Compulsion

Rating:
Summary: This Disappointing Book Was Highly Recommended?.
Review: A gripping novel based on the famous Leopold-Loeb murder case, very readable, but marred by the heavy hand of the author. Levin uses fifties pop psychology to excuse the crime (mostly mouthed by the character of Willie Weiss, who appears to be both a collage friend of the murderers and a psychology prodigy, years ahead of his time!) The victim and his family barely appear at all, except as excuses for the action. It's quite evident that Levin thought very highly of Leopold and Loeb. They are lovingly drawn, and their murder made to seem trivial and unimportant. Instead, Levin makes the murderers out to be hapless, sympathetic victims. Indeed, the whole book is an anti-death penalty rant, with Clarence Darrow made into a god, and Leopold and Loeb lessor godlings. Perhaps even more disturbing is his depiction of homosexuality as mental disease and/or a symptom of a childish lack of development, which can be cured, through murder. Indeed, after the crime, Judd (the murderer that Levin particularly admires)`becomes a man' and begins to lose his homosexuality. This puerile nonsense is despicable. Although crime fiction fans may be pleased (especially those who admire murderers) those interested in the case should stick to the true crime accounts and skip the psychobabble nonsense. Also includes tiresome romance that detracts from the story

PS The depiction of the women as breathless nincompoops is insulting.

Rating:
Summary: Only three quarters of it are an abomination
Review: Anyone interested in the Leopold and Loeb case who might be curious about how the matter can be handled in a fictional way should read Compulsion. But it is just that- fiction- and I cannot stress that enough! When it was published in the late 1950's Leopold was up for parole and Compulsion was an obstacle in his effort, more than thirty years had passed and he wanted the public to focus on his rehibiliation and not rehash the crime. He did not like the book, which is not surprising really, but his dislike was due mainly to way his family members and friends were portrayed in it.
Compulsion presented a mixture of fact and fiction and to the casual reader the line between the two can be very blurry indeed. My emotions about Compulsion are mixed. On one hand I think it presents an accurate interpretation of the almost obsessive love and total devotion Leopold had for Loeb. One very small example that comes to mind is a scene when the two characters are robbing a fraternity house and Leopold's character is thrilled by the idea of being all alone with Loeb's character, no one knowing where they were or what they were doing he likens it to the two of them being on a honeymoon. That is very sweet and it seems like something Leopold might have actually thought, though all the while Loeb's character is frusterated and angry and barking out orders. Which is another important point; Loeb died twenty years before this book was published, no one knows much about him that does not come from the psyciatriac reports from their trial. Partly due to that the public, scholars and everybody else are not able to form a complete picture of him and as so he is portrayed in Compulsion as an absolute sadistic maniac. A more intricate understanding of Loeb could have been accomplished and would have made this ficitonal account more compelling. The book has the overall feeling that it is missing something that it is not really complete.
What is not missing however is huge useless cast of one-dimensional characters. The paperback edition from the 1950's is about 500 pages long- of those 500 pages I would suggest skipping about 350 of them- they have nothing to do with the real story. My biggest problem with Compulsion is the character of Ruth. She is based very, very, very loosely on a female friend from Leopold's youth. In the text she is sort of a love interest- but he really wants to rape her... I don't know, it is all very bizarre- and totally fictional. I can only suppose this was a devise to try to make Leopold's character less homosexual (homosexuality- a very bad thing to 1950's society), maybe holding out the hope that if a man were to find a good woman he would forget about his attraction to other men. Again, this was the 1950's and that kind of reasoning had to be expected, I guess.
I do not like it and I am probably the only person in the world who will give it a bad review but it does have its moments. On the whole however, it's trash.

Rating:
Summary: Only three quarters of it are an abomination
Review: Anyone interested in the Leopold and Loeb case who might be curious about how the matter can be handled in a fictional way should read Compulsion. But it is just that- fiction- and I cannot stress that enough! When it was published in the late 1950's Leopold was up for parole and Compulsion was an obstacle in his effort, more than thirty years had passed and he wanted the public to focus on his rehibiliation and not rehash the crime. He did not like the book, which is not surprising really, but his dislike was due mainly to way his family members and friends were portrayed in it.
Compulsion presented a mixture of fact and fiction and to the casual reader the line between the two can be very blurry indeed. My emotions about Compulsion are mixed. On one hand I think it presents an accurate interpretation of the almost obsessive love and total devotion Leopold had for Loeb. One very small example that comes to mind is a scene when the two characters are robbing a fraternity house and Leopold's character is thrilled by the idea of being all alone with Loeb's character, no one knowing where they were or what they were doing he likens it to the two of them being on a honeymoon. That is very sweet and it seems like something Leopold might have actually thought, though all the while Loeb's character is frusterated and angry and barking out orders. Which is another important point; Loeb died twenty years before this book was published, no one knows much about him that does not come from the psyciatriac reports from their trial. Partly due to that the public, scholars and everybody else are not able to form a complete picture of him and as so he is portrayed in Compulsion as an absolute sadistic maniac. A more intricate understanding of Loeb could have been accomplished and would have made this ficitonal account more compelling. The book has the overall feeling that it is missing something that it is not really complete.
What is not missing however is huge useless cast of one-dimensional characters. The paperback edition from the 1950's is about 500 pages long- of those 500 pages I would suggest skipping about 350 of them- they have nothing to do with the real story. My biggest problem with Compulsion is the character of Ruth. She is based very, very, very loosely on a female friend from Leopold's youth. In the text she is sort of a love interest- but he really wants to rape her... I don't know, it is all very bizarre- and totally fictional. I can only suppose this was a devise to try to make Leopold's character less homosexual (homosexuality- a very bad thing to 1950's society), maybe holding out the hope that if a man were to find a good woman he would forget about his attraction to other men. Again, this was the 1950's and that kind of reasoning had to be expected, I guess.
I do not like it and I am probably the only person in the world who will give it a bad review but it does have its moments. On the whole however, it's trash.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Abnormal Psychology and the Judiciary
Review: I enjoyed Meyer Levin's sentimental and fictional account of the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder of Bobby Franks as a fascinating study of abnormal psychology and the judiciary. A former classmate of the killers at the University of Chicago, the author's sympathetic treatment of likely psychopath Leopold ("Judd") may have aided the latter's parole in 1958 (Loeb was killed in prison). Nevertheless, Leopold sued the author over this book. Compulsion is a great novel, but for a starkly realistic view of this brutal crime readers should consult Hal Higdon's superb non-fictional account, Leopold and Loeb: Crime of the Century.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Abnormal Psychology and the Judiciary
Review: I enjoyed Meyer Levin's sentimental and fictional account of the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder of Bobby Franks as a fascinating study of abnormal psychology and the judiciary. A former classmate of the killers at the University of Chicago, the author's sympathetic treatment of likely psychopath Leopold ("Judd") may have aided the latter's parole in 1958 (Loeb was killed in prison). Nevertheless, Leopold sued the author over this book. Compulsion is a great novel, but for a starkly realistic view of this brutal crime readers should consult Hal Higdon's superb non-fictional account, Leopold and Loeb: Crime of the Century.

Rating:
Summary: Factual Fiction,But Fiction Nonetheless
Review: Meyer Levin was a news reporter during the Leopold and Loeb case. He had sailed to Europe before the hearing began, and thus missed out on the opportunity to cover one of the most sensational crimes of the 20th Century. Years later, Levin secured a contract to write a book based on the Leopold/Loeb crime. Levin met with Leopold in prison and they spoke of collaborating on a story. But Leopold did not want to retel the story of his crime. He wanted to concentrate on his life after the crime. Thus no collaboration ever came about.
Levin created his book, focusing on his own psychological intepretation for the crime. He researched for his novel heavily, and uses large chunks of the testimony, as well as letters Nathan wrote Dick, and the ransom note, word for word. However, Compulsion is a work of fiction. Despite the claimes from other reviewers here that Compulsion is a love letter to the killers, Nathan Laopold found the novel revolting. Later, after his parols, he would sue Meyer Levin.
Any student of the Leopold Loeb case should by all means read compulsion. However, keep in mind that it is a work of fiction and should not be the be all and end all of research. There are blazing inacuracies, and the entire thing is captured through one man's opinion- Levin's. Others have differing views and perhaps after further study, so will you.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Abnormal Psychology and the Judiciary
Review: Meyer Levin's sentimental fictional account of the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder of Bobby Franks is a fascinating study of abnormal psychology. A former classmate of the killers at the University of Chicago, the author's sympathetic treatment of Leopold ("Judd") may have aided that probable-psychopath's parole in 1958 (Loeb was killed in prison in 1936). Nevertheless, Leopold sued the author over this book. Compulsion is a great novel, but readers wanting a more realistic view of this brutal crime should consult Hal Higdon's superb and starkly non-fiction account, Trial of the Century.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Abnormal Psychology and the Judiciary
Review: Meyer Levin's sentimental fictional account of the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder of Bobby Franks is a fascinating study of abnormal psychology. A former classmate of the killers at the University of Chicago, the author's sympathetic treatment of Leopold ("Judd") may have aided that probable-psychopath's parole in 1958 (Loeb was killed in prison in 1936). Nevertheless, Leopold sued the author over this book. Compulsion is a great novel, but readers wanting a more realistic view of this brutal crime should consult Hal Higdon's superb and starkly non-fiction account, Trial of the Century.

Rating:
Summary: A love letter to Leopold and Loeb
Review: My edition contains an Introduction by James Ellroy (it's getting hard to find a crime novel _without_ an Ellroy introduction) in which he writes: "No serial-killer book published subsequently has topped the horror of why Judd Steiner shoved that boy down that culvert." And yeah, it is pretty chilling, but you've got to read a 500-page love letter to the killers to get to it. This is an average book, minus one star for the adulatory tone.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating. Dramatized history; a study of evil.
Review: This book is a novelization of the infamous Loeb & Leopold murder case of 1924. The murder was considered at the time to be the crime of the century (like O.J. Simpson was to us). Why would a pair of rich young geniuses kill a randomly selected child? This is a fascinating psychological study of evil. Levin knew the perpetrators personally, so he was in a strong position to tell this story. And he has a brilliant writer's ability to get inside the head of a human being who has lost his way, morally speaking. The book is old and the story is old, but the tale remains relevant and powerful.

Factoid #1: It was made into a movie, "Compulsion", with Orson Welles. The murder also inspired a play and a Hitchcock movie based upon that play (which pre-date this book), "Rope". And yet a third movie (which I didn't "get"): "Swoon".

Factoid #2: Levin opens the book with this line: "Nothing ever ends, and if we retrace every link in causation, it seems there is nowhere a beginning." That's a succinct, intriguing observation, isn't it?

Factoid #3: This book was written in 1956, long after the crime and trial. Levin decided to tell the tale at that point because Leopold, still in prison, was being considered for parole, and it seemed appropriate for the case to be revisited.