Thomas Maeder
Auteur de The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot
Œuvres de Thomas Maeder
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Sexe
- male
- Lieux de résidence
- Pennsylvania, USA
- Études
- Columbia University
University of Pennsylvania
Membres
Critiques
Listes
Holocaust (1)
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 4
- Membres
- 94
- Popularité
- #199,202
- Évaluation
- 3.1
- Critiques
- 3
- ISBN
- 9
There are a fair few questions about Petiot's murders, the victims, and Petiot himself that remain unanswered, so Maeder's account is in a sense confined and no doubt because of that can occasionally seem simply a series of descriptions of the victims and their encounters with the doctor. (A list in the back of characters and their roles is very helpful.) But again, there are glimpses of much more: the person who decided not to accept Petiot's 'help' because of his dirty hands, the villagers up in arms against/on behalf of Mayor Petiot, the family and acquaintances of Petiot who might have known early on of his murders.
But what makes the book not only solidly informative but delightful is Petiot's trial. I knew that I'd most likely skim the last 100 pages, the ones given over to the trial and including chunks of the transcript, because I always do resort to skimming that sort of thing. Not a bit of it. Farce, chaos, wittiness, unbelievable chutzpah, shouting, assault (Petiot actually threw exhibits at the clerk), boredom (naps were taken), loopy conspiracy theory as summation, uncontrolled crowds, confusion, autograph-hunting. At some point, it seems, everyone in the court seemed to recognise the absurdity of much of the trial and even the judges and lawyers found it difficult not to join in the laughter of the crowds. Absorbing and sometimes hilarious, and I'm grinning as I sit here remembering it.… (plus d'informations)