David Simon, "Homicide" (1991).
I'm not into those hour-long police procedural dramas on network television. In fact, I don't spend much time watching television at all. But my avid interest in reading true crime literature has made me wonder why I don't give those shows a chance. David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991) is a particularly intriguing case in point. I've never been tempted to tune into the series that was inspired by the book, yet I looked forward to reading the 631-page trade paperback. Regardless of the apparent contradiction, I am glad I did. Simon's book is comprehensive, colorful, and entertaining in its depiction of the darkest corners of the an urban police homicide department.
Simon, who was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, decided to initiate a substantial insider investigation of several squads of Baltimore detectives. He was given incredible access to the work routines and crimes scenes of thirty investigators for an entire year (1988). At the conclusion of his observations, Simon spent two years writing the book. But the focus of Homicide is not on his process- throughout the work the author is invisible. He wrote from a third person omniscient perspective. This is an odd choice for a work of investigative journalism, but somehow he pulls it off. The approach pulls the reader into the complicated, morally complex world of the department, without the usual distraction of running commentary.
The stories Simon tells do not require a lot of authorial pontification. In fact, that would just get in the way. The characters we get to know are fully-fleshed human beings working under intensely trying circumstances. They consistently see the very worst capabilities of their fellow men. Yet they aren't lionized by Simon. Sure... anyone who spends an entire year with a group of men engaged in serving the public good under harsh conditions is going to be vulnerable to getting caught up in a certain esprit de corps. But Simon seems to have made a real effort to stay detached, in order to give himself the proper objectivity required to relate the full spectrum of behaviors and philosophies that the men display. So we get to know these detectives... including the parts of themselves that may not be noble or politically correct.
We also have an exceptional window into how a murder investigation really works. Simon takes us through every stage of the process, from the initial discovery of a body, all the way through to a court trial. Stops along the way include the interrogation room, the coronor's office, witness canvassing, and the graveyard. We learn the peculiarly colorful idiom of the Baltimore homicide department- the bunks, the billys, the whodunits, the dunkers, and the yos. We meet novice detective and hardcore veterans... and see the ways that they interact with each other, all the way from hazing to acceptance. Fortunately for the reader, the ample (if mordant and/or jaded) humor of these men is on display throughout the book.
But the most striking parts of this work are the descriptions of the crime scenes themselves. Simon employs a mix of clinical observation and empathy, and therefore manages to inform without dehumanizing the victims. The detectives themselves may not be able to retain the sense of the essential (in)humanity that they confront, but Simon never lets his accounts slip into gore porn. We are exposed to the almost unimaginable horrors that deperate people tend to visit on each other. Some of the dead are viewed as predictable casualties in a drug-infused environment, while others are "real victims"- which is police terminology for someone deemed innocent of crime. But each murder tells a unique story that can (to some degree) be reconstituted through investigative efforts.
Simon, who was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, decided to initiate a substantial insider investigation of several squads of Baltimore detectives. He was given incredible access to the work routines and crimes scenes of thirty investigators for an entire year (1988). At the conclusion of his observations, Simon spent two years writing the book. But the focus of Homicide is not on his process- throughout the work the author is invisible. He wrote from a third person omniscient perspective. This is an odd choice for a work of investigative journalism, but somehow he pulls it off. The approach pulls the reader into the complicated, morally complex world of the department, without the usual distraction of running commentary.
The stories Simon tells do not require a lot of authorial pontification. In fact, that would just get in the way. The characters we get to know are fully-fleshed human beings working under intensely trying circumstances. They consistently see the very worst capabilities of their fellow men. Yet they aren't lionized by Simon. Sure... anyone who spends an entire year with a group of men engaged in serving the public good under harsh conditions is going to be vulnerable to getting caught up in a certain esprit de corps. But Simon seems to have made a real effort to stay detached, in order to give himself the proper objectivity required to relate the full spectrum of behaviors and philosophies that the men display. So we get to know these detectives... including the parts of themselves that may not be noble or politically correct.
We also have an exceptional window into how a murder investigation really works. Simon takes us through every stage of the process, from the initial discovery of a body, all the way through to a court trial. Stops along the way include the interrogation room, the coronor's office, witness canvassing, and the graveyard. We learn the peculiarly colorful idiom of the Baltimore homicide department- the bunks, the billys, the whodunits, the dunkers, and the yos. We meet novice detective and hardcore veterans... and see the ways that they interact with each other, all the way from hazing to acceptance. Fortunately for the reader, the ample (if mordant and/or jaded) humor of these men is on display throughout the book.
But the most striking parts of this work are the descriptions of the crime scenes themselves. Simon employs a mix of clinical observation and empathy, and therefore manages to inform without dehumanizing the victims. The detectives themselves may not be able to retain the sense of the essential (in)humanity that they confront, but Simon never lets his accounts slip into gore porn. We are exposed to the almost unimaginable horrors that deperate people tend to visit on each other. Some of the dead are viewed as predictable casualties in a drug-infused environment, while others are "real victims"- which is police terminology for someone deemed innocent of crime. But each murder tells a unique story that can (to some degree) be reconstituted through investigative efforts.
posted by Merge Divide at 5:18 PM
2 Comments:
Okay, I haven't read the book, although it sounds like it might be a good read. I have watched the series, though, and it is really good.
The people who had both seen the series, and read the book, seemed to think the book was indispensable.
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