Blackburn

Rating:
Summary: A challenge to society's values
Review: All of us have thought about killing other people. It might be the mechanic who cheated you, the professor who unfairly gave you a bad grade, etc. That being said, Blackburn is a book in which the main character actually acts upon these urges.

Jimmy Blackburn has been put down all his life. His parents abuse him, and he's looked at as a failure in life. So, when a cruel police officer harasses him outside a church, Blackburn, having had enough, kills him. This begins a crusade against unfairness and immorality in society. Blackburn begins a crusade against those who wrong others and him.

The story is horrifying and thought provoking at the same time. Blackburn rises against society's ills. However, as the book winds down, he is seen not as a public crusader, but as a serial killer. Are his actions wrong because society doesn't condone murder or is he providing a public service by disposing of some of the scum out there? I found myself asking this question after finishing this book.

Read this now. It is not an easy read, but you will be the better for it once you finish.

Rating:
Summary: I'm unable to forget this book
Review: Blackburn is a character study. To call him a "serial killer" is not doing the character justice, but rather limiting him. He has a heart, soul, and a code of ethics by which he lives, and by which he kills. There is more to this book than Jimmy Blackburn and his victims. It is about family, and society, and how the character exists within each, and how each affect the character. When I finished this book, I found that I actually missed having Jimmy Blackburn around. I believe Bradley Denton felt this way too, and to bring closure to the character wrote the story "Blackburn Bakes Cookies" for his book One Day Closer To Death. I could speak at length about Blackburn, and not do it justice. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Rating:
Summary: A moral killer? A modern classic!
Review: BLACKBURN is one of those books that will change you. Once you've read it, you will never see the world the same way again. There are no convenient blacks and whites in this brilliant novel. Blackburn is a man we understand and sympathize with. EVEN WHEN HE KILLS PEOPLE! We laugh and cheer. EVEN WHEN HE KILLS PEOPLE! And when we think about that, we shudder because we know that what he's doing is WRONG, but it feels so right and that, my friends, is a very disturbing thing to think. This is one of those books you will never forget. Bradley Denton has turned out a modern classic that deserves a much wider audience. The question remains, though, and you can take this as a challenge if you like: Do you have what it takes to read this book? If so, you will never be the same.

Rating:
Summary: The Anti-Hannibal
Review: Bradley Denton's "Blackburn" is an astonishingly original novel and a complete departure from the over-formulated serial killer genre. The novel is written in a curious style, shifting between scenes in which Jimmy Blackburn kills his victims - all liar, cheaters, and other blights upon society - and scenes from his life, beginning with his childhood. Blackburn grows up with an abusive father and a negligent mother, but Denton is not interested in using this difficult child as a pop-psychology explanation for Blackburn's strangely moral homicidal tendencies. If anything, he wants to sever any kind of cause and effect relationship in this novel that has much more interesting things on its plate than causality. Blackburn is an enigma, and his terrible childhood is part of that enigma, as are his many murders.

At times this is a very funny novel, and Blackburn has to be among the most likable murderers in literature. His moral system is skewed but enticing, and Denton does a wonderful job of keeping his protagonist both likable and utterly alien. The only flaw in this great book is that Denton sometimes lets his tone get away from him. Some of the scenes become silly rather than sardonic, and the weave of the book runs a bit thin at those moments. But they are few and far between, and for the most part this book a wildly successful in ways that multi-million dollar serial killer pot-boilers can never hope to emulate.

Rating:
Summary: Blackburn -- He Kills People -- You'll Like Him
Review: I swiped that title from the blurb on the jacket of the British edition. This is the novel AMERICAN PSYCHO could've been if the author of that hound could write. Jimmy Blackburn is a serial killer, and very often the reader will be cheering for Blackburn. It's a marvelous work of black humor and makes one re-examine one's belief in the solidity of civilization.

Rating:
Summary: Blackburn is a serial killer with a soul
Review: The character of Blackburn is an extremely deep and tormented one, although he seems to have more of a focus in life than those of us who do not go around killing our fellow man. He kills only those who have wronged society, and the reader is compelled to understand Blackburn's actions, to the point where I cried, hard, at this awkward hero's final chapter.

Rating:
Summary: Serial killing is accidental
Review: This book is truly hypnotic. I couldn't stop reading. Blackburn is a very facinating guy, who dispite his penchant for killing people who truly deserve it, is a moral and nice guy. I would love to see this story make it to the big screen. It's a great story and great writing!