The Journalist and the Murderer

by Janet Malcolm

Overview

Named one of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books by The Modern Library and The Guardian • With surgical precision, Janet Malcolm dissects the famous case of journalist Joe McGinniss and murderer Jeffrey MacDonald. A riveting exploration of the uneasy dynamic between writers and their subjects and a must-read for anyone intrigued by journalism, the complexities of human nature, and true crime

Malcolm deftly analyzes the real-life lawsuit of Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, against Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision. At the heart of this masterfully crafted narrative is McGinniss's controversial portrayal of MacDonald, a former Green Beret convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and two young daughters. While writing the true crime book Fatal Vision, McGinniss ingratiated himself with MacDonald under the guise of supporting his innocence, only to portray him as guilty in the final publication. The resulting libel case put McGinniss's methods on trial, sparking a gripping examination of the ethics governing the writer-subject covenant.

Through probing interviews with the key players - the principals, their lawyers, members of the jury, and expert witnesses - Malcolm provides an atmospheric retelling of the sensational trial. But her true subject is the treacherous territory writers must navigate when trying to objectively chronicle the lives of others.

With piercing self-awareness, Malcolm examines her own role and motivations, laying bare the inherent conflicts and power dynamics that arise when a journalist pursues a story. Her candid, rueful reflections transform a seemingly straightforward work of reportage into a profound exploration of journalistic ethics and the limits of factual truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679731832
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/31/1990
Edition description:	1st Vintage Books Edition
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	420,175
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.01(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

Janet Malcolm's previous books are Diana and Nikon: Essays on Photography; Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession; In the Freud Archives; The Journalist and the Murderer; The Purloined Clinic: Selected Writings; The Silent Woman: Slyvia Plath and Ted Hughes; and The Crime of Sheila McGough. She lives in New York with her husband, Gardner Botsford.

Editorial Reviews

"It is not with regard to journalism but with regard to the making of works of art that Malcom's important book gathers its inspiration, its breathtaking rhetorical velocity, and its great truth." —David Rieff, Los Angeles Times

From the Publisher

In a work that sparked controversy when it first appeared in the New Yorker, Malcolm suggests that journalist Joe McGinniss may have betrayed convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald in McGinniss's bestselling book Fatal Vision.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Every journalist is "a kind of confidence man . . . gaining . . . trust and betraying . . . without remorse,'' says Malcolm. This is an expanded and reworked version of Malcom's New Yorker essay on the "pscyhopathology'' of the journalist/subject relationship, sparked by Jeffrey MacDonald's libel suit against Fatal Vision author Joe McGinniss. Even nonjournalists will be fascinated by Malcolm's discussion of the still puzzling MacDonald case; McGinnis's rather two-faced missives to the imprisoned MacDonald; and Joseph Wambaugh's libel trial testimony about journalistic "untruths.'' In an afterword, Malcolm comments on the heated debate her essay invoked in the journalism community, and concludes that, like it or not, every journalist must, to some degree, tussle with this ethical dilemma. An elegantly written, thought-provoking, and sometimes outrageous essay that should be in every media collection.
-- Judy Quinn, Library Journal

Library Journal