The Paperboy
by Pete Dexter
List Price: $12.95
Pages: XXX
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0385315724
Publisher: Delta
The sun was rising over Moat County, Florida, when Sheriff Thurmond Call
was found on the highway, gutted like an alligator. A local redneck was
tried, sentenced, and set to fry.
Then Ward James, hotshot investigative reporter for the Miami Times,
returns to his rural hometown with a death row femme fatale who promises
him the story of the decade. She's armed with explosive evidence, aiming
to free--and meet--her convicted "fiancÚ."
With Ward's disillusioned younger brother Jack as their driver, they barrel
down Florida's back roads and seamy places in search of The Story, racing
flat out into a shocking head-on collision between character and fate
as truth takes a back seat to headline news...
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1. The book begins with the death of Sheriff Call, about which the narrator says
the message was "not the loss of Thurmond Call, but of something more
fundamental that people had felt themselves losing all along." The story
goes on to record many losses. Is there a character who does not lose
something but gains something during the course of this story? If so,
is it because the character is marked by a lack of expectations?
2. The narrator of
the story remarks that "a newspaper story, like anything else, is more
attractive from a distance, when it comes to you, than it is when you
get close and agonize over the details." What are Ward, Yardley, and Charlotte
initially attracted to in the case of Hillary Van Wetter? What does each
character hope to gain from the case, and how is each disappointed as
he or she becomes familiar with the story's details?
3. Water is a powerful
image throughout the book. Jack swims as a means of healing, Ward dies
in the ocean, and Jack distinctly recalls that he has never seen his father
wet. Discuss how each character is defined by his relationship to water.
How is it significant that the Van Wetter family lives in the swamplands?
And what does the author intend by placing the James family in a county
called Moat?
4. Discuss the similarities
between Ward and Charlotte that drive them to connect with destructive
people, Yardley and Hillary Van Wetter respectively. What do they have
in common that would explain each one's self-destructive behavior? What
about them explains why one life ended in murder and one in suicide?
5. Ward continually
places himself in potentially violent situations, but, as Jack points
out, "those were not the things that frightened my brother." What satisfaction
does Ward gain from the threat of violence? In what situations is Ward
shown to be truly frightened, and what causes his fear?
6. Two generations
of reporters are portrayed in this story. Jack observes his father and
his fellow editors and comments that "what moved them was not to know
things, but to tell them." How is Ward's approach to journalism fundamentally
different from his father's and what effect does this have on their relationship?
7. Throughout the book,
W.W. is disturbed by his disintegrating family, but there is evidence
that he is to blame for his isolation. What potentially fruitful relationships
does he neglect?
8. Charlotte calls
Hillary an intact man. What does she mean by this? Is there a point during
her meetings with him when she realizes she is wrong? If so, why does
she marry him?
9. Jack reflects that
Charlotte was left with a situation which while of her own making, bore
no resemblance to the one she had envisioned. Do you think this is true
of W.W. Ward, and Jack? What do you think each one envisioned for himself,
and how do you think he sees himself through the course of this story?
10. More than anything
else, W.W. looks forward to the moment he can hand the newspaper over
to his son Ward. How does the publication of Ward's story affect this
plan?
11. What do you think
was the deciding factor in Ward's ultimate demise: the rejection by his
father, the beating he suffered and the exposure of his homosexuality,
or the aftermath of the Hillary Van Wetter investigation?
12. It has been said
of Pete Dexter that "what deepens and darkens his writing so that art
is the precise word to describe it is a powerful understanding that character
rules, that we live with our weaknesses and die of our strengths" (John
Skow, Time). How is Ward's decline inextricably tied to his strengths
as a person and a reporter? Discuss this observation as it applies to
other characters in the book.
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"Hip, hard-boiled and filled with memorable eccentrics."—Time
"A wise and fascinating tale well told."—Entertainment Weekly
"First-rate Pete Dexter. That is as good as things get, and not quite like what anything else gets."—Los Angeles Times
"With clarity and an amazing capacity for simplicity of language and down-home metaphor, Dexter weaves a tale that exposes the extremes of goodness and nastiness that exist in newspaper life."—The Washington Post
