Valuable documentation of the malfeasance underlying the NRA’s outsized influence on American life.
Muckraking exposé of the National Rifle Association, revealed as sleazy and insular in its zero-sum political gamesmanship.
With measured glee, Mak, Washington investigative reporter for NPR, unearths the inside story of upheavals within the once-secretive gun rights organization, arguing that its corrosive effect on American politics (particularly during the Trump administration) is matched only by internal cynicism, greed, and incompetence. These qualities are embodied by unflattering portraits of Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and his Machiavellian wife, Susan, both of whom “had for years tapped the NRA for personal gain.” The author notes that LaPierre’s craven responses to spiraling crises, including connections to Russian election interference, led many former allies to cooperate with investigators and his reporting. LaPierre oversaw the organization’s movement from a traditional focus on hunting and firearm safety to immersion in the far-right culture wars, abetted by lobbying and legal firms that developed covert, lucrative relationships with LaPierre’s circle. This led the organization to go all-in with support for Trump’s 2016 campaign; his surprise victory positioned the NRA at the center of power. “Yet in the fall of 2019,” writes Mak, “everything was falling apart.” The NRA had spent political capital sabotaging bipartisan legislation supporting background checks after the Sandy Hook massacre. Then the story emerged of Maria Butina, a Russian agent who developed cozy relationships with key NRA figures. “The NRA repeatedly opened doors for Butina,” writes the author. By the time a New Yorker article “blew the lid off the corruption inside the gun organization,” the NRA was in open conflict, with multiple lawsuits going back and forth and LaPierre’s control threatened. Mak captures the shrill absurdity of this soap opera, managing a colorful rogues’ gallery, including the since-convicted Butina, Oliver North, and various wealthy, unsavory insiders competing for influence over the “remarkably weak-willed” LaPierre.
Valuable documentation of the malfeasance underlying the NRA’s outsized influence on American life.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4645-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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