A quick and intriguing read marred by a lack of objectivity.
An account of the aftermath of a violent crime.
Brian Bechtold was 22 when he killed his parents in 1992. After a week or two on the run, he turned himself in to the police. Bechtold was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia; he was ruled “not criminally responsible” for his crime and spent almost three decades in a psychiatric hospital. In the introduction, Brottman, a writer and psychoanalyst, claims that while “most true crime stories focus on the buildup to the crime, the incident itself, and the quest for justice,” this book—an account of Bechtold’s institutionalization—“is about another part of the story, the part that begins when the verdict is announced, the sentence handed down.” That overture begins the author’s plea on Bechtold’s behalf. Throughout his time at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Maryland, Bechtold maintained that while he had certainly suffered from a mental illness at the time of his crime, he had since recovered. He tried to convince hospital staff of his health, attempted to escape, and took the hospital to court—all to no avail. Brottman, who met Bechtold while teaching a Focus on Fiction class at Perkins, is clearly on his side. The author’s meticulous research is evident throughout, and she mostly handles the information deftly, making for a smooth narrative populated by a variety of colorful characters. Her lack of objectivity is the book’s major flaw, and it leads to statements like the following, which describes Bechtold’s reluctance to take increased doses of medication: “He’d done perfectly well on the low dose and felt mentally stable.” Perfectly well according to whom? Bechtold has an obvious stake in maintaining his own sanity. The doctors at Perkins claimed that Bechtold was paranoid, and while Brottman shows effectively that forced hospitalization could make anyone seem paranoid, she fails to prove that, in this case, both could have been true at the same time.
A quick and intriguing read marred by a lack of objectivity.Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-75744-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not for everyone, but it could mean the world to those facing similar shocks and losses.
A husband's anguished, complex response to his wife's suicide and the revelations that followed.
"Molly Brodak, Poet and Memoirist of Her Father's Crimes, Dies at 39," read the headline of her New York Times obituary. Her problematic father's appearance at this final juncture is ruefully noted by her husband, Butler, author of Alice Knott, There Is No Year, and other novels. He begins with a gripping account of the day he came home and found an envelope taped to the door containing a suicide note and instructions for finding his wife's body. Knowing of her lifelong issues with depression, he was nonetheless blindsided. They had just had a nice evening and been to a museum two days earlier; a picture of her waiting for him in a gallery is one of the book’s lovely color photographs. However, while going through her journals and phone records in the days after her death, Butler learned of Molly's infidelity with many partners, including her college students, and of a long-term liaison ongoing at the time of her death. He initially thought he would not include this information, but he decided to tell all. This will be too much for some readers, though his attempt to understand is relatable and moving: "A cycle of lying and hiding had likely kept her alive at times, a habit modeled on her father that she’d never learned to break." This theme takes its place beside many others in Butler’s sprawling, philosophical interior monologue, which includes quotes from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche; spiritualist interludes, in which he communicates with demons and his dead wife; and testimony to the wonderful postmortem support of their friends.
Not for everyone, but it could mean the world to those facing similar shocks and losses.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781648230370
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Archway Editions/powerHouse
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
A well-rendered cowboy tale that fleshes out a larger history of the Old West.
The life of a Texas cowboy who ranged the wild frontier paints a broader picture of bygone times in the American West.
Charlie Siringo (1855-1928) herded cattle and drove livestock to slaughter, learning his cowboy skills from the age of 12. In this lively and detailed account, Ward, author of The Lost Detective and Dark Harbor, creates “a portrait of the American West through which he traveled as such a compelling witness—from the birth of the cattle trail and railroad cow town to the violence of the mining wars and the Wild Bunch’s long last ride.” Siringo captured the era in what is considered to be the first cowboy autobiography, A Texas Cowboy; or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony (1885), "a work of celebration and mourning for the raucous cowboy life that was ending." Ward devotes just as many chapters to Siringo's later career as a detective, going undercover "to track, befriend and betray" criminals ranging from anarchist bombers to Butch Cassidy. The author also recounts the tangled publishing history of Siringo's memoir A Cowboy Detective (1912), its editions repeatedly quashed due to nondisclosure agreements with the agency that employed him. Ward's consideration of his subject as a working cowboy quickly broadens into that of Siringo as a literary figure whose many books included a life of Billy the Kid, whom he knew well. Siringo was also well appreciated as a "font of authenticity" on cowboy lore during his work as a consultant on Western films in Hollywood in his later years. Illustrations, vintage photos, and maps throughout the text add atmosphere and context to this stirring, multivaried life. If Ward doesn't quite prove that Siringo helped create the foundations of the literature of the American West, he shows that this original cowboy certainly lived out the most fertile period of that time and place.
A well-rendered cowboy tale that fleshes out a larger history of the Old West.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780802162083
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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