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9781250858245

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""This searing exploration of what it means to be both a long-ago purveyor of pain as well as a most gifted present-day narrator of it, to be a writer both sensationalized and silenced, will haunt and it will inspire. At once a true crime page turner and a powerful memoir, The Tragedy of True Crime reminds us all that to be flawed is still to be human."" --Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy. ""In terms of serious nonfiction writing, this book feels miraculous. The Tragedy of True Crime is a finely textured, captivating account of three individuals and the high-profile murders they committed that moves seamlessly into cultural criticism and personal memoir--all of it reported and written from inside prison. Lennon, a journalist behind bars, examines his struggles not only with craft but also with guilt, shame, decades of imprisonment, and the yearning all humans share for reinvention. It's a wrenchingly honest portrait of the artist as an incarcerated man."" --Ben Austen, award-winning author of Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change I've read hundreds of books about prisons and the people inside of them, but I've never read anything like The Tragedy of True Crime. With compassion, nuance, and relentless honesty, John Lennon explores why people commit violent crime and how prison harms us all. The result is simply astonishing: a profound, brave account that I couldn't put down."" --James Forman, Jr., Professor at Yale Law and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Locking Up Our Own ""In this remarkable book, John J. Lennon knits together intimate, richly reported stories of four imprisoned killers - one of them Lennon himself. He renders his subjects human without excusing or sensationalizing their crimes. But his real subject is us, the audience, the millions of viewers who have made the ""true crime"" genre an entertainment that strips crime of its context and consequences. This is first-rate journalism, practiced up close in a high-risk environment."" --Bill Keller, former editor of the New York Times and founding editor of The Marshall Project ""[Lennon] turns the true-crime genre inside out...Thoughtful, enlightening, and truth-seeking personal journalism."" --Kirkus ""Incarcerated journalist John J. Lennon is one of our most incisive writers on crime, incarceration, and the human lives behind statistics. A two-time finalist for National Magazine Awards, Lennon has written widely about his life in prison, and his first book tells the stories, in full color, of four men who have killed, and in doing so, naturally ""challenges our obsession with true crime."" --LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025

""A fascinating blend of journalism and memoir... Lennon paints meticulous portraits of each man's personal lives before and during prison, successfully humanizing his subjects and contextualizing their crimes. In the process, he poses provocative questions about the flattening effects of true crime-as-entertainment and makes forceful arguments for empathy. It's both a sobering glimpse of life behind bars and a stinging rebuttal to the public's appetite for tragedy."" --Publishers Weekly ""Lennon's ambition is not to turn human suffering into spectacle, but to restore complexity to his own story and those of the men around him."" --New York Times Book Review ""Journalist John J. Lennon... examines the real people behind the blaring headlines and buzzy documentaries. Lennon's probing interviews with convicted killers reveal a universal need to find a self beyond what is defined by their worst actions."" --Boston Globe ""A haunting and innovative blend of memoir and true crime... There are no easy answers, but The Tragedy of True Crime offers a rich and nuanced look at a population that's often made invisible and is sure to become a classic of the genre."" --Booklist ""This searing exploration of what it means to be both a long-ago purveyor of pain as well as a most gifted present-day narrator of it, to be a writer both sensationalized and silenced, will haunt and it will inspire. At once a true crime page turner and a powerful memoir, The Tragedy of True Crime reminds us all that to be flawed is still to be human."" --Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy. ""In terms of serious nonfiction writing, this book feels miraculous. The Tragedy of True Crime is a finely textured, captivating account of three individuals and the high-profile murders they committed that moves seamlessly into cultural criticism and personal memoir--all of it reported and written from inside prison. Lennon, a journalist behind bars, examines his struggles not only with craft but also with guilt, shame, decades of imprisonment, and the yearning all humans share for reinvention. It's a wrenchingly honest portrait of the artist as an incarcerated man."" --Ben Austen, award-winning author of Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change I've read hundreds of books about prisons and the people inside of them, but I've never read anything like The Tragedy of True Crime. With compassion, nuance, and relentless honesty, John Lennon explores why people commit violent crime and how prison harms us all. The result is simply astonishing: a profound, brave account that I couldn't put down."" --James Forman, Jr., Professor at Yale Law and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Locking Up Our Own ""In this remarkable book, John J. Lennon knits together intimate, richly reported stories of four imprisoned killers - one of them Lennon himself. He renders his subjects human without excusing or sensationalizing their crimes. But his real subject is us, the audience, the millions of viewers who have made the ""true crime"" genre an entertainment that strips crime of its context and consequences. This is first-rate journalism, practiced up close in a high-risk environment."" --Bill Keller, former editor of the New York Times and founding editor of The Marshall Project ""[Lennon] turns the true-crime genre inside out...Thoughtful, enlightening, and truth-seeking personal journalism."" --Kirkus ""Incarcerated journalist John J. Lennon is one of our most incisive writers on crime, incarceration, and the human lives behind statistics. A two-time finalist for National Magazine Awards, Lennon has written widely about his life in prison, and his first book tells the stories, in full color, of four men who have killed, and in doing so, naturally ""challenges our obsession with true crime."" --LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025

""In this remarkable book, John J. Lennon knits together intimate, richly reported stories of four imprisoned killers - one of them Lennon himself. He renders his subjects human without excusing or sensationalizing their crimes. But his real subject is us, the audience, the millions of viewers who have made the ""true crime"" genre an entertainment that strips crime of its context and consequences. This is first-rate journalism, practiced up close in a high-risk environment."" --Bill Keller, former editor of the New York Times and founding editor of The Marshall Project

Author Information

John J. Lennon is a prison journalist in Sullivan Correctional Facility in New York, where he has been incarcerated for 23 years. After entering the prison system at age 24 with a ninth-grade education, he started his career in a creative writing workshop at Attica. Lennon has published major features about gun control, prison reform and rehabilitation, mental illness behind bars, day-to-day life in prison, and the pandemic experience while incarcerated. He was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 2019 and 2024, and his essay ""The Apology Letter"" was featured in the Washington Post Magazine's special prison issue, which won a National Magazine Award in 2020. Lennon has received fellowships from Galaxy Gives and Haymarket Books/The Mellon Foundation, and his work frequently appears in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the New York Review of Books.

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