A review by zanedeyoung
Compulsion by Meyer Levin

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Mileage on this will vary for how willing you are to stick with its slow pace and outdated views on sexuality, but for me this is one of the most impactful and brutally melancholy books of all time. Easy to see how this inspired the next seventy-five years of psychoanalyzing murderers to the point of absurdity, but disappointing to see how many of them completely missed the point Levin makes here, that the root of human depravity and cruelty is ultimately unfathomable and can only be realized in glimpses and rationalizations. You can pathologize all you want, it will only ever get you halfway there. 

Maybe the most existentially mournful and depressed book I’ve ever read. Incredible.