I've been in a spy novel mood lately and, eventually, found myself circling back to the Gabriel Allon series. I read the first ten books years ago wheI've been in a spy novel mood lately and, eventually, found myself circling back to the Gabriel Allon series. I read the first ten books years ago when I had something people call "free time." I liked the idea of an art restorer as a spy and it was neat to see things from the perspective of the Mossad but like a lot of series, it lost its originality after a while and I put it aside. When researching which book to come back to, I grabbed this one and did the cursory Goodreads glance. Lining the page was a host of one-star reviews, even though overall the book was worth 4. As I said, I quit the series eleven books ago so maybe others agreed with me that it had lost its saltiness?
But then I read the reviews and a commonality emerged: Daniel Silva was daring to take on Russian influence on the MAGA movement. That's why all of these people were so peeved.
I have to laugh. It's fine when Gabriel is going against arms dealers, or brown-skinned terrorists in order to defend the western world but they draw the line at well-documented Russian influence in elections. These people actually can't believe that even folks in the military and intelligence services take democracy seriously.
That only made me want to read the book more. It's a familiar Allon thriller with a MAGA subplot tacked on to the end that Silva furiously wrote after 1/6. It's clunky and I really wish Silva hadn't deployed the stereotypical Forgotten Poor White Man character at the end. But it's otherwise fine.
It made me want to go back to Silva and I picked up another one of his. I doubt I'll read through the whole catalog; I'm not really a big fan of the Israeli military apparatus at the moment. But it's good to know there's comfort to be had. ...more
The effort and research are great. Milton Mayer has the patience of a saint to be able to put up with it. I thiI don’t know how I feel about this one.
The effort and research are great. Milton Mayer has the patience of a saint to be able to put up with it. I think in finally reading this (which I’ve been meaning to do for a while), I’m dealing with a It’s Not You It’s Me situation.
There was a time pre-Covid where I really believed most Trump-loving people in my life would get over it. That they’d see the error of their ways, their hearts would fill with regret and even if they didn’t become super progressive, they’d work to make the world a better place.
Yeah that didn’t happen. And I think people who think it happened with Germany might be in for a rude surprise.
Generations after WWII certainly felt repentant, at least until these last ten years with the rise of Alternative fur Deustchland. But this image we have of a repentant post-war Germany is not accurate. By interviewing ten people in the town of Hesse (listed here as Kronenburg for reasons I don’t fully understand), Mayer presents a picture on the religious, sociological, and personal reasons these ten people went Nazi and never really looked back.
There are a lot of incongruities: the anti-Nazi pastor who everyone hates because he’s boring, the guy who never joined the party but was a devout rule follower and had no problem diming out others, the ones who truly believe that by joining the party, they were making the world safer because had they not joined…things somehow would have been worse by the Nazis acting aggressively within the state.
Reading it made me more frustrated, not at the people (though they suck and it kind of annoyed me that Milton Mayer, no matter how well-intentioned, kept referring to them unironically as his “Nazi friends”) but at myself and my own situation. Yeah I’m firmly anti-MAGA. Yeah it bothers me that so many people I know and like — or once liked — are bear-hugging a chance to go Nazi. And yet, as Mayer challenges us on how easy it is to slip into patterns: I wake up every morning, put on clothes made in inhumane conditions, burn the planet with fossil fuels, tacitly endorse a government that’s been conducting borderless global war since 1946, bypass the continually rampant racism and xenophobia, sit by while women make pennies on the dollar and suffer in silence. No I’m not a Nazi. Yes I’d like the world to be a better place. But how does one stand up to all of it?
And I think that’s where the rub is for this book because it’s not like most books that examine Nazi Germany: you’re going to read into it even more your own experience because any one of these people can be you. The challenge is to know where the line is.
I will continue to be hurt and disappointed in my MAGA friends and family. And others will continue to be hurt by and disappointed in me. The writer concludes with the rise of communist leanings in Western German youth by saying he hopes the Germans he knows do not take their fears of communism out by electing another militaristic nationalist government. There is not much we can control in the States but we do have a say over that....more
I didn’t know much about Ghana before picking this one up. Great soccer squad, often the nemesis of the United States Men’s Team. West African locatioI didn’t know much about Ghana before picking this one up. Great soccer squad, often the nemesis of the United States Men’s Team. West African location. I had always assumed that the slave trade had ravaged their country but I didn’t know who were the worst perpetrators (the British, who also robbed them of their gold, though they were not alone w/r/t slavery).
Fortunately, one doesn’t need a working history of the country of Ghana to appreciate this one. Yepoka Yeebo does a great job recounting the rollicking life of John Ackah Blay-Miezah, a con man who duped everyone from his fellow countryfolk to Nixon crony and Watergate convict John Mitchell and many European points in between. Lying about the history of deposed President Kwame Nkrumah, Blay-Miezah spun tales of hidden gold that required investments in order to rebuild Ghana and enrich those involved. The man knew money would block the rationale thought of most men and he was able to get hundreds of millions (perhaps billions) in investments before the con was revealed…and even then, folks still didn’t believe it!
I do think this book is mismarketed a bit. It’s not the author’s fault; this unfortunately tends to happen when publishers want to sell a story. Blay-Miezah certainly conned the west as the subtitle acknowledges. But he was also pretty terrible to folks in his own country, one far less wealthy than the States or the UkK. The author does a great job addressing this; there’s admiration for ripping off a goon like Mitchell but we never get the sense that Blay-Miezah is some sort of Robin Hood. Rather, he benefitted from the corruption of the era to run his con worldwide, exporting a story about his native land that wasn’t true for his own material benefit.
All of this is told in a readable, compelling 302 pages. It’s the kind of narrative non-fiction I enjoy, making it one of my favorite non-fic works of the year....more
Good better best. Never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.
This was a popular sports chant when I was playing little leagueGood better best. Never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best.
This was a popular sports chant when I was playing little league baseball. It’s also a great way to describe S.A. Crosby’s career.
I have yet to read his first book My Darkest Prayer. I should remedy that soon. At any rate, his first big hit was his sophomore effort Blacktop Wasteland, which I thought was a fun, southern take on the first Fast and Furious movie. His second one Razorblade Tears was a knock-me-on-my-keester potboiler about race, sexuality, and fatherhood. It’s still seared in my mind. One of the best things I read in 2022 and I wasn’t sure Crosby would be able to top it.
Well he did. Because wow.
This book is billed as a mystery-suspense one but it’s really a horror novel about the Black experience in the mid-south. I’ve heard the Get Out comparisons but I think those miss the point: this is a book so strongly rooted in its atmosphere of rural Virginia that the setting is almost as great of a character as the MC.
But not to be outdone, the MC is a fascinating character as well. Yeah there’s some familiarity (man-comes-home, tortured soul) but I was really invested in Titus’ life and well-being. And that’s why this book pulses with such energy: Titus keeps digging deeper and deeper into a current crime, revealing past ones, all of it coming to a hilt in a Charlottesville-like confrontation.
It’s a violent book but it’s not a depiction of gratuitous violence against Black people, not the kind of torture porn that often pops up. It takes you through the full experience and it takes you like a rocket through space. I’m still catching my breath. It’s excellent. Probably the best thing I’ve read in 2023....more
Informative—if dense—take on what the Panama Papers are, how they came to be, and why they impacted us so much. Gets a little too deep in the weeds wiInformative—if dense—take on what the Panama Papers are, how they came to be, and why they impacted us so much. Gets a little too deep in the weeds with name-dropping and creaky narrative formula but overall, I got a good picture of what happened and (somewhat) how. Shame that this will still continue, just under different guises. ...more
Someone I follow on Instagram did a “What are you reading this weekend?” post. I responded with this book. The person replied: “I’ve never read Don WiSomeone I follow on Instagram did a “What are you reading this weekend?” post. I responded with this book. The person replied: “I’ve never read Don Winslow but I’ve heard good things.”
Hmm.
On the one hand, Winslow is one of my favorite, reliable writers. He churns out some incredible crime fiction, including epic historical crime fiction that integrates real events into the narrative. I’m reading what he’s writing.
On the other hand, Winslow’s art is hard to separate from the artist, especially when he intentionally clashes the two as he does in this book.
Mind you, Don Winslow’s not a bad guy as far as I know. This isn’t art-from-the-artist criticism of a guy who is an abuser or racist. To my knowledge, Winslow is neither.
What Winslow is, indeed what he thrives on being, is one of the many persons who either found or grew in popularity (Winslow is the latter) by being an obnoxious anti-Trump pest on social media.
Now, I’m anti-Trump as far as things go and if Don Winslow and I were going to chat about politics, we’d probably agree on 80-90% of things.
What I could never abide by in the four miserable years of the Trump presidency (and the two years since) is this cottage industry of people constantly tweeting, posting, memeing the same stuff over-and-over again with no depth, no understanding, nothing beyond getting the likes and RTs and clicks, clicks, clicks.
It was weird when I’d see Winslow’s stuff suddenly pop up in the feeds of those who I knew weren’t crime fiction fans. He had found his niche among the Resistance Twitter movement that was so popular and so incredibly proud of itself. It’s absolutely not my thing, it’s a massive turnoff, and I worry about its impact in politics in the long term.
So 300 words since I began, what exactly does this have to do with The Border?
Well somehow, Art Keller, perhaps one of the dirtiest soldiers in the War on Drugs, becomes head of the DEA under Barack Obama for reasons that aren’t very clear. There’s no way in hell someone turns an assassin into a bureaucrat in DC. But ok, for the sake of the story, I let it go.
And what a story it is! The familiar maneuverings of drug lords and the American government that tries to stop them (or do they?). It’s Winslow at his finest! It’s why I love his work so much.
But then, inevitably, we get to Keller’s confrontation with Obama’s successor, a man named John Dennison who is Trump in everything but name, down to the hair, the New Yorkness and the Tweets. His son in law, whose last name is “Lerner,” is transparently Jared Kushner.
Like many Americans who woke up on 11/9/16, I was horrified at what my country had done and felt like a stranger in a foreign land. And there are very legit criticisms for me, a cishet white guy of high education and relative middle class comfort feeling that way.
What I cannot buy, and what indeed soured me on the rest of the book, was Art Keller feeling this way.
Art Keller?
Art Keller???
The same guy who did covert ops in Vietnam? Who joined the DEA under Nixon? Who took part in this universe’s version of Iran-Contra? Who did a bunch of stuff in the first two books that was certainly illegal, blatantly imperialistic, and occasionally evil?
That Art Keller was surprised??? And hurt? And shamed to be an American?
Yeah, so I, as the young people say, could not.
At any rate, the rest of it devolves semi-predictably with a conclusion that I can’t decide if it’s cathartic or (Benoit Blanc voice) just dumb. And thus, it makes it impossible to separate the art from the artist here: A Hashtag-The-Resistance binge tweeter turning the most compelling character he’s ever created into the same thing.
It’s a great series, one I go back fifteen years on. And this needs to be read if you want to complete it. It will still probably go down as one of my favorite books of 2023, cuz Winslow is a great writer despite himself.
But man, oh man, I wish I didn’t know the artist....more
Ever since his presidency mercifully ended, I’ve had a tough time diving into books about Trump. I read Michael Wolff’s because it was an easy read anEver since his presidency mercifully ended, I’ve had a tough time diving into books about Trump. I read Michael Wolff’s because it was an easy read and I got through the Seth Rich book in spite of myself but other than that, I’ve put down a lot of works. I simply don’t have the interest in reliving those awful four years.
Maggie Haberman does the kind of post-Watergate palace journalism that I loathe, where she trades favorability for access. It’s less an issue with Haberman (hate the game, after all) and more one with what we expect from our politicians and the people who report on them.
I was gonna pass on her book the way I passed on most of the other new ones but when I read that she was going to extensively cover Trump’s New York years, I decided to dive in.
I’ve always been fascinated with Trump’s time in the Big Apple. I’ve never been able to get through Wayne Barrett’s thorough but impenetrable work. Harry Hurt, III’s is probably the best I’ve read. Mary Trump’s isn’t bad either.
Haberman does a good enough job. It doesn’t cover a lot I didn’t already know but it provides some clarity on Trump’s transition from failed real estate mogul to TV star on The Apprentice, which for my money is the biggest reputation laundering scheme in American history. Break up NBC and sell it off to pay us all for enduring those four years but I digress.
Anyway, it finally gets to the presidency and again, there’s not much I didn’t already know. Of course, Haberman had her bombshell in the way that everyone who wrote a book about the Trump White House has a bombshell. But other than that, it trods familiar ground.
This will be a great text for folks who are wondering what the hell happened. Haberman’s a talented writer, the narrative flows well. But she doesn’t do a great job tying the threads of New York and Washington together, so the book still reads like most of the others. If you’re curious, grab it, I guess. There will probably be better ones written....more
A quality, entertaining corporate mystery/thriller from an exciting new voice. Comparisons to The Firm are apt but Morris makes the story her own withA quality, entertaining corporate mystery/thriller from an exciting new voice. Comparisons to The Firm are apt but Morris makes the story her own with a compelling protagonist whose character has real depth. I hope we get more work from her. ...more
A few weeks after the, shall we say, contentious 2016 primary, a former friend who I still somewhat interacted with on Facebook (and who was and maybeA few weeks after the, shall we say, contentious 2016 primary, a former friend who I still somewhat interacted with on Facebook (and who was and maybe still is a dyed-in-the-wool Way Too Online Libertarian) started blasting me in the comment section of some post I made. He accused me of supporting weird, horrific stuff that made no sense just because I voted for Hillary Clinton.
Not being a patron of the Conservative Reddit Extended Universe, I had no idea what he was referring to. Pizzagate would not yet enter the national lexicon for another month.
At the time, I had no idea who William Cooper was. I had never read Behold a Pale Horse and if I’d heard of it five years ago, it wasn’t at the forefront of my knowledge. Yet after finishing this one, I have no doubt it influenced my former friend and thousands of others.
Donald Trump’s fear mongering brought these clowns from the fringe and gave them a seat at the table. But for a long (blissful) time, conspiracy theorists were laughed at.
I don’t want to say that Mark Jacobson “humanizes” William Cooper. It’s not that kind of book. But he does draw a straight line of how a man who served his country in some trying and changing times (Vietnam, Civil Rights Movement, Watergate) could come out on the other side irreparably damaged. His pain would be channeled into explaining everything…
everything…
as a battle of good versus evil.
Things such as the Kennedy assassination, World War II, 9/11 and others were just new fronts in a war that had begun at the dawn of time. A Manichean struggle of well-connected elites in secret societies and the peons (Cooper coined the ubiquitous term “sheeple”) they tried to control.
On the one hand, you can dismiss 99% of what Cooper is saying. Jacobson talks about the evolution of American conspiracy theories in great detail (sometimes a bit too great, which is one of the few weaknesses of the book) and one would have no problem chucking UFOs, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, etc. out the window.
But Jacobson also makes it clear: Cooper’s paranoia was well founded. He served in naval intelligence where he knew that Nixon was lying about bombing Cambodia and Laos. And he knew the weaknesses of the country, particularly its racism. I’d be the last person to call Bill Cooper racially enlightened but he was loud and adamant of how the government persecuted Black and indigenous folks.
Jacobson also covers, in great and wondrous detail, the impact Behold a Pale Horse had on rap culture. It’s something I never knew about or really considered, despite having heard the lyrics. But there’s an obvious reason as to why his cache would be legit: Cooper is white, he had access to secret info on why our government was lying. As ODB said about Cooper: Someone’s always trying to f—k you. Bill Cooper told me why. That meant something to me.
It’s a well-written, easily digestible book on how we as a country got to this moment (it ends with Trump’s election 15 years after Cooper’s death) through the eyes of a man who helped get us there....more
I made it a point to know as little about this book going in. I knew that it was a fantasy set in a mythical New York City that involved a family. ThaI made it a point to know as little about this book going in. I knew that it was a fantasy set in a mythical New York City that involved a family. That was it.
And I think that’s the best way to read this book. There is something horrifying that happens in the first third (or does it?) that made it difficult to read but Victor LaValle’s writing style is easy enough to fall in and out of. His characterization is good, even if his pacing needs a little work.
A few scattered thoughts because I really don’t want want to spoil this…
-There were several clear and oblique references to Donald Trump and his movement. While I appreciated this in general, I’m not sure they worked fully in context. They’re kind of disjointed compared to the rest of the story.
-The story itself focuses on a Black family but the mythologies they encounter are mostly Nordic. Again, I’m sure LaValle is making a larger point here. Sometimes it works, other times it does not.
-I really wish he had explored more of the mythological underworld of New York City. Some of those scenes were really fun.
-I’m probably sounding more critical than I need to be. This was a breezy read that’s easy to like, especially if you, like me, aren’t a real fantasy or fairy tale fan. I’m not sure all of the pieces come together as well as they should but it’s incredibly readable....more
The best, simplest review I can give it is to quote from political operative Robert Wheel (@bobbybigwheel on Twitter): You know it’s a good book becauThe best, simplest review I can give it is to quote from political operative Robert Wheel (@bobbybigwheel on Twitter): You know it’s a good book because every page pisses you off.
I was 17 years old when we invaded Iraq. At the time, I was a champion for the war because I believed our government. Why would our government lie? Even as I began to question things in 2003 and 2004, I still voted for George W. Bush in my first presidential election. I was proud to do so.
Eight years later, I pulled the lever for the first time for Barack Obama, in part but not limited to his notions on solving the Forever Wars.
Yet even he couldn’t do it. Nor could the tyrant who followed him.
In a mere 337 dense pages, Spencer Ackerman traces a straight line from the War on Terror rhetoric to America today. Only he doesn’t start with 9/11. He starts with Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bombing, and THEN goes to 9/11.
It’s an interesting choice but it pays off. Ackerman’s whole case is not just the Forever Wars themselves but the way we prosecuted them on the home front. The widespread detentions, the shameless Islamphobia, the denigration of Black and brown persons. He threads the needle from Bush to Obama to Trump and even, slightly to Biden. No one is exculpated, either the presidents or the parties.
But then he closes with the 1/6 Insurrection. And thus, the lightbulb goes off and you see Ackerman’s thesis revealed. His overarching point becomes clear: that we became so consumed with the War on Terror that the US body politic, Democrat and Republican alike, basically cannibalized itself.
As angry as I was reading it, finishing it took me to a new level of rage. Ackerman isn’t being wonky here. He’s not proposing solutions. He’s simply diagnosing the problem.
I’m so glad that despite his own perpetuation of the Forever Wars, Joe Biden has the sense to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. It’s messy because it was always going to be messy. But Ackerman doesn’t let Biden, or America off the hook. Most of us are complicit in how we got here.
I’ve read a lot of non-fiction this year and while this may not be the best, it will definitely be the one that sticks with me....more
For those of us made miserable by the 4-year mistake that was the Donald Trump presidency, there's nothing Large parts of this book, I really enjoyed.
For those of us made miserable by the 4-year mistake that was the Donald Trump presidency, there's nothing better than seeing him flail about helplessly, our febrile democratic checks finally providing an exit ramp to this nightmare. I had always eschewed Trump/Nazi comparisons, mainly because they detract from the awfulness of American history in favor of grafting on another racist society. But if there's one thing I have found similar from reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, it's that there were many exit ramps to Adolf Hitler, yet as he sought to consolidate power, the Government, and then the elites, and finally the generals decided, for whatever selfish reasons, to remain silent. Such was the case here.
Because as laughable as it was that Trump was relying on bottom-of-the-barrel lawyers and fringe conspiracy theorists, you could sense the undercurrent of danger throughout the tale. Your supporters will believe whatever you tell them to, Mr. President. This was said as an encouragement to mask up during the coronavirus but Trump used it, oh did he use it, to perpetuate the big lie.
Thus, January 6.
Like 9/11 and 11/7/16, I have no real desire to relive that date. Parts of the recounting, I confess to have skipped over. I'm just reminded time and time again how whiteness gets a pass in our society.
The book itself? Eh. Some fly-on-the-wall convos but nothing you couldn't have read or divined already. And a lot are Michael Wolff's personal observations on the affair, which I could care less because Michael Wolff sucks. I hate that I so desperately love to read about Donald Trump but rarely have I found a good book about him. This ain't it either....more
Some have pegged Karin Brynard as the “South African Stieg Larsson.” For good and not so good reasons, I can see why.
I’m not an expert on South AfricaSome have pegged Karin Brynard as the “South African Stieg Larsson.” For good and not so good reasons, I can see why.
I’m not an expert on South Africa. I know the broad strokes of the fall of apartheid and how it functioned before the rise of President Mandela, but as far as how the country is adapting today, I’m mostly clueless. I have no doubt that a herrenvolk government doesn’t just switch to multicultural democracy overnight, and that South Africans are probably several generations away from putting real distance behind the lingering affects of apartheid.
Karin Brynard makes the point in this story here. Ostensibly a murder mystery set in rural farmlands of South Africa, she uses this to examine the state of racism that prevails in the country, specifically around the white supremacist Great Replacement conspiracy, which was popularized by Hitler among others and which Donald Trump (of course) echoed as President.
But with Trump, he was talking not about the United Staes but about South African farmers, which he claims were being murdered by Black people for the purpose of land grabs. This has been disproven time and time again but it doesn’t stop those who yearn for the apartheid days to bring it up. Baynard brings this to life in mystery/drama form and I learned a lot about it through the characters and the environment.
That’s the good side of her Larsson-esqueness. The bad side is the underdevelopment of marginalized characters at the expense of a White Knight. Albertus Beeslaar is a complex character but he’s also usually depicted as in the right while his Black co-workers and boss are portrayed as bumbling, ineffectual bureaucrats who, despite being the victims of racism in South African, apparently can learn a thing or two from this white cop. And other Black characters are not really drawn out well either. It’s not a good look for a book that purports to address why a country with a strong legacy of anti-Blackness still struggles with it.
But it is good enough for what it’s trying to do and while I wouldn’t run out to get the second book, I wouldn’t say no either....more
I don’t know what to make of David Downing’s Station series.
On the one hand, I frequently read historical fiction that explores the pitfalls of life iI don’t know what to make of David Downing’s Station series.
On the one hand, I frequently read historical fiction that explores the pitfalls of life in Nazi Germany. Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series is the best example but there are others in the popular “Nazi Noir” subgenere and Downing’s series is one of them. Downing gets the atmosphere of prewar Berlin down in an effective, readable way. I visited Berlin before and while it’s far removed from its Nazi past, the environment of low slung buildings, European canal/cafe life and urban masses gathering connects both generations. A cosmopolitan city pre-Hitler, Downing does a great job of chronicling Berlin’s decline.
The problem is the cases. Downing stuffs his books with two or three plots and while they are of the utmost importance, they don’t flow well together. It’s like watching two superstar basketball players play incongruently on the same team. There are moments of brilliance and challenge and there are times when I’m wandering through 3-4 pages, unfocused on what exactly I’m supposed to be reading. Zoo Station was the only other Downing I read and that book had the same problem. Though this is a prequel, it’s the newest one in publication order and I was hoping Downing would solve this problem but I guess he hasn’t.
So overall, you’ve got a well-written setting with an interesting protagonist but mysteries that, while interesting and full of high stakes, don’t always work. I should like these books more than I do. I don’t dislike them but I can’t give this one more than 3 stars. There’s just too much dead space....more
You know the eye pop emoji that people share when they read something incredible? I feel like you could have laid that one out on just about every tenYou know the eye pop emoji that people share when they read something incredible? I feel like you could have laid that one out on just about every ten pages in this book. My word.
I didn’t know much about Deutsche Bank before Donald Trump, mostly because they don’t have a presence for American peons like me. Even after, I only had the stomach to learn so much. I assumed they did shady stuff to help Trump get away with shady stuff, etc.
There’s that but the Trump stuff here is like 1/3rd of the book and while it’s interesting, the whole story itself is a breath taker. Deutsche Bank is apparently legendary for its corruption. Sure, all financial giants are somewhat bent but Deutsche is on another level. Dating back to its Nazi past which it never accounted for, the bank’s desire to compete with the Wall Street big shots made it take risk after risk until it was over leveraged to the hilt.
Of course, no one seems interested in keeping these people in check. Sure, Europe and the States will slap them with fines but by-and-large, they seem content to let the bank run amok in its ambition to be a dominant financial institution. We can look at the wreckage of Deutsche and marvel but we have no right to ask “Why?” Dave Enrich provides clear answers.
I love a financial book that is readable. Enrich breaks this down easily enough for the layperson. It reads like a thriller. It’s an incredible tale....more
Brett Easton Ellis’ thing is never going to be my thing. Vomiting brand nTW: mentions of rape, violent murder
Welp, I guess the fourth time is a charm.
Brett Easton Ellis’ thing is never going to be my thing. Vomiting brand names, writing with a mix of flatness and kinetic energy, satirizing culture to the point where there’s no line. Glamorama was trash and the rest of his works have never done much for me.
However, I’ve read a lot lately about New York City in the 80s and what Wall Street was like in that time. I also read an interview by Mary Herron, the director of the movie adaptation of the novel (a movie I love) where she talked about how much she appreciated the book and what she took out of it.
Those combined forces put me in the right frame of mind to finally get to this one.
And dammit, it’s really good. If it wasn’t for Ellis’ vanities, it would be great.
New York City culture in the 80s was all about getting ahead, nowhere more so than on Wall Street. Designer clothes, latest fads, trendy restaurants, etc. It makes perfect sense that Patrick Bateman, literally an empty suit, would find no joy in his pursuits and turn instead to homicide.
Ellis opens with the famous line from Dante’s Inferno: Abandon all hope ye who enter. It’s scrawled on a Chemical Bank, which mirrors the entry way to Hell for Dante and from there, it’s all downhill. Bateman is trapped on the island of Manhattan and no amount of money or cultural consumerism or drugs or sex or even murder can get him off. It’s satire in the most effective way because Ellis knows the time and the place. This book could almost be set in the Gotham of Tim Burton’s Batman. The best satire takes reality and just slightly tilts it on its axis. Ellis has the right balance.
Along those lines, Bateman’s worship of Donald Trump is perfect. Who better for such a soulless New York elite to idolize than the Donald himself? I know Ellis has gone off the deep end the last few years writing about race but he accurately pegs the Donald for who he is and who he appeals to. The whole book is Bateman’s Fifth Avenue.
And while I do think the movie is superior and perhaps the best possible way to adapt the story, Ellis does a better job than Mary Herron of chronicling Bateman’s descent into madness.
The only reason it falls short of greatness for me is the graphic descriptions of rape and murder. I don’t think they’re necessary and I confess to skipping over large parts of them. People praise Ellis for his language in depicting them. To me, it’s him wallowing in sadism.
But aside from that, this is a hell of a book, both figuratively and literally. I may even reread it some day. It’s tough to see how someone can do satire more effectively....more
To understand the world of Ace Atkins’ Tibbehah County, Mississippi, it would behoove you to be familiar with the work of Spencer Hall, college footbaTo understand the world of Ace Atkins’ Tibbehah County, Mississippi, it would behoove you to be familiar with the work of Spencer Hall, college football writer extraordinaire. Every year, he would write a preview for his website, either edsbs.com or bannersociety.com that mixed football with folklore and social commentary. My personal favorite is 2017’s When The Levee Breaks, where he talked about the life of Huey Long and LSU as a parallel to the rise of Donald Trump. This passage is my particular favorite…
There is another point when things slipped in a starker way: November 8, 2016, when everyone in America realized they were living in the South. The perversity of realizing that the worst parts of where you’re from — the racism, the galling inequality, the fictionalized victimhood, an illusion of power, the reliance on a bankrupt concept of loyalty disguised as faith, the disgust for learning and fatal aversion to uncomfortable truths, the willingness to protect a deranged sense of identity at the cost of what might literally be the entire world — were all there, everywhere, all along
There’s no comfort in recognizing it now, only a kind of grim clarity. Y’all live in the South now. We all do, and always did. The franchise worked so well down here they tried it everywhere else.
It didn’t have to be this way. It never had to be this way. And yet, we cheated, conned and killed our way into making it this way, anticipating that the chickens wouldn’t come home to roost. And now here we are.
For nine books, Ace Atkins has slowly but surely built the world of Tibbehah County, with all of its facts, folklore, and closeted skeletons waiting for a reckoning. There have been major chessboard shifts before but it all seems to be building to this. Similar to the X-Files with its Case of the Week vs. Mythology format, this is when both of them meet.
And it’s explosive. The best in the series.
As pointed out to me by another reviewer, Atkins’ Tibbehah is really a stand in for the United States of America. I don’t know if I ever consciously realized this but going back now, especially on more recent books as Atkins got a grasp of his characters and locales, I could understand it better. The sheer lack of welfare structure. Rampant inequity. Outsourced criminality and gangster capitalism. A white man who everyone assumes will be great because that’s what happens in these tales, yet he can only do so much because the system just grinds and grinds.
Here it finally takes all it can.
There are a couple of things that are a little on the nose. The two female Ivy League Brooklynite podcasters are weakly written by Atkins’ standards. It’s clear he doesn’t know what to do with them. They’re supposed to function as a commentary on how northeasterners see the world of the rural south but they fall into stereotype, which is sadly unlike Atkins. Also, Senator Vardaman is just a little too much of a Trump clone to appreciate as a fully formed villain. There’s a scene, a nod to one of Trump’s worst indiscretions, that had me rolling my eyes.
At the same time, the weaknesses of the book reveal what Atkins has tried to do the whole time with this series: make Mississippi familiar. Not better, not worse, not even relatable to Yankee-sensible readers who consume airport paperbacks. But familiar. It feels like home.
And if you look around you, whether in New York, San Francisco or the ‘burbs, it might look familiar....more
First of all, much love to this book for having a clever cover. Donald Trump and the Putin nesting dolls...it gave me a laugh every time I looked at iFirst of all, much love to this book for having a clever cover. Donald Trump and the Putin nesting dolls...it gave me a laugh every time I looked at it, especially the Putin face sticking out of an oversized body.
Second, and more important...this book should have been much better than it was given the subject.
I've explored some of the connections between the Russian organized crime unit and Donald Trump. I was anticipating this book would make those links more clear.
Instead, it's basically a mass name dump with a lot of second hand accounting of shady deals and alleged connections. Like these guys would get into a room once and plot out the future of two countries over the next twenty years.
It tries to make the case that Donald Trump has been on the take from shady Russian oligarchs and mobsters for years. On some level, it succeeds but the book is too unfocused to really provide a thread for said case. It's far more interesting in detailing the varied connections of dozens of Russians and assumes that all of these make its case for it.
Definitely not a bad book, just an exhausting one for such a short length and one that doesn't do enough to get to the point. Luke Harding's written about these and while he doesn't throw all the names in a stew, his books are more focused. I'd start there if you have an interest in learning about Donald Trump and the Russian mafia....more
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