This overheated, romanticized account may be stretching things a bit too far in attempting to portray police informer Kevin Maher as a modern-day bounty hunter. Kipps (Out of Focus, 1989) does a decent job of showing how Maher's role as an informer grew out of his criminal career, but he tries to dignify it in light of Maher's stated childhood ambition to be a policeman. As a teenager in the Bronx, Maher served as ``wheel man'' in robberies and was arrested several times for autho theft. He went to prison in 1974 and became chums with Morris Weiss, of Murder, Inc., and other unsavory characters. When Sgt. Jim Doherty questioned him about some bank robberies, the two men ``bonded,'' with Doherty realizing that ``except for a few strands of DNA . . . Maher could almost be his son.'' Wearing a wire, Maher followed up on some of the contracts Weiss and others had put him onto. One case led to another, with Maher sometimes volunteering, sometimes being asked to get information on a crony. In one case, his assignment was to romance the wife of an accused hit man. In a scene that defies credibility, the hit man asks Maher to ``take care'' of his wife sexually while he's in jail. Maher repays his largesse by assisting the district attorney in two homicide cases against the man and moving in with his soon-to-be-ex-wife. Doherty had gotten most of the original charges against Maher dropped, but as late as 1987 and 1989, Maher was arrested again for carrying an Uzi, drunkenness, and assaulting a police officer. Kipps details Maher's cocaine habit, his messy relationships with hookers and strippers, and his numerous drug-related trips to Miami, sometimes under the auspices of the DEA. Kipps fails to objectively question Maher's motivation and actual role in these adventures: Is he a dutiful bounty hunter or a lowlife snitch? (First serial to Penthouse)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-7867-0246-X
Page Count: 336
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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