Writing style
Dense · Essayistic · Witty
Apple BooksThe journalist and the murderer
Essays and criticism
- First published
- 1990
- Print length
- 161 pagesKnopf, 1990
Description
Janet Malcolm examines the ethics of journalism through the relationship between reporter Joe McGinniss and Jeffrey MacDonald, an accused murderer whose story became McGinniss’s true-crime book. MacDonald asks McGinniss to write about him and cooperates with reporting conducted from the courtroom and alongside the defense. Their working relationship becomes unusually intimate as reporter and subject share housing, exercise, and courtroom space. Malcolm uses this case to consider how journalists may exploit a subject’s trust, and she probes the tension between private assurances made during reporting and a writer’s effort to shape the public effect of the finished work.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Measured
Tone
Cerebral · Detached · Philosophical · Unsettling
Structure
Argumentative · Braided
Focus
Argument · Character · Ideas
Emotional intensity
3 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Knopf
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780394583129
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