For the Thrill of It

作者:Baatz, Simon

页数:560

出版时间:2008-8

价格:221.00元

isbn号码:9780060781002

具体描述

It was a crime that shocked the nation, a brutal murder in Chicago in 1924 of a child, by two wealthy college students who killed solely for the thrill of the experience. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb had first met several years earlier, and their friendship had blossomed into a love affair. Both were intellectuals—too smart, they believed, for the police to catch them. However, the police had recovered an important clue at the scene of the crime—a pair of eyeglasses—and soon both Leopold and Loeb were in the custody of Cook County. They confessed, and Robert Crowe, the state's attorney, announced to newspaper reporters that he had a hanging case. No defense, he believed, would save the two ruthless killers from the gallows. Set against the backdrop of the 1920s, a time of prosperity, self-indulgence, and hedonistic excess, For the Thrill of It draws the reader into a lost world, a world of speakeasies and flappers, of gangsters and gin parties, that existed when Chicago was a lawless city on the brink of anarchy. The rejection of morality, the worship of youth, and the obsession with sex had seemingly found their expression in this callous murder. But the murder is only half the story. After Leopold and Loeb were arrested, their families hired Clarence Darrow to defend their sons. Darrow, the most famous lawyer in America, aimed to save Leopold and Loeb from the death penalty by showing that the crime was the inevitable consequence of sexual and psychological abuse that each defendant had suffered during childhood at the hands of adults. Both boys, Darrow claimed, had experienced a compulsion to kill, and therefore, he appealed to the judge, they should be spared capital punishment. However, Darrow faced a worthy adversary in his prosecuting attorney: Robert Crowe was clever, cunning, and charismatic, with ambitions of becoming Chicago's next mayor—and he was determined to send Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb to their deaths. A masterful storyteller, Simon Baatz has written a gripping account of the infamous Leopold and Loeb case. Using court records and recently discovered transcripts, Baatz shows how the pathological relationship between Leopold and Loeb inexorably led to their crime. This thrilling narrative of murder and mystery in the Jazz Age will keep the reader in a continual state of suspense as the story twists and turns its way to an unexpected conclusion.

用户评价

**评语三** 我通常对那种过于追求刺激而忽略人物深度的作品不太感冒，但这本书成功地打破了我的偏见。它不仅仅是关于某种极限的追求，更是一次对“人性边界”的深刻哲学探讨。作者通过一系列极端事件，巧妙地揭示了支撑我们日常生活的那些看不见的社会契约是如何在压力下瓦解的。那些角色所展现出的那种对“超越”的执念，到底是源于对平庸生活的厌倦，还是潜意识中对自我毁灭的向往？书中没有给出明确的答案，而是将这个问题抛给了读者。这种留白的处理方式非常高明，它迫使读者停下来，去反思自己的生活选择和内心的渴望。我喜欢这种不直接给出结论的写作手法，它让这本书拥有了超越类型小说的深度，更像是一面映照我们内心幽暗角落的镜子。

**评语四** 这本书的文笔是那种带着冷峻光泽的金属质感，非常独特。它摒弃了华丽的辞藻堆砌，而是采用了一种极其精炼、甚至有些克制的语言风格来描绘那些极端的场景。这种冷静的笔触反而产生了极强的对比效果：越是冷静地描述那些疯狂的行为，其内在蕴含的冲击力就越是巨大。我发现自己常常需要放慢速度来阅读某些段落，不是因为内容晦涩，而是因为那种精准的措辞——每一个动词、每一个形容词的选择都像是经过了无数次推敲的，剔除了所有不必要的脂肪，只留下最有力的骨架。这种写作方式让读者无法逃避，你必须直面作者抛出的每一个细节。对于那些欣赏简洁有力、注重文字质感的读者来说，这本书的语言本身就是一种享受。它证明了优秀的故事不需要冗余的装饰。

**评语二** 天呐，这本书的节奏感简直是大师级的！它不像有些小说那样拖泥带水，开篇不久就迅速将你抛入了一个高速运转的齿轮组里，而且这个速度一直保持到最后，丝毫没有松懈。我得说，作者对于叙事节奏的把控，简直是教科书级别的范例。在那些紧张的对峙场面中，对话短促有力，充满了张力，仿佛能听到彼此急促的呼吸声；而在偶尔穿插的冷静叙述部分，又能让人得以喘息，并为接下来的爆发蓄力。最让我惊艳的是，作者能够在如此紧凑的结构下，依然保持了叙事的清晰度，即使涉及到多条线索的并行推进，读者也从未感到迷失方向。这需要极高的文字驾驭能力和对故事骨架的深刻理解。读完这本，我深刻理解了什么是“一气呵成”，它不是仓促，而是一种精准控制下的完美爆发，读起来酣畅淋漓，爽快至极。

**评语一** 这本书简直是一场文字的盛宴，作者的叙事功力深厚得令人咋舌。从翻开第一页开始，我就被卷入了一个光怪陆离的迷宫，里面的每一个转角都充满了意想不到的惊喜和令人不安的悬念。主角的内心挣扎被刻画得入木三分，那种游走在道德边缘的快感与随之而来的巨大心理压力，读起来让人手心冒汗。尤其是关于那些精心策划的“行动”场景，作者对细节的把握达到了近乎偏执的程度，从环境的温度到空气中微妙的气味变化，无不被捕捉并转化为推动情节的强大张力。我尤其欣赏作者在描述角色动机时所展现出的复杂性，他们并非简单的善恶二元论可以概括，每个人都有着自己独特的灰色地带和无法言说的过去，这种深度让整个故事的质感瞬间提升了好几个档次。读完之后，我仿佛也体验了一次高风险的游戏，那种肾上腺素飙升的感觉久久不能平复，这本书绝对是那种让你在深夜里舍不得放下，即使读完了也会时不时回味其中精妙布局的佳作。

**评语五** 从文学技巧的角度来看，作者在构建世界观方面展现了惊人的想象力和严密的逻辑性。这个故事所发生的“舞台”——无论是现实中的某个不起眼的角落，还是被角色们赋予了特殊意义的场所——都显得如此真实可信，仿佛作者对那个环境了如指掌。这种代入感建立在极其扎实的背景设定之上。你会感觉到，故事中的每一个规则、每一次意外，都像是遵循着一套内在的、尚未被我们发现的宇宙法则在运行。更妙的是，作者成功地将这种宏大的设定与个体命运的微小挣扎巧妙地融合在一起，使得人物的行为逻辑不仅符合其自身的心理状态，同时也与他们所处的那个独特环境产生了深刻的共鸣。读完后，我不仅沉浸在故事本身，还对作者构建的这个独特空间产生了浓厚的兴趣，真想知道那里是否还隐藏着更多的故事。