DEVIANT

Rating:
Summary: "Deviant" true crime book of the year!
Review: If amazon would let you use more than 5 stars, this book would be right up there with all the old classics. The story of Ed Gein is told so well in Harold Schechters book, that you begin to think that it is a work of fiction. The plot is mindblowingly accurate, Harold (as always) has done his homwork. Reading Eddies background story of a hard life, burdened by an over domineering mother, actually makes you pity the guy. Though this book in no way excuses his crimes, it gives you an insight to the small town of Plainfeild, witch during the 50s, was a breeding ground for Eddies madness. The book is obviously of adult content but is so good that prehaps some older teenages should read it. My read of the year definetly. Thank you Harold Schechter.

Rating:
Summary: PSYCO
Review: IF YOU REALLY GET INTO TRUE STORIES THIS ONE WILL CURL YOUR TOES

Rating:
Summary: True Crime Writing at its Best
Review: In "Deviant," Harold Schecter presents an interesting, informative, and meticulously-researched treatment of one of the most notorious figures in the annals of American crime. Without resorting to sensationalism, Schecter creates a factual, in-depth portrait of Ed Gein, who has both horrified and fascinated Americans for over four decades. Schecter's work is well-organized and highly readable, and gives the reader an unsettling glimpse into the twisted mind of a maniac, without the luridness which is so often encountered in other works of this genre. A wealth of background information provides great insight into the making of a modern-day monster. Highly recommended!

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Summary: Gein still shocks after all these years
Review: In the autumn of 1957, the nation learned of a nightmare unfolding in the little rural town of Plainfield, Wisconsin. A local recluse and simpleton by the name of Edward Gein murdered Bernice Worden, the owner of the local hardware store. A murder, even in 1950's America, wouldn't grab the attention of most folks, but this crime did. Local police searching Gein's farmhouse uncovered a soul shattering house of horrors. Not only did they find murder victim Worden in the most degrading condition, the police also discovered pieces of human bodies inside the house. Gein had fashioned soup bowls out of human skulls, masks out of human faces, and furniture out of human flesh. Every hour spent in the farmhouse turned up even more horrors, enough to make even the most hardened cop sick to his stomach. As the official inquiry deepened, America learned that a human monster lived in the most unlikely of settings, a man who embodied virtually every ghastly psychopathology known to modern science. The name Eddie Gein became synonymous with evil and he quickly became part of the dark side of American pop culture. Author Harold Schechter, a professor of American culture at Queens College, decided to write a factual account of the horrendous crimes of Edward Gein in an effort to finally set the record straight about one of America's premier boogeymen. "Deviant" is the result.

The author adroitly sums up Gein's family tree in a few pages. Despite what must have been a scarcity of information, Schecter reveals Ed's father as an orphan who went on to a successful career as an alcoholic and pest. The only thing Gein's father accomplished in life was his marriage to Augusta, Eddie's mother and an all around terror. According to "Deviant," the complex relationship between this overweening woman and her sons led directly to the seething mass of insanity that was Edward Gein. Augusta preached an ultra conservative Christian theology that saw all women in the world as inferior beings. She constantly railed about the sinfulness of the world to her two sons, making it clear that no woman would ever be good enough for her two boys. When not on a religious tirade, Augusta belittled her husband with a vigor rarely seen in the worst of marriages. After closing down a family run store in La Crosse, Augusta moved the clan to a farm near Plainfield. Ed's father died soon after, a shattered wreck barely missed by the rest of the family. His brother Henry died under mysterious circumstances while fighting a brushfire on the Gein property, a death many attributed to Ed because Henry had the temerity to question Augusta's iron rule. With the death of his mother shortly thereafter, Ed was left alone in the world for the first time.

Plainfield residents always liked Ed Gein. Sure, the guy was a little strange, always walking around with a dopey grin on his face while making the most outrageous statements about shrunken heads and other oddball stuff, but people generally thought him harmless. Many of his neighbors appreciated Ed showing up and helping out when work needed doing, or volunteering to watch the kids when the parents headed into town (!). Not until the police exposed Gein's repulsive activities did anyone have an inkling of what this guy was really about. Once they knew, the questions and outrageous stories started. Ed became a lightening rod for every mysterious disappearance in Wisconsin and neighboring states during the previous fifteen years. Even though police later cleared Gein in all but two murders--Bernice Worden and Mary Hogan--investigators and citizens continued to suspect Ed in a series of crimes. Moreover, townspeople came forward with supposedly "true" tales about close calls with the now exposed killer. The media, writes Schechter, carries most of the blame for printing the most ridiculous stories in an effort to sell papers. These media accounts went a long way towards installing Gein as an enduring pop cultural icon, an icon who continues to exert an influence even today.

I had a few problems with "Deviant" even though I consider the book well written and nicely researched. The biggest difficulty concerns the lack of footnotes. I imagine Schechter had to make a tradeoff with the publishing company since a book marketed to a general audience will not sell well if potential buyers see pages of citations. But a book from a scholar that purports to tell the facts behind the Gein case needs to contain citations so interested readers can reproduce his findings. I hate to harp about footnotes/endnotes since I like to avoid them whenever possible as much as the next guy, but a book that references this many public officials, newspapers, and public documents should have the notes.

"Deviant" does do a good job in several areas. Schechter presents compelling evidence that Gein was not a cannibal, a revelation that may come as a shock to many who consider themselves knowledgeable about the case. Not that it really matters, of course, because Ed indulged in so many appalling excesses that removing one stigma does nothing to lessen the overall horror of his activities. Still, it is nice to see someone finally look closely at all of the case documents in order to write the most truthful account possible. "Deviant" is grim stuff, some of the worst accounts of human atrocities captured on paper, but true crime buffs will appreciate Schechter's attention to detail concerning the man who many consider to be one of the worst criminals in American history. I also recommend "Deviant" for first time readers with an itch to learn about the guy who inspired Norman Bates, Leatherface, and nearly every horror film psycho since the 1960s.

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Summary: THE Ed Gein book so far!
Review: Reads like a novel but full of great facts & insight! One thing I did hope for was a more thorough examination of the myths- did he eat any human flesh or commit necrophilia (Schechter gives him the benefit of the doubt that he did not) and "What about 'Gus'?" (the Nash book BLOODLETTERS AND BADMEN claimed that Gein had an elderly helper 'Gus' who thought he was helping Gein get bodies for medical study) Granted there was no real Gus but did Gein ever claim there was?

of course, Ed's mom WAS named AuGUSta

Looking forward to the Steve Railsback film & to another projected film that may cast James Woods or (fingers crossed) STEVE BUSCEMI! (remember his comedy ED AND HIS DEAD MOTHER)

Rating:
Summary: Norman Bates+Leatherface+Hannibal Lecter
Review: Schechter keeps Deviant elemental. While his writing style is easy to read and the story is never less than gripping, though, you sometimes wish for more of a challenge in getting at the interior of Gein's mind. However, having said that, the easy-to-read style is blunt, which reinforces the simple and dumb psychosis that drove him in his macabre explorations.

Gein was a sick, sick man. Nonetheless, the exploration into his background and family life left me with a disturbing understanding that humanized this monster significantly. I think the classic study of Gein's life has yet to be written; until then, Deviant is the best out there.

Gein was the inspiration for the "villains" in such movie classics as "Psycho," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," and "The Silence of the Lambs." Pardon my insensitive sense of humor, but at least that much good came out of his wretched little life.

Rating:
Summary: The truth is more frightening than fiction.
Review: Schecter's book 'Deviant' proves once again that the truth can be ever more unsettling than the best of fiction.
His almost blase telling of the man who inspired chracters in Psycho and Silence of the Lambs leaves one wondering how well we really known those around us.
For this to have taken place in a small town where everyone knew each other only goes to show just how deceiving appearances and our own perceptions can be.
Even knowing the ending it was a hard book to put down.
SusanK

Rating:
Summary: Excellent study of a challenging topic.
Review: The author manages to put forth a study of a macabre, deranged individual in a compelling and non-sensationalist manner. He approaches horrific subject matter intelligently and carefully. A first-class effort.

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Summary: Gein -- Alcoholic Father Beat Him
Review: The author, Harold Schechter, draws incomplete conclusions when seeking the rationale for Ed Gein's disturbing behavior. Yes, Gein's disturbed, fundamentalist mother, Augusta, impacted Gein's psychological development and his resulting pathology. But there are other men who have had domineering mothers with strange attitudes about sex, who didn't go on to become serial killers. Let's not forget that Gein, despite his reported gentleness, killed two people, probably three (his brother as well.)

The one link you will find when researching the lives of violent criminals, is that they come from homes with violent, abusive fathers or father figures. And they often grow up watching their fathers abuse their mothers, as was the case in the Gein family. Augusta is depicted by Schechter as the controlling one, but her husband hit her often, according to the book. Someone who is getting beaten regularly is not an unambiguous model of power. Gein grew up in a household where violence was acceptable, especially violence toward women.

Gein was also beaten by his father, and that is the key to the formation of Ed's rage as well as his lack of compassion. Violence begets violence, and plays a role in psychopathology. Sigmund Freud overlooked early exposure to violence in human personality formation and instead focused mainly on a subject's mother's personality. Schetcher makes the same mistake.

Rating:
Summary: A great book about the nuttiest cut-up you ever saw.
Review: The Deviant
By Harold Schechter

This book is about a shy, retiring farmer, Ed Gein, who was born in 1906 in La Crosse, Wisconsin to a drunkard no good father and a domineering mother who convinced her son that all women were evil, except her and to have nothing to do with them.

Well, of course, after his mother died, Ed got to visiting the local graveyards at night and digging up women and taking them home with him (this was long before there were singles bars).

He got all wound up in his work, did a lot of slicing and dicing but I won't go into all that here but needless to say, after he killed at least two or possibly as many as six or more live individuals, people began to suspect something was amiss around old Ed's place as some local kids playing there saw some heads hanging on his walls.

They finally locked him away for life in the mental hospital where he did quite well as it was the best place he had ever lived and he finally died of old age in 1984.

Now, when you hear someone talk about the "good old days" when everything was so much better, ask them if they ever heard of Ed Gein along about the time Elvis was getting started in 1957.