A true profile in courage, written with verve and wit.
How one man took on a tyrant.
Navalny suffered greatly during his short life as an activist and opposition leader. He required months of recovery after a near-fatal poisoning, he needed surgery on his right eye after an assailant threw an antiseptic in his face, and he was placed in solitary confinement and endured a 24-day hunger strike during his final imprisonment, which ended with his unexplained death on Feb. 16, 2024. As President Biden said in condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin, the man Navalny had tormented for years, “there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.” In reading Navalny’s posthumous memoir—written before and during his time behind bars, sections secreted out of prison—one feels a deep sense of not only sorrow over the loss of such a magnetic figure, but also awe for this man’s extraordinary resolve. His rebellion began early. As he recounts in his enormously appealing voice, he grew up in a family that talked politics. A formative experience was seeing how ordinary citizens were lied to by the government after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. And then there was music—“the crucial source of ideological sabotage that subverted me and turned me into a little dissident.” Aside from reading, his favorite pastime was setting off explosives—a fitting precursor to the metaphorical bombs he would ignite in exposing corrupt politicians and tycoons who engorged themselves in the kleptocratic state that supplanted the USSR. Navalny was justifiably angered by the “unholy horde of hypocritical thieves and lowlifes” who steered his beloved Russia toward totalitarianism. That righteous passion empowered him, but so too did his irrepressible spirit—his humanity and his decency. Every page is alive with Navalny’s ever-present humor, his self-deprecation, his affection for his wife, Yulia, and their children, and his empathy for fellow prisoners. Long after Putin draws his last breath, people will read this aptly titled book, an inestimable record of a heroic life, one that will inspire generations to come.
A true profile in courage, written with verve and wit.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780593320969
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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