These Violent Delights is a deeply engrossing and disturbing novel about two young men who fall in love and decide to cement their love by committing murder. Nemerever was inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case, in which two wealthy students from the University of Chicago kidnapped and murdered a fourteen year old as a demonstration of their intellectual superiority, which they believed allowed them to get away with the perfect crime. As he writes in his “Author’s Note”, he was fascinated with the Leopold and Loeb case ever since he learned about it as a teen. He writes: “I recognized enough basic similarities that I could see them as what I feared becoming. I was queer, Jewish, isolated, and both too smart for my own good and nowhere near the visionary genius I thought I was–and for a time this let me imagine that my own misanthrophy could spiral out of control in the same way.” (Nemerver 461). Though the book is inspired by Leopold and Loeb, the actual plot and characters are entirely invented by Nemerever. He writes: “With the skeleton of the plot squared away I was free to write about queer alienation, the provisional whiteness of Jews in America, the lonely arrogance of clever young adults” (Nemerver 461).
Set in Pittsburgh in 1973-1974, the novel revolves around the relationship between Paul Fleischer and Julian Fromme. Paul and Julian meet at university during a seminar on Scientific Ethics. Paul is fascinated by Julian and their friendship eventually develops into a romantic relationship. Both boys are extremely troubled in their own ways. Paul’s father has recently committed suicide and he lives with his mother–who is incapicated by grief– and his two sisters. Julian, who comes from an upper-class background, is estranged from his parents for reasons that are kept ambiguous (but the reader can guess have to do with his homosexuality). The boys eventually develop a toxic relationship. They are codependent yet also enjoy physically hurting each other. The decision to cement their bond by murdering someone is almost a logical outgrowth of this dynamic. Continue reading “Review: These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever”