Depraved Indifference

A powerful novel of greed and obsession delves into the world of grifters and follows Evangeline, a charming sociopath captivated by the thrill of seducing and killing, who will let nothing stand in her way--not even her husband, children, or friends--of getting what she wants.

From Publishers Weekly

Amphetamine fiction is alive and writhing in Indiana's ninth book, a caper novel of life on the grift. The narrative follows the exploits of a truly memorable villain called (among other aliases) Evangeline, a lowlife spawn of the Vegas mire (maybe) who rises from her station by sheer mania and depraved indifference to anyone around her. Based on real-life murderer Santee Kimes, Evangeline is a monster, "so compulsive she grifts herself when she runs out of other people." Her career was launched in the Vietnam era when she married a crooked real estate developer named Warren Slote. Now an apathetic has-been drinking himself to death, Warren watches with detached amusement as Evangeline tries to take him to the cleaners. Evangeline's desire is to live as a self-styled queen, and she usually takes her marks (their identities, assets, lives and all) while looking for ways to set up tacky palaces on someone else's tab. The novel, with its Vegas roots, its run-on sentences and gut-wrenching displays of venality, is a hyperkinetic depiction of unbridled greed, the American dream's septic tank. But the book's lightning jumps backward and forward through time, its ever-changing POVs and often confusing plot make its course too convoluted. This is the third of Indiana's recent works inspired by real-life crimes (Resentment took off on the Menendez trial, and Three Month Fever was a "nonfiction" novel about the killer of Gianni Versace). The blatant villainy of Santee Kimes and her son, Kenneth, have spawned a public avid for an interpretation of their sociopathic behavior. This novel is too complex and confusing to attract tabloid readers, but Indiana's fans will probably speed through it, focusing on some of the most hideous characters ever to congeal in the form. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This final installment in Indiana's American crime trilogy, following Three Month Fever and Resentment: A Comedy, is based on the recent case of notorious grifters Sante and Kenneth Kimes. The central character is the sociopathic Evangeline Sloate, a Liz Taylor look-alike and con artist extraordinaire. After the death of Warren, her wealthy husband, with whom she has engaged in such illegalities as financial fraud, arson, and the enslavement of her Mexican housemaids (the one thing for which she has served time), she moves on to a series of increasingly ruthless cons. She and son Devin, who has taken Warren's place in her bed along with becoming her partner in crime, plot to take over ownership of a Manhattan townhouse that belongs to elderly socialite Wanda "Baby" Claymore a scheme that requires Mrs. Claymore's murder. Acidly satiric, the novel sets its sights on exposing both the "depraved indifference" of the Sloates and the larger society that breeds and abets them. Recommended for public libraries that own Indiana's two earlier works. Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Indiana writes "faction," the now middle-aged New Journalism blending of fact and fiction, in an entirely new, startling application that melds the true crime and mystery genres. He moves beyond headline-grabbing crimes--the calculated parricide of the Menendez brothers, featured in his acclaimed Resentment: A Comedy (1997); the weirdly glamorous crime spree of Andrew Cunanen, in Three Month Fever (1999)--to scathing social commentary on the voracious media and inept legal system. Indiana's latest, the final installment in his American Crime trilogy, takes on the bizarre Oedipal drama of sociopath and master manipulator Sante Kimes and her accomplice-slave, son Kenneth, as they con their way across America. Larceny, identity theft, arson for profit, con games--no scam is left untouched. The shocks Indiana delivers, both in crime and its coverage and handling, are more horrible for being grounded in reality. Repellant and fascinating. Connie FletcherCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Gary Indiana's novels include Resentment: A Comedy, Rent Boy, Gone Tomorrow, and Horse Crazy. He has published two collections of short fiction and a collection of essays, Let It Bleed. His plays include the award-winning Roy Cohn/Jack Smith, The Roman Polanski Story, and Phantoms of Louisiana. His nonfiction work has appeared in the Village Voice, Artforum, Details, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. He lives in New York and Los Angeles.

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