An entertaining true-crime period piece built around a chillingly odd sociopathic villain.
The engrossingly bizarre tale of a murder plot within Los Angeles real estate circles.
Journalist Jacobs ably captures the seamy backdrop of 1970s Southern California via the strange saga of acquaintance and prominent Angeleno Jerry Schneiderman. “Over two years,” writes the author, “he said not a peep about how he transformed himself from a picked-on Jewish kid from a throwaway section of L.A. into a successful developer/public advocate with an infectious cackle. Never once did he mention that he was the weak tip in a murder triangle.” Jacobs describes this milieu as chaotic yet ambitious: “This is what hungry companies did in the late-seventies LA of social experimentation. They fed the need, caring little if it were for a chiropractor, pop psychology gimmick, or conglomerate.” The murder improbably germinated due to an ill-fated partnership in an upstart space-planning firm comprised of charismatic Richard Kasparov (whose financial chicanery would imperil the business), workaholic Jerry, and their foreman Howard, “a fair-skinned Charles Bronson” whose competent exterior concealed a spiraling violent rage. About Howard, the author wonders, “why did an old-school construction chief with a trick back, nervous wife, and a union card decide to mortgage his soul?” Following workplace conflicts, Howard recruited hapless underworld figures for an ambitious murder-for-hire scheme, starting with his erstwhile partners. After numerous bungled attempts, which Jacobs plays for humor and tension, Howard’s gunman succeeded in murdering Richard. He then confronted Jerry with insults, threats, and blackmail, noting, “I’ve killed before Richard and gotten away with it. And I’ll do it again—with you.” Eventually, Howard was arrested but not before subjecting Jerry and others to protracted trauma. Notes the author, “Should Howard get out, prosecutors still believed, some of those who dared to tell the truth about him would ‘be as good as dead.’ ” (Howard died in prison.) Jacobs writes in a pulpy, flamboyant style that mostly masks some repetition and digression.
An entertaining true-crime period piece built around a chillingly odd sociopathic villain.Pub Date: March 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64428-191-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
An essential account of a chaotic administration that, Woodward makes painfully clear, is incapable of governing.
That thing in the air that is deadlier than even your “strenuous flus”? Trump knew—and did nothing about it.
The big news from veteran reporter Woodward’s follow-up to Fear has been widely reported: Trump was fully aware at the beginning of 2020 that a pandemic loomed and chose to downplay it, causing an untold number of deaths and crippling the economy. His excuse that he didn’t want to cause a panic doesn’t fly given that he trades in fear and division. The underlying news, however, is that Trump participated in this book, unlike in the first, convinced by Lindsey Graham that Woodward would give him a fair shake. Seventeen interviews with the sitting president inform this book, as well as extensive digging that yields not so much news as confirmation: Trump has survived his ineptitude because the majority of Congressional Republicans go along with the madness because they “had made a political survival decision” to do so—and surrendered their party to him. The narrative often requires reading between the lines. Graham, though a byword for toadyism, often reins Trump in; Jared Kushner emerges as the real power in the West Wing, “highly competent but often shockingly misguided in his assessments”; Trump admires tyrants, longs for their unbridled power, resents the law and those who enforce it, and is quick to betray even his closest advisers; and, of course, Trump is beholden to Putin. Trump occasionally emerges as modestly self-aware, but throughout the narrative, he is in a rage. Though he participated, he said that he suspected this to be “a lousy book.” It’s not—though readers may wish Woodward had aired some of this information earlier, when more could have been done to stem the pandemic. When promoting Fear, the author was asked for his assessment of Trump. His reply: “Let’s hope to God we don’t have a crisis.” Multiple crises later, Woodward concludes, as many observers have, “Trump is the wrong man for the job.”
An essential account of a chaotic administration that, Woodward makes painfully clear, is incapable of governing.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982131-73-9
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
SEEN & HEARD
A welcome new version of a publication that is no less important now than it was in 1967.
A timely distilled version of the powerful report on racism in the U.S.
Created by Lyndon Johnson’s executive order in 1967, the Kerner Commission was convened in response to inner-city riots in cities like Newark and Detroit, and its findings have renewed relevance in the wake of the George Floyd verdict and other recent police brutality cases. The report, named for Otto Kerner, the chairman of the commission and then governor of Illinois, explored the systemic reasons why an “apocalyptic fury” broke out that summer even in the wake of the passage of significant civil rights and voting acts—a response with striking echoes in recent events across the country. In this edited and contextualized version, New Yorker staff writer Cobb, with the assistance of Guariglia, capably demonstrates the continued relevance and prescience of the commission’s findings on institutionalized discriminatory policies in housing, education, employment, and the media. The commission was not the first to address racial violence in the century, and it would not be the last, but the bipartisan group of 11 members—including two Blacks and one woman—was impressively thorough in its investigation of the complex overarching social and economic issues at play. “The members were not seeking to understand a singular incident of disorder,” writes Cobb, “but the phenomenon of rioting itself.” Johnson wanted to know what happened, why it happened, and what could be done so it doesn’t happen “again and again.” Of course, it has happened again and again, and many of the report’s recommendations remain unimplemented. This version of the landmark report features a superb introduction by Cobb and a closing section of frequently asked questions—e.g., “How come nothing has been done about these problems?” The book contains plenty of fodder for crucial national conversations and many excellent ideas for much-needed reforms that could be put into place now.
A welcome new version of a publication that is no less important now than it was in 1967.Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63149-892-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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