Book Review: Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

I have always found it interesting that people are so drawn to macabre stories of human evil– why do we like shows like Law and Order or binge true crime podcasts? So many people seem to have an almost unhealthy fascination with murderers and other violent criminals.

About the Book

Title: Notes on an Execution

Author: Danya Kukafka

Published: 2022

Genre: contemporary fiction, literary fiction

My Rating: 4/5 stars

My Thoughts

I have always found it interesting that people are so drawn to macabre stories of human evil– why do we like shows like Law and Order or binge true crime podcasts? So many people seem to have an almost unhealthy fascination with murderers and other violent criminals.

For me at least, I have a stubborn streak of morbid curiosity. I am intrigued by the prospect of getting a glimpse into the mind of a murderer. I think there is a human need to understand and rationalize senseless violence. With violent crimes, we are constantly asking, why?

So the premise of Kakafka’s Notes on an Execution immediately intrigued me. The story centers around a fictional serial killer named Ansel Packer. The novel opens with him on Death Row, awaiting his execution the next day. Interestingly, Kukafka uses second person perspective for the sections of the novel that follow Ansel directly. It’s an intriguing choice, and establishes a feeling of discomfort as you are placed directly in the shoes of a murderer.

But the most creative and, in my opinion, effective narrative choice of this novel is that the broader story of Ansel’s life, the exploration of how he became the man he became, is not told by following Ansel directly. Instead, Kukafka jumps around in time and from character to character, telling the story of his life from the perspectives of the women who knew him. We get a glimpse into the life of Lavender, Ansel’s mother, who gave birth to him as a teenager before finding herself trapped in an abusive relationship with his father; Hazel, the younger sister of Ansel’s college girlfriend, who provides us a window into what Ansel was like as a young man, around the time of the murders; and Saffy, who knew Ansel as a child in the orphanage they had both been placed in, before crossing paths with him again as an adult, during her police work on the investigation into his crimes.

There’s a strong theme of “nature vs. nurture”– was Ansel inherently evil, or did his troubled upbringing damage him?

I was impressed by the nuance in this novel. Because the story is told from several people’s perspectives, including Ansel himself, we get a front seat into how he interacts with the world and the people around him. As his execution date draws closer, Ansel continues to make excuses for his behavior, trying desperately to rationalize his murderous tendencies. He relies on his “Theory”, a (rather derivative) treatise on the “spectrum of morality.”

“So you’re a manifesto guy, huh?

It’s not a manifesto, you said.

Show me one and I’ve seen them all, the warden said. They all look like this. Like justification. There is no justification for what you’ve done, Ansel P, but God knows you’ve got the time to keep searching.“

(Also, a side note– I thought it was interesting that Kukafka included a scene where four year old Ansel has his head slammed on the floor by his abusive father. I’ve watched a ton of true crime shows and there are a surprising number of killers who suffered some sort of head injury as a child, so I wondered if this was an intentional choice as people speculate whether these sorts of injuries cause brain damage that in the cases of these criminals contributed to their homicidal tendencies)

My favorite thing about this book was how much depth was given to each character in the story. So many side characters were introduced, so many different perspectives contributed to the story, but every one was developed.

Often times with multiple-POV stories, there is at least one perspective that drags. But with this story, there wasn’t. I felt invested in all of the characters, and they were all given incredibly interesting backgrounds, personalities, and motivations.

The one thing that I disliked was that in contrast to the deft way in which these other themes were explored, the paragraphs about the disproportionate number of Black men and people of color in general in prisons and on Death Row seemed really shoehorned in and didactic. It’s not that I think this shouldn’t have been in the book, or that it’s not a real problem– I just don’t think it was integrated into the flow of story very well compared to the other themes of the novel.

Overall, I enjoyed this book for its unique way of telling the classic “serial killer story.” It also put a lot of narrative focus on Ansel’s victims, rather than on Ansel himself. A lot of criticism is levied at the true crime world for sensationalizing or glorifying violent offenders, while exploiting their victims’ stories and trauma. I thought this book did a good job of focusing on the way Ansel impacted his community, rather than spending the entire story on Ansel’s inner motivations.

Have you read Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka? If so, what did you think of it? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

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