More than once, the author questions the reliability of his own sources, leaving us unsure of just how much of this murky...
In war-torn Serbia, a compulsive petty thief metamorphoses from mob boss to paramilitary warlord to international war criminal.
Until his assassination in early 2000—after The Hague indicted him on 24 counts of war crimes, and the United States offered a $5 million bounty on his head—Zeljko Raznatovic, aka Arkan, was responsible for much of the carnage that swept the former Yugoslavia as it descended into a nightmare of mass murder and ethnic cleansing. Freelance journalist Stewart recounts Arkan’s career from his early days as a bank robber to his recruitment as a hit man by Yugoslavian dictator Josip Tito. Twice sprung from prison thanks to his government connections, he displayed an unchecked appetite for the spoils of crime that was soon matched by his thirst for power. As Yugoslavia unraveled in the 1980s following Tito’s death, Arkan transformed himself from international bank robber and gangster to ultra-nationalist paramilitary leader, forming his own private army manned with unruly young soccer fans, whose anger and frustration he deftly tapped. With the blessing of another Serbian madman, President Slobodan Miloševic, Arkan and his army of “Serbian patriots” pillaged their way through Croatia, then Bosnia and finally Kosovo, leaving thousands dead in their wake. In the process, he amassed millions in spoils, married the country’s top pop singer in an opulent wedding rivaling that of Prince Charles and Diana, and even won a seat in Parliament. Stewart diligently follows his dark, bloody trail, but doesn’t quite manage to bring this sinister madman out of the shadows. Readers never get a feel for the source of Arkan’s hatred and ruthlessness.
More than once, the author questions the reliability of his own sources, leaving us unsure of just how much of this murky story—including whether Arkan is actually dead—we should believe. Nevertheless, a chilling, eye-opening account of a madman who deserves a choice seat in the pantheon of the 20th-century’s most evil criminals.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-35606-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
