Paris Trout (novel)
{{short description|1988 novel by Pete Dexter}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
|name=Paris Trout
|image=File:ParisTrout.jpg
|caption=First edition
|author=Pete Dexter
|published=1988
|country=United States
|genre=Fiction
|publisher=Random House
|language=English
}}
Paris Trout is a 1988 American novel written by Pete Dexter.{{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=UNEXAMINED LIVES IN COTTON POINT|first=Deborah|last=Mason|date=July 24, 1988|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/24/books/unexamined-lives-in-cotton-point.html}} It was the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1988 "National Book Awards – 1988"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
The novel was adapted into a film of the same name.{{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=TV Weekend; The Evil That Can't Be Buried, in 'Paris Trout'|first=John J.|last=O'Connor|date=April 19, 1991|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/19/news/tv-weekend-the-evil-that-can-t-be-buried-in-paris-trout.html}}
Plot
In a small Georgia town in the 1950s, a bigoted store owner named Paris Trout kills a black man's younger sister and wounds his mother when a car deal between them goes wrong.
Critical reception
The Los Angeles Times called the novel "a masterpiece, complex and breath-taking."{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-07-24-bk-10432-story.html|title=A Perfect Right to Break the Law : PARIS TROUT: by Pete Dexter (Random House: $17.95; 304 pp.)|date=July 24, 1988|website=Los Angeles Times}}