During this era of extreme income inequality, much of the narrative is antiquated and irrelevant except for the Trump...
A history of the famed resort town and a residence that has “assumed a stature in the collective consciousness far larger than its physical bounds.”
Standiford (Center of Dreams: Building a World-Class Performing Arts Complex in Miami, 2018, etc.) returns to the Floridian territory of the rich and famous that he chronicled in his biography of Henry Flagler (Last Train to Paradise, 2002), but this time the author will likely attract even more readers with the newly relevant Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump and his purchase of the mansion in 1985 does not take center stage until more than 200 pages have elapsed, but after that, he and his over-the-top resort occupy the majority of the rest of the book. Before focusing on Trump, though, Standiford recounts the epic struggle of the ultrawealthy to transform what are now known as Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and Key West into a previously unimaginable enclave for conspicuous consumption. Flagler dominates the narrative for a stretch of pages, as does architect Addison Mizner, who was famous for his Mediterranean revival and Spanish colonial revival styles. The other main character is heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who was most responsible for the design, construction, and legend of Mar-a-Lago. Post collected lovers and husbands, but arguably the most significant was her husband E.F. Hutton, the wealthy financier. Mar-a-Lago served as a Post-Hutton showplace, boasting 62,500 square feet and 128 rooms. For the most part, it gained renown because of its style and setting rather than its size; after all, it wasn’t nearly the largest mansion in the area. Standiford likes to compare and contrast the sizes and styles of the mansions as he offers background about their owners. For readers who never tire of reading about extreme wealth, the book will hold endless fascination. Others, however, may lose interest partway through. Unsurprisingly, Standiford offers a negative portrayal of Trump, chronicling his controversial purchase and the many ugly battles that ensued.
During this era of extreme income inequality, much of the narrative is antiquated and irrelevant except for the Trump connection.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2849-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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