Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson

(hb; 2019: nonfiction)

From the inside flap

“. . . Tyson invites us to go behind the scenes of his public fame by revealing his correspondence with people across the globe who have sought him out in search of answers. In this hand-picked collection of 101 letters, Tyson draws upon cosmic perspectives to address a vast array of questions about science, faith, philosophy, life, and of course, Pluto. His succinct, opinionated, passionate, and often funny responses reflect his popularity and standing as a leading educator. . .”

Review

Letters is a good, entertaining addendum to Tyson’s previous book Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Of course, you do not need to read Astrophysics to enjoy Letters. Tyson’s answers are, for the most part, concise and reflect a practical, polite (if sometimes blunt) and trust-scientific-fact attitude─because of this, those of a religious faith who hate science should avoid this book. Other nonfiction readers might well enjoy this fast, informative and short read. 

The Auctioneer by Joan Samson

(hb; 1975)

From the inside flap:

“Harlowe, New Hampshire, is a rural township still isolated from the pressures and changes of the second half of the twentieth century. It is here that John Moore works the land farmed by his family for centuries, here that he lives with his wife and daughter, and here that he expects to die when his life’s work is done. But from the moment that a magnetic stranger named Perly Dunsmore arrives in the community and begins a series of auctions to raise money for the growth of the local police force, the days of John Moore’s freedom and independence are suddenly numbered.

“Page after page, the reader is trapped with John Moore in the grip of chilling horror as he is relentlessly stripped of his possessions, his ability to resist, his courage, and his hope by the ever-growing power and demands of the auctioneer. What was initially a minor nuisance, then an infuriating intrusion, now becomes for John Moore a desperate, seemingly doomed battle against a force that has already corrupted all of Harlowe and is now systematically destroying it.”

Review

Auctioneer is a steady build, excellent and near-perfect read, a simply stated metaphor for how people will kowtow under a legalized─even if it is oppressive─system. To say I enjoyed it might be a stretch, for it is also an endurance test, frustrating given the menace displayed toward, and dignities heaped upon, some of its characters. This would be one of my all-time favorite books, were it not for its spot-it-from-miles-away, bulls**t end twist (also spoiling an otherwise effective climactic finish). I understand that Samson is following through on her people-are-cowards-until-they’re-not metaphor with this ending but maybe she should have been more concerned with wrapping up Auctioneer is a satisfying manner. 

If you can accept its flawed denouement, Auctioneer is worth reading.

BlacKkKlansman by Ron Stallworth

(pb; 2014: memoir)

From the back cover

“When Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department, came across a classified ad in the local paper asking all those interested in joining the Klu Klux Klan to contact a P.O. box, he did his job and responded with interest, using his real name while posing as a white man.

“His decision launched what is surely one of the most audacious and incredible undercover investigations in history. During the months-long investigation, Stallworth sabotaged cross burnings, exposed white supremacists in the military, and even fooled David Duke himself.”

Review

BlacKkKlansman is a funny, fascinating and timely cop story-memoir, one worth reading. Stallworth, a few times in the book, repeats himself unnecessarily but otherwise it’s a focused, entertaining and sometimes alarming nonfiction work.

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The resulting film was released stateside on August 10, 2018. Spike Lee directed and co-wrote the screenplay. His co-screenwriters were Charlie Watchtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott.

John David Washington played Ron Stallworth. Adam Driver played Flip Zimmerman. Ken Garito played Sergeant Trapp. Topher Grace played David Duke. Alec Baldwin played Dr. Kennebrew Beauregard. Michael Buscemi, billed as Michael Joseph Buscemi, played Jimmy Creek.

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

(hb; 2017: nonfiction)

From the inside flap

“The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty and the wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water., the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

“Hundreds of girls paint watch faces amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these ‘shining girls’ are the luckiest alive─until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

“But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects and the women’s cries of corruption. As the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early twentieth century and a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.”

Review

Radium is an excellent, burn-through, entertaining and infuriating book about the conspiratorial, systematic poisoning of American generations by corrupt scientists, dentists and corporations, from 1914 through 1978. The writing is informative, entertaining (if often downbeat and alarming), flows like a modern-day thriller, and is one of the best nonfiction books I have read in recent years. Its theme of corporate and scientific malfeasance is as timely, educational and enduring as any other more-celebrated American elements and institutions, and serves as yet another reminder of who we need to be fighting─in other words, not each other.

Radium is worth owning.

Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornburg

(hb; 1976)

From the inside flap

“A scarred and crippled veteran of Vietnam, Cutter is nevertheless not one to feel sorry for. He has a beautiful and devoted Mo, who lives with him in Santa Barbara with their baby son. And he has friends, a government pension, a brilliant if mordant turn of mind. But he also has a savage and unrelenting despair, a ‘recklessness unto death,’ as his buddy Bone describes it─Bone who seems to have nothing in common with him except their friendship and their love of Mo. An ‘establishment dropout,’ Bone has left behind him a junior execution job in Milwaukee, a wife and children and a suburban home. Handsome enough to live off women, he does just that, going with the flow, going nowhere.

“Then one night, walking home, he happens upon a man disposing of a girl’s body. He catches only a glimpse of him, a silhouette in darkness. But the next day, after reading a newspaper account of the crime─LOCAL GIRL SLAIN, BODY FOUND IN TRASHCAN─Bone comes across a photograph of conglomerate tycoon J.J. Wolfe and he remarks on its similarity to the silhouette he saw.

“This is just what Cutter needed, an obsession big enough to fit his manic recklessness. He becomes convinced that Wolfe is the killer, and sets out to prove it, then to blackmail him for it. In his fervor, he drags Bone and Mo and the dead girl’s sister with him. Only after a wild cross-country drive from the Coast to the Ozarks─home base of the Wolfe empire─does Bone begin to understand the real nature of his friend’s obsession, that Cutter is not pursuing a murderer so much as the great enemy itself, them, the very demons that have dogged his life.”

Review

Thornburg’s immersive, hard-to-set-down and offbeat neo-noir novel captures well the fatalistic malaise that suffused the 1970s, with characters─some manic, others burnt out and exhausted─whose personalities and actions drive this Don Quixote-esque quest to its inevitable, appropriate Easy Rider-esque finish. This is an excellent read, its twists and turns character-centric and organic, one that─for its time─updates America’s dark legacy. This is one of my all-time favorite crime reads, one worth owning.

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The resulting and lighter-in-tone film, retitled Cutter's Way, was released stateside on February 10, 1982. Ivan Passer directed it, from a screenplay by Jeffrey Alan Fisker.

Jeff Bridges played Richard Bone. John Heard played Alex Cutter. Lisa Eichorn played “Mo.” Ann Dusenberry played Valery Duran. Arthur Rosenberg played George Swanson.

Stephen Elliott played J.J. Cord. Patricia Donahue played Mrs. Cord. Geraldine Baron played Susie Swanson.

Julia Duffy played “Young Girl.” Billy Drago played “Garbageman.” Ted White, who later played Jason in Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter [1984]─an uncredited role─played “Guard #1.” An uncredited Paul Thomas, ex-porn star, played “Man at table in dive bar.”

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

(pb; 2017: nonfiction)

From the back cover

“In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured cars and lived in mansions.

“Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed. Mollie Burkhart watched as her family became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. Other Osage were also dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who investigated the crimes were themselves murdered.

“As the death toll rose, the case was taken up by the newly formed FBI and its young, secretive director, J. Edgar Hoover. Struggling to crack the mystery, Hoover turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White, who put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent. They infiltrated this last remnant of the Wild West, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.”

Review

Killers is an excellent nonfiction book that masterfully mixes reportage of an egregious, real-life criminal conspiracy with the cinematic-vivid draw of a mystery and thriller. It is a sad, horrifying and oh-so-American read but its horrors are balanced by Grann’s superb  writing and characterizations. This is one of my all-time favorite nonfiction reads, one that I intend to keep on my bookshelf (I rarely keep books due to lack of space).

Robin by Dave Itzkoff

(hb; 2018: Robin Williams biography)

From the inside flap

“From his rapid-fire stand-up riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his powerful Academy-award winning performance in Good Will Hunting. Robin Williams was a singularly innovative actor and comedian. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture, politics, and personal revelation─all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another.

“But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this. . . biography, Williams’s brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt. In his comedy and in celebrated films such as Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation, bringing his characters to life and using humor to seek deeper truths.

“Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues as ewll as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a performer whose work touched so many of our lives.”

Review

Robin is an excellent, relatively thorough, funny, nostalgic and sometimes sad biography of a gifted man who hid a lot of his pain─like a lot of comedians─behind humor and whimsy. If you are a fan of Williams and can put up with a few sad parts, this is worth reading.

A Dog’s Ransom by Patricia Highsmith

(pb; 1972)

From the back cover

“. . . a high-minded criminal hits a Manhattan couple where it hurts the most when he kidnaps their beloved black miniature poodle, Lisa, from Riverside Park. Ed Reynolds, a forty-two-year-old editor at a prestigious publishing house, returns home one night to find a note: ‘Dear Sir. I have your dog Lisa. She is well and happy. . . I gather she is important to you? We’ll se.’ and so the nightmare begins for the Reynolds couple in this harrowing portrait of mid-century urban life shattered by a single bizarre event.”

Review

Ransom is an okay read. Highsmith, as usual, takes a standard thriller setup and restructures, shakes it up, with her analytical, incisive genre-mixing tone and style.

The main villain, Kenneth Rowajinski, reminds me a lot of the emotional/criminal journeys of other Highsmith characters─namely, Walter Stackhouse from her 1954 novel The Blunderer as well as young Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955). Her distinctive setup reminds me of her excellent 1983 novel People Who Knock on the Door, with its long, steady build into murder and further tragedy, as well as its effective takedown of middle-class smugness and over-reliance on material comfort.

That said, Ransom is not as good as People, at least for this reader. I could not relate to most of the characters, whose actions and outlooks were apathetic, callous, needy, languid (in that Highsmithian way) and overtly self-destructive. I “get” that we are viewing things through her lens, but none of these characters have redeeming qualities. It’s all various shades of darkness, ignorance and other negative elements─in a phrase, a hundred-percent nihilistic.

It does not help that Highsmith has one of her less odious characters, Clarence Pope Duhamell, think: “A pity that New York had been overrun by blacks and Puerto Ricans instead of by some race that might have improved things.” This is not the only part with racist rumblings. While she is reflecting the spirit of the age (and most ages), it felt unnecessarily ugly.

Ransom is worth reading, if you don’t mind Highsmith’s into-a-void misanthropy and unlikeable characters. The style and writing are fine, for the most part, but its darkness is a bit much, even for Highsmith.

Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell

(pb; 1980)

From the back cover

“Welcome to Babylon, a typical sleepy small town, where years earlier the Larkin family suffered a tragedy. Now they are about to endure another: fourteen-year-old Margaret Larkin will be robbed of her innocence and her life by a killer who is beyond the reach of the law.

“But something strange is happening in Babylon: traffic lights flash an eerie blue, a ghostly hand slithers from the drain of a kitchen sink, graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror. . . And beneath the murky surface of the river, a shifting, almost human shape slowly takes form. Night after night it will pursue the murderer. And when the full moon rises over Babylon, it will seek a terrible vengeance.”

Review

Cold is an excellent, character-rich and steady-build horror/revenge tale, unrushed in its cinematic-vivid, unfolding terrors, truths and consequences. Its arc and ending are not unpredictable but, in this case, it is the atmospheric, masterfully wrought journey that matters, cherry-topped with a deliciously low-key but devastating end-line. Worth reading and owning, this.