A troubling exposé that might lead to conclusive proof of misdeeds currently suspected but not definitively researched.
The most recent in a big stack of books exposing former President Richard M. Nixon as dishonest and dangerous.
During Nixon’s presidency, longtime White House reporter Fulsom wrote about him for United Press International. Here the author pulls together previous research by other authors, mixing in occasional material newly released from archives, including memos written by FBI agents. Among other indictments of Nixon, Fulsom alleges more extensive ties to organized crime than previously acknowledged; a homosexual relationship with Bebe Rebozo, one of Nixon's links to organized crime; vocal expressions of homophobia and anti-Semitism, taking hypocrisy and hatred to unprecedented levels within the White House; physical abuse of his wife, as well as abusive treatment of White House and political campaign aides; involvement in actual and planned murders of politicians and journalists considered to be enemies; and treason committed during the Vietnam War. Many of Fulsom's allegations—some of which can fairly be labeled sensationalistic—are difficult to evaluate because they rely on a mixture of direct evidence, circumstantial evidence, rumor and gossip. For example, some researchers have found FBI memoranda to frequently contain factual and contextual inaccuracies as a matter of course; the author does not meaningfully address the reliability and validity of some of what he presents as evidence. Though flawed, Fulsom's indictment is too extensive and potentially important to be relegated to the dustbin of recent history. The author is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of Nixon's crimes.
A troubling exposé that might lead to conclusive proof of misdeeds currently suspected but not definitively researched.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-66296-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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