Pete Dexter
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Pete Dexter (born 1943) is an American novelist He was the recipient of the 1988 National Book Award for Fiction for his novel Paris Trout.
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[edit] Biography
Dexter was born in Pontiac, Michigan. A former newspaper reporter, Dexter was a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, under legendary editor Gil Spencer, and the Sacramento Bee. He began writing fiction after a life-changing 1981 incident in which 30 drunken Philadelphians, armed with baseball bats and upset by a recent column, beat the writer severely. The injuries, added to those he had suffered in traffic accidents and as an amateur boxer, left Dexter partially disabled and required years of corrective surgeries.
Dexter lives and writes on an island in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington.
Paper Trails is Dexter's newest book, (Ecco Press, February 6, 2007, 320 pages), a compilation of columns he wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News and The Sacramento Bee from the 1970s to the '90s. From a review in the Publishers Weekly: The stories are imbued with the spirit of the ink-stained old school journalist. While not all the tales are of degradation and mishap - Dexter writes tenderly of his wife and child - the self-inflicted woes of the less fortunate stay with you. "Mummers Day on Two Street: The body is laid out on the corner. The pink dress is pulled up around the neck, which is painted green. The eyes are partly open; but when you look into them all you see is white." With authority and a strange grace, Dexter has crafted a powerful portrait of the underbelly of the American Dream.
[edit] Works
[edit] Novels
- God's Pocket (1984)
- Deadwood (1986)
- Paris Trout (1988)
- Brotherly Love (1991)
- The Paperboy (1995) (1996 Literary Award, PEN Center USA)
- Train (2003)
[edit] Screenplays
- Paris Trout
- Rush (1991)
- Michael (1996)
- Mulholland Falls (1996)
