A vigorous rendering of the remote past.
A universe of blood, violence, and magic.
In the 11th volume of a project that began in 1983, Italian publisher, translator, and polymath Calasso (1941-2021) continues his investigation of ancient religion and philosophy with an interpretation of Mesopotamian mythology. Translated by Parks, the narrative unfolds as a conversation between Utnapishtim and Sindbad, a sailor who washes up on the island of Dilmun, where Utnapishtim has lived for thousands of years under the protection of Ea, god of fresh water. “I would have liked to be someone who dwells in the midst of everything and sees afar,” he tells the sailor. “Instead, my fate has been to see afar, but from a place no one else can reach.” Central to his stories are a host of vengeful, capricious, murderous gods who create humans from clay and gods’ blood only to become annoyed when their creations become too boisterous and noisy. The solution: a flood to destroy the Earth and its unruly inhabitants. But at Ea’s bidding, Utnapishtim builds a vessel to save all living creatures and is rewarded by spending eternity on Dilmun. Foremost among the magical objects coveted by gods and men is the Tablet of Destinies, “in which everything that was and was becoming the world could concentrate.” The Tablet instructed “how to celebrate the rites and implement the law.” It ensured order. Men yearn for certainty, Utnapishtim observes, for which they make sacrifices to appease gods; protect themselves “behind a barrier of prayers, invocations, exorcisms”; and worship talismans, spells, and omens. “We lived in terror of everything that happens by chance,” he admits. “A few signs etched on a clay tablet went some way to keeping things in check.” Calasso depicts a blood-soaked universe where hundreds of gods battle for supremacy and where men prefer “to live bound tight by destiny than abandoned to the turbulence of chance.”
A vigorous rendering of the remote past.Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-374-60501-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 Yorkerstaff 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
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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