writer wanted to write it. Other times, it feels like the writer knew the reader needed that shit.
Hells Angels, Dispatches, In Cold Blood, War come to mind as adjacent to this.
Even though it’s totally different subject matter and style, the raw, unflinching stare, the willingness to face the darkness, the participatory nature of it where the writer is willing to carve out bits of themselves and leave them, irretrievable, bleeding on the page.
You lose something when you go over the edge. But goddamn, the reader gets something golden.
Read hard. Read wide. Read free.