An authoritative, sordid biography.
A sad tale of sex, lies, and power in Hollywood.
In 2002, Auletta published a profile of Harvey Weinstein in the New Yorker, portraying him as a “self-absorbed narcissist” who verbally and physically abused his employees. “Those who worked for Harvey,” the author discovered, “were daunted by his talent yet terrorized by his volcanic personality.” At the time, Auletta heard “whispers” that Weinstein sexually abused women but could not corroborate them. Fifteen years later, scores of women finally came forward, and Weinstein’s behavior made headlines in the New York Times, soon followed by an exposé in the New Yorker. In 2017, Weinstein was arrested on charges of criminal sexual assault and rape. Drawing on 12 hours of taped interviews with Weinstein for the New Yorker piece and several hundred interviews with employees and associates, including Weinstein’s brother Bob, Auletta expands his earlier profile, chronicling Weinstein’s volatile career as a movie mogul and recounting in dismal detail the “numbing sameness” of his abuse of women. “His game was not seduction,” writes Auletta, “but subjugation, and he sought out the vulnerable. His boastful, trophy mentality toward actresses has been noted by many, but he also prowled among his own staff.” His career began in Buffalo, where, in the 1970s, he became a concert promoter, honing his persona as “a money-obsessed entrepreneur and trickster in the making.” He partnered with Bob to create a distribution firm they called Miramax, combining their parents’ first names, and later a production firm, the Weinstein Company, which released many award-winning films including Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love. As the author shows, Bob was unable—and often unwilling—to rein in his “impulsive” brother as their business roiled in a cycle of near bankruptcy, success, and profligate overspending. Auletta’s deep familiarity with the film industry serves him well in depicting the making, marketing, and reception of the Weinsteins’ movies. Aiming to portray Weinstein as “more than a monster,” the author offers ample evidence that he is a sociopath.
An authoritative, sordid biography.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-984-87837-3
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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