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THE LAST HONEST MAN

THE CIA, THE FBI, THE MAFIA, AND THE KENNEDYS―AND ONE SENATOR'S FIGHT TO SAVE DEMOCRACY

A welcome restoration of a largely forgotten politician who navigated issues that continue to reverberate.

Vigorous biography of the Idaho senator who, “like an American Cicero, offered the United States a brief glimpse of what it would be like to turn away from its imperialistic ambitions.”

Democratic politician Frank Church (1924-1984), who was elected to the U.S. Senate before Idaho became a solidly Republican state, displayed a natural ability to maneuver through the knotty landscape of politics. As two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning political journalist Risen writes, he didn’t mind making enemies in the absence of allies: “Frank Church was a loner in the Senate…and didn’t go out of his way to cultivate close ties.” A strong supporter of John F. Kennedy, he went up against Lyndon Johnson on a number of key issues. Though he endorsed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (and later regretted it), he proved a stalwart opponent of the Vietnam War. He came to equate that war with a covert program of American imperialism, and after helping conduct the Watergate inquiries, he formed a Senate committee that exposed the nefarious activities of the intelligence community, including the CIA’s alliance with the Mafia in an effort to assassinate Fidel Castro and its connection to many other killings—perhaps even JFK’s. Woven into Risen’s story are the still-unsolved murders of Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana and a made-man foot soldier, both of whom supplied the Church Committee with information. Church also examined presidents’ use of emergency powers to advance their agendas; in this as well as other discoveries of his committee, he arrived at “a difficult question: was the disgraced Richard Nixon really that different from his predecessors in the White House?” The answer is debatable, but Risen credits Church with preventing the rise of the deep state, which “remains a myth, a right-wing conspiracy theory,” precisely “because Frank Church brought the intelligence community fully into the American system of government.”

A welcome restoration of a largely forgotten politician who navigated issues that continue to reverberate.

Pub Date: May 9, 2023

ISBN: 9780316565134

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023

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MELANIA

A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.

A carefully curated personal portrait.

First ladies’ roles have evolved significantly in recent decades. Their memoirs typically reflect a spectrum of ambition and interests, offering insights into their values and personal lives. Melania Trump, however, stands out as exceptionally private and elusive. Her ultra-lean account attempts to shed light on her public duties, initiatives, and causes as first lady, and it defends certain actions like her controversial “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” jacket. The statement was directed at the media, not the border situation, she claims. Yet the book provides scant detail about her personal orbit or day-to-day interactions. The memoir opens with her well-known Slovenian origin story, successful modeling career, and whirlwind romance with Donald Trump, culminating in their 2005 marriage, followed by a snapshot of Election Day 2016: “Each time we were together that day, I was impressed by his calm.…This man is remarkably confident under pressure.” Once in the White House, Melania Trump describes her functions and numerous public events at home and abroad, which she asserts were more accomplished than media representations suggested. However, she rarely shares any personal interactions beyond close family ties, notably her affection for her son, Barron, and her sister, Ines. And of course she lavishes praise on her husband. Minimal anecdotes about White House or cabinet staff are included, and she carefully defuses her rumored tensions with Trump’s adult children, blandly stating, “While we may share the same last name, each of us is distinct with our own aspirations and paths to follow.” Although Melania’s desire to support causes related to children’s and women’s welfare feels authentic, the overall tenor of her memoir seems aimed at painting a glimmering portrait of her husband and her role, likely with an eye toward the forthcoming election.

A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024

ISBN: 9781510782693

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024

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THE MESSAGE

A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.

Bearing witness to oppression.

Award-winning journalist and MacArthur Fellow Coates probes the narratives that shape our perception of the world through his reports on three journeys: to Dakar, Senegal, the last stop for Black Africans “before the genocide and rebirth of the Middle Passage”; to Chapin, South Carolina, where controversy erupted over a writing teacher’s use of Between the World and Me in class; and to Israel and Palestine, where he spent 10 days in a “Holy Land of barbed wire, settlers, and outrageous guns.” By addressing the essays to students in his writing workshop at Howard University in 2022, Coates makes a literary choice similar to the letter to his son that informed Between the World and Me; as in that book, the choice creates a sense of intimacy between writer and reader. Interweaving autobiography and reportage, Coates examines race, his identity as a Black American, and his role as a public intellectual. In Dakar, he is haunted by ghosts of his ancestors and “the shade of Niggerology,” a pseudoscientific narrative put forth to justify enslavement by portraying Blacks as inferior. In South Carolina, the 22-acre State House grounds, dotted with Confederate statues, continue to impart a narrative of white supremacy. His trip to the Middle East inspires the longest and most impassioned essay: “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” he writes. In his complex analysis, he sees the trauma of the Holocaust playing a role in Israel’s tactics in the Middle East: “The wars against the Palestinians and their Arab allies were a kind of theater in which ‘weak Jews’ who went ‘like lambs to slaughter’ were supplanted by Israelis who would ‘fight back.’” Roiled by what he witnessed, Coates feels speechless, unable to adequately convey Palestinians’ agony; their reality “demands new messengers, tasked as we all are, with nothing less than saving the world.”

A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9780593230381

Page Count: 176

Publisher: One World/Random House

Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024

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