Gottlieb's 'Avid Reader' highly recommended for the wordy

Like so many other memoirs, I was led to Avid Reader: A Life (2016) by the obituary of the author, Robert Gottlieb (1931-2023), the exalted editor, writer, and publisher of many modern classical titles and periodicals, including, but not limited to, the renowned LBJ series by Robert Caro, the fifth and last volume already ten plus years in the making. Research takes time, Caro is often quoted as saying.

I did try Cato's The Power Broker (Gottlieb, editor) a while back but knowing little about New York, except a bit about Manhattan, I just couldn't get into it, you know how it is with some books you just can't get into, and thus, laid it aside never to pick it up again. 

In cre a ble!  

But Gottlieb's memoir is another story although filled with many unrecognizable names to me, like reading one of those chapters in the Bible where the names go on and on and on.  Anyway, Avid Reader is a must if there's anyone in the publishing world who has yet to read it. 

Earlier this year at the National Press Club, I saw Gottlieb's daughter, Lizzie (who is frequently referenced in Avid) and her film Turn Every Page  about the writing and working relationship her dad shared with Mr. Caro, a delightful film and relationship which I probably liked better than the book since Mr. Gottlieb comes across in the book as a boorish know-it-all, a conceited and uppity man about town, although he insists he did not like dinners out with friends, partying, did not do sports, but ballet?  Oh, yes.  (For the ballet uninitiated, that part went on too long.) 

He's much more likable in the film. 

In Avid, he spares no gloss when it comes to offering negative commentary about writers like Salman Rushdie, Lillian Ross, Pauline Kael and many more. He often mentions the breakup of friendships.  Quelle surprise!

It must be that if you are anybody in the New York's publishing world, your inclusion in the book is important, good or bad!  (Some press is good press, and bad press is press, and no press is bad! Bad! Bad!) 

It sounds like he was estranged from his first child, Roger, from his first marriage to Muriel Higgins, since Gottlieb seldom mentions him nor does he include Roger in the credits or dedicate his book to his great offsprings like he does Lizzie's sons but what do I know about good family relationships?

Avid Reader is a highly recommended title, but is that a typo with the omission of a closing parenthetical mark midway down on page 78?  

Alas!  He is gone!

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: 'We Carry Their Bones' shocks

I shunned this book when I saw it on the shelf of new non-fiction titles at the Falls Church library, knowing a little of the story and the horrible conditions, and not wanting to know more. 

The world is awful enough; I needed more proof?  

With that selfish attitude, I checked it out.  

The crimes against the boys were worse than expected, a story of abuse and terror like so many which are worse than fiction.

 

A forensic anthropologist, Erin Kimmerle, has written an objective account of this latest horror story, except when it comes to family and residents'  memories of what really went on inside the 111-year-old school in Florida to house and punish “bad” boys.

Some were guilty of the terrible crime of running-away from home (who hasn’t?); some were orphans; some, wards of the state. 

Some were as young as five-years-old but sentenced by a judge to the Dozier School for Boys where many were tortured, beaten, burned alive, murdered by staff at the prison outside Marianna, Florida and raped in the "White House."

No one was brought to trial. Almost three of every four boys buried at the institution's "cemetery," Boot Hill, were black and many families never received word about the deaths of their youngsters.

The "White House" is seen in 1936 in the background during construction of a dining hall/Wikipedia; State of Florida

Boys who were chained, as young as five years old, were unable to escape a fire in 1914 and died, unidentified.

One resident called it a "concentration camp for little boys."  They were threatened by guards who did ... what else?

From Dr. Marvin Dunn's report, The Infamous Dozier School | Dunn History:  The method of torture was for the prison guards to handcuff the teenagers and then hang them from the bars of their cells, sometimes for over an hour. The guards stated that their superiors approved the practice and that it was routine.

These were brutal crimes and hard to believe humans carried out these atrocities in this century, likely because most of the boys were black.

Families were unable to convince authorities of the truth behind the walls until momentum and a list of 500 grew among survivors and relatives of the dead to reveal the torture and murders.

Dr. Kimmerle worked for years with colleagues at the University of South Florida, students, other scientists,  government officials, and journalists to unearth the real story and the graves of 55 boys of whom the prison had only reported 31.  

Humanists owe deep gratitude to her and her team of students who pressed on, up against the will of Marianna's residents who resisted revelations which meant jobs for its citizens and cheap labor for area farms.

 

Dr. Kimmerle previously worked at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and, while pursuing her Ph.D., at the University of Tennessee's renowned "body farm," "the premier school" for forensic anthropologists run by Bill Bass.

Although legislation passed in the Florida House, 114-3, to bury the children properly, reimburse families for burials, and create a memorial, Matt Gaetz was one of the three Republicans to vote against the outlay of $500,000 which passed the Florida Senate and earned Gov. Rick Scott's signature, although Scott had earlier tried unsuccessfully to obstruct inspection of remains. 

Dr. Kimmerle pays tribute to former Sen. Bill Nelson for his efforts to reveal the truth.

It's likely these crimes continue at other institutions where children have no families to speak up for them, have no defense against ugly adults, and don't know what to do.

Can you help them? 

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

The best audio book ever! 'Be My Baby'

I have listened to many audiobooks but none as great as Be My Baby: A Memoir by Ronnie Spector, the lead singer of the Ronettes who released the song, "Be My Baby" in 1963.

The record shot to the top of the charts and upended the lives of the Ronettes, some for good, some for not-so-good, but worth it!

The trio gained instant, unending fame.

For all the music fans who remember the song or hear it on the radio, this is a "must listen" book.

It’s delightful, heartbreaking, and one I never wanted to end.

I couldn't wait to jump back in my car and turn it back on again.

Earlier, I had tried reading the book but it failed to "grab me" after a few pages, and I put it down.

But the audio is different. It's the opposite!

Most audio books are not read by the author and many voices just don't fit. I shut them off early and return the copy to the library.

But Rosie Perez is something special. She is perfect on this score, the New York voice on the audio who delivers the memoir in a personable, first-person account of Ronnie's life with all its ups and downs and harsh realities, including her six mostly agonizing years as the wife of Phil Spector, music producer extraordinaire. (If you thought he was weird, you ain’t heard nuthin’ yet!)

Ronnie describes the prison-like conditions she endured as his wife which took her mother to rescue her (again).

In the book (co-written with Vince Waldron), John Lennon, Keith Richards (who wrote a forward to the 2022 edition) and several more "big" stars make more than cameo appearances, and it's reassuring to find out they are/were "normal," more or less, like you and me (although with a bit more in their wallets!).

Of course, Phil Spector was not "normal" in the "normal" sense (geniuses seldom are), but extremely possessive and controlling of Ronnie, such that (for  one example), he refused to let her accept the Beatles' invitation to tour with them and fly on their plane, but, wait...Spector permitted himself to fly on their plane.

In 2021 he died of Covid in a hospital where he was taken from prison, serving 19 years for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion.

Ronnie Spector died last January of cancer right after she had updated her 1990 best-seller Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness. In a 2021 postscript she talks about the impacts of Covid, and according to her publisher, she was getting ready for a book tour.

At YouTube two years ago, the video of Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes had recorded 19 million views.

After her death, Cyndi Lauper posted a comment: "We love you Ronnie!"

We miss you, Ronnie!

Book review: 'The Gatsby Affair' was not

I suppose the insertion of the word "affair" in the title of any book would help it sell better. Surely, a Ph.D. student has researched this matter.

The Gatsby Affair: Scott, Zelda, and the Betrayal that Shaped an American Classic by Kendall Taylor is a misnomer since there is no proof that Zelda Fitzgerald had an affair with a French pilot which was "consummated." Is a summer fling of a few weeks an "affair"? Then I suppose most of us had had hundreds.  The author contends that Zelda's "affair" served as a springboard for much of her husband's book, The Great Gatsby.


Zelda's fling with Edouard Jozan consumes a small portion of Taylor's book, a few pages front and aft.

At the beginning of Affair, it was great fun to live vicariously with Zelda, being wined and dined by all her boyfriends, going to the parties, the dancing, the attention, the prom queen! Ahhhh...such is youth! 

It ends too soon.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
   Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
   Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
   The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
   And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
   When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
   Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
   And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
   You may forever tarry.*

After she marries Scott, the book takes a turn from fun to depressing. (That's what marriage can do!)

He promises her a luxurious lifestyle which they lived for a while on his writing income in New York, on the edge, partying constantly late into the next day, doing crazy things and spending too much money which Scott did not have. He was constantly borrowing on his future earnings.

They take off for Europe which was a cheaper place to live, and their marriage continues its downward spiral.

He was mean; he was an alcoholic who stifled Zelda's creativity and forbade the publication of some of her works he wanted to use himself.  He was rude to friends. Here, he's the antagonist, a control freak when it comes to Zelda.

He stifled her creativity and kept her in hospitals. Some of the medical treatments she received are painful to read. He said he was due part of the money she earned from her few publications to pay for her medical bills. Fair enough.

They return to the U.S. In California Scott worked to earn more money as a script writer and...

The book is not so much fun any more.

After Scott failed again on writing assignments in Hollywood, he returned to Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda's family's home, where she was furiously working on a story of their lives in Europe; he forbade her from writing her story because he wanted to use the material for his own.

About 20 years ago two friends and I took the day off from our jobs in Nashville to drive to Huntsville, Alabama to see a small exhibition of Zelda's works.  The Fitzgeralds' only child, Scottie, had loaned the pieces to, I think it was, the Huntsville Museum of Art. 

As I recall, the art on the walls was mainly line drawings of ballerinas in small frames, no larger than 8 x 10". In Europe Zelda prided herself on her constant feverish training to become a ballerina which Scott did not take seriously. That she was invited to participate in a professional production in Europe gives credence to her talent. (She did not join the company.)

The hospital fire in Asheville, N.C. which claimed her life in March, 1948 was likely caused by an arsonist. The hospital had no fire codes.

Rather than an "affair," this book is really about Zelda's personal crash and is very sad. May I suggest instead, Matthew Bruccoli's Some Sort of Epic Grandeur which is much better written, throughly documented (not denying Taylor's research), and about twice as long, well worth a serious reader's look at the Fitzgeralds' lives and careers.  (But if you're serious, you'll be reading Taylor's, too. Bruccoli died in 2008 and was considered "the preeminent expert" on F. Scott Fitzgerald [Wikipedia].)

In Affair, modifiers sometimes go AWOL and I found myself having to review previous sentences to find out what or whom the author was writing about.

Disjointed words are found scattered throughout, and often, pronouns and subjects don't match, which may be another example of a publisher's reduction in staff. Sigh. (This publisher is Rowman & Littlefield.) 

Until I read a little about the author, I thought she was British, and it was a British way of writing.  Seriously.

But, it's a great dream book to carry a reader away for a while, to the shore, the man, the fun, and the scenery. If it only had a happy ending, but it was not to be.

* To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

The graves of F. Scott, Zelda, and Scottie Fitzgerald, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Rockville, MD, Feb. 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The graves of F. Scott, Zelda, and Scottie Fitzgerald, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Rockville, MD, Feb. 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The graves of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Rockville, MD, Feb. 19, 2022/Photo by Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com

Another must for journalists: Carl Bernstein's book

 

You know it's a "must." He's a "must" for anyone who's a news-aholic, and/or in the writing business (which in Washington, D.C. is everyone!). 

Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom details Carl Bernstein's five years working for The Washington Evening Star, beginning when he was in high school and ending with his start at the Washington Post, mostly covering the years, 1960-1965.

He describes the ins and outs of what it’s like to be on staff of a major newspaper, how to get there (call and call and call the editors again!), the background and coverage of the major events of the times (JFK's inauguration, JFK's assassination, Sputnik, the 1963 March on Washington) and even, a fake obituary which he and others planted in the Post. (He admits he was chiefly responsible.)

He recounts working with editors (with few negative stories about anyone, save Bill Hill), flying to scenes, and abandoning school for his passion.  All information helpful for any fledgling or would-be writer, to learn what it takes or took back then to get hired by a paper, although challenges now do not mirror challenges then.

At the end, Bernstein includes welcome updates in brief biographical sketches of his tale's main characters, most whose names I couldn’t keep straight anyway, except for Joanne's. 

When I became aware of the section, the first name I hunted was Bill Hill's, a main character Bernstein omits since he did not like Hill for various reasons and whose absence at the end is rather childish. But, maybe Hill would not cooperate and update Bernstein because, like many of the characters, he is dead. 

In addition to the rear listings, adding a one- or two-sentence description of the majority of the cast would have been helpful  to keep names straight.

Other book weaknesses (which, no doubt, his many friends have failed to mention in their glorification) are the title and the cover, great examples of mediocrity.

Blue on blue is dull on dull and Chasing History?  

Huh?  

What does this mean?  How about Carl Bernstein's Start-Up for starters?  

I know Carl Bernstein did not choose the jacket design or the title and he probably argued with the publisher who, of course, knows more about publishing than the author.  Hahahahaha.  

And Carl, I was stunned, stunned (!) that you accepted the assignment of the weather page redesign when Bill Hill pulled out all the plugs to try and resuscitate the Star, which, of course, now lies buried in the cemetery of newspapers with so many others.

At age 78, Carl, it's time to hurry up and finish your second and final volume, thank you very much.

Whoops!  I mentioned Hill's name only four times!

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy,' highly recommended

 

Ethel Rosenberg was killed by the U.S. government because of her spouse. Without evidence or proof that she committed treasonous acts worthy of death, the U.S. government executed her and her husband on June 19, 1953, “to prove a point,” to play bluff with her and Julius, her husband, trying to get each to rat on the other. 

But they had nothing to give.

The Soviets said later they didn't need the little information Julius had about the development of the atom bomb. They scoffed at the idea that it was because of them that the Rosenbergs were executed. 

Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, later admitted he lied during testimony, words which sent his sister to the electric chair. He said he lied to protect his wife, also involved in the scheme but never charged. David Greenglass played a much larger role than Ethel Rosenberg, yet he got less than 10 years in prison.

In Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy, Anne Sebba furnishes a well-documented, gripping story of the first woman executed by the U.S. government since 1865 when Mary Surratt was hanged for the death of President Abraham Lincoln.

Ms. Sebba's accounting is an engrossing biography about Ms. Rosenberg and her long love affair with Julius. 

The ending is based on original letters the Rosenbergs exchanged while in prison and what appears to an infatuation Ethel had with a psychotherapist.

Ethel's chief desire was to be a good mother for the couple's two sons, Michael, 7, and Robert, 3, who were forced into a children's home when their parents were taken to jail, after their grandmother, Ethel's mother, and other relatives refused to take the boys in. 

Ethel questioned her own motherly abilities. 

She wanted to be an opera singer and during her prison confinement, entertained guards and other prisoners with her singing. Because she was considered "dangerous" (?), the government forced her into solitary confinement the last two years of her life.

Presiding at their trial, Judge Irving Kaufman became a witness for the prosecution. Roy Cohn, a friend of Donald Trump and chief legal counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, was a chief prosecutor who prided himself on the Rosenbergs' executions, claiming the judge followed his recommendations. 

The Rosenbergs' bail had been set at $100,000 which today is equivalent to one million dollars.

Because of their clients' notoriety, the Rosenbergs' two attorneys, lacking the skills and experience for a death trial, were unable to recruit other practiced lawyers to help them.

Three million letters from around the world poured in, pleading for reduced sentencing for the couple; thousands protested at the White House. 

Albert Einstein and Pope Pius XII pleaded for reduced sentencing for the couple, but not President Eisenhower, not President Truman, not Eleanor Roosevelt, nor the U.S. Supreme Court (with Justice Hugo Black dissenting) would relent. 

And the "civil rights" organization, the ACLU which boasts today about its "attorneys nationwide" who help "handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated" ignored the pleas to come to the aid of Ethel Rosenberg.

This is a sad story of a couple, deeply in love, caught in the wave of the 1950s Red hysteria, the only civilians killed by the U.S. government for espionage-related activity during the Cold War.

It's an important story in the annals of American history which proves judges, juries, and the U.S. Supreme Court are swayed by events of the times. 

Ethel Rosenberg is not dead.  She lives on, proof that the American justice system is not just. 

Thank you, Ms. Sebba.

For the next edition, may I suggest a simple family tree and a two-sentence biographical identification about the major players. 

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

ReplyForward

Book review: 'The Columnist' by Donald A. Ritchie, highly recommended for journalism scholars

Who's the Drew Pearson now? I can think of no one who fits the bill.

Drew Pearson (1897-1969) was a muckraking journalist who helped send four members of the U. S. Congress to prison, had two U.S. senators censured and was not timid when it came to writing and broadcasting scandals, making a few mistakes along the way, but, hey! Who's perfect?

The Columnist: Leaks, Lies, and Libel in Drew Pearson's Washington is a must for journalism students and 20th century American history buffs who need or want another revealing look inside what makes Washington tick.

Mr. Pearson was a man who dug deep, who persisted, who was hated by most of the presidents he covered, including
President Harry S. Truman who threatened to shoot Mr. Pearson because of the columnist's criticism of Truman's daughter and wife. (Pearson predicted a Thomas Dewey win.)

Pearson was unafraid of lawsuits and was sued many times, losing only once.

The infamous Joseph McCarthy, feared by most, bore the wrath of Mr. Pearson's writings and broadcasts.
Pearson stood firm in his denunciation of McCarthy but Pearson had advantages most did not: He had a bully pulpit with his column, radio and TV broadcasts, comparing McCarthy's tactics to Salem's witch-burnings.

At Washington's fancy Sulgrave Club, the demagogic McCarthy physically attacked Pearson at a dinner party until stopped by none other than U.S. Senator Richard M. Nixon.

Some of Pearson's sponsors were intimidated by his attacks on McCarthy and dropped his radio broadcasts. His anti-McCarthy crusade
cost Pearson his friendship with the columnist Walter Winchell whom Pearson labeled a "McCarthy cheerleader."

Upon Pearson's death, Jack Anderson (1922-2005), a Pearson protégé and Pulitzer Prize winner, took over the column and renamed it, "Washington Merry-Go-Round. Although Wikipedia claims it's the longest-running column in American history, the most recent column I could find is dated July 15, 2021.

The book has a striking cover, is well researched, and its 367 pages include 90 of index, an extensive bibliography, and notes. The author, Donald A. Ritchie, is historian emeritus of the U.S. Senate.



patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: 'The Woman Who Stole Vermeer'

 

Rose Dugdale is 80 years old this year and practically an icon in Ireland where she romped and fought the British for years.

Always proud of her participation in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (which often denied links to her criminal acts), she sought to aid revolutionaries who worked to transfer IRA prisoners.

Adopting a new identify to contrast with that of her wealthy background, she used her largesse like a modern-day Robin Hood to benefit those in need, including criminals who were not adverse to violence when they deemed it necessary to achieve their goals, and she joined right in.

Johannes Vermeer, Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, 1670-1671, is one of the paintings Rose Dugdale helped steal. It is featured on the cover of The Woman Who Stole Vermeer by Anthony M. Amore/Wikimedia


Her metamorphosis is the thrust of the book, The Woman Who Stole Vermeer: The True* Story of Rose Dugdale and the Russborough House Art Heist by Anthony M. Amore, an interesting biography, especially for art enthusiasts, crime  readers, and scholars of feminist history.

Her attitudes were shaped by the 1960s antiwar movement raging in the U.S., a trip to Cuba, and the growing feminist revolution. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Oxford University.

Despite her revulsion of and public derision in courtrooms of the wealth and lifestyles of her parents, they never abandoned their daughter, always trying to maintain a relationship, any relationship. Ms. Dugdale took advantage of them, stealing from her own family.

For years she was able to elude police who considered her dangerous and often tried to track her.

She helped drop "bombs" of milk churns on a police station in 1974, the first helicopter bombing attack ever recorded on a police precinct in Ireland. (The bombs failed to detonate.)

In courtrooms, Ms. Dugdale frequently became angry over receiving a lighter sentence than her chums, a reflection, perhaps, of her status.

Her many successful criminal ventures embarrassed the government until she was captured after leaving her driver's license in a stolen getaway car.

She's the only woman to have conducted a major art heist, targeting the Russborough House, reportedly the "longest house" and "one of the finest great houses in Ireland" with one of the finest national private art collections. She knew the place well, better than her comrades who could not identify the priceless works of art, but Ms. Dugdale could. 

The robbers gagged and kidnapped one of the owners who thought he was the target of a homicide. (He wasn't).

Confined for nine years, in prison she gave birth to her only child and, later, after the boy's father, Eddie Gallagher was captured (and sentenced to a longer term), they were married inside the walls, the first recorded marriage of convicts while in prison in Ireland.

For those who follow crime and are continually perplexed by the still missing paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (1990), this is a good read. The author, coincidentally, is director of security for the Gardner.

The National Gallery of Art's retired curator Arthur Wheelock, a Vermeer expert, is quoted several times in the book which lacks an index.

* The publisher's web copy of the cover lacks the word "true" while the copy I have includes it.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: 'The Assassination of Trotsky'

A Diego Rivera mural depicts Trotsky with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "true champions of the workers' struggle." Part of the Rivera mural El hombre en cruce de caminos, 1934, in the Bellas Artes building, Mexico City/Joe Photo, Boston, Wikimedia

Without emotion or attitude, Nicholas Mosley gives a "blow-by-blow" account of the murder of Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), between the time of the first assassination attempt on his life on May 24, 1940, and the last, successful one when he died the day after being stabbed by an ice pick*, August 20, 1940.

Regrettably, Mr. Mosley's documentation is omitted, save for the short bibliography at the end with six titles listed. The best insight into the person is  Trotsky's autobiography and his writings, Mr. Mosley says.

Leon Trotsky House where he was stabbed and where he lived from April, 1939 - August, 1940 Mexico City/Photo by Rod Waddington, Kergunyah, Australia, Wikimedia Commons

Mr. Trotsky left "works of some genius"; he was "a man with a marvelous literary eye and style," Mr. Mosley writes. 

I ran across the book title in the Wall Street Journal's column by Peter Stothard of the "Five Best [Books] on Political Vengeance," and per usual, the best library, the Fairfax County Library, got it for me on interlibrary loan.

The book is short (184 pages) and a fast read, written in 1972 in the "encyclopedic" style when Trotsky's grandson, Seva, was still living in the house. 

The first attempt on Trotsky's life saw about 20 assassins invade his home and shoot up the house (bullet holes, extant). Trotsky, his wife, Natalie Sedova, and Seva, miraculously survived without severe injury (Seva was shot in the foot while hiding under his bed) causing the chief of Mexico's secret police to question whether the attempt was fake and even happened.

Later that summer, bodyguards surrounding the house were lulled by the familiarity of a Trotsky acquaintance, a secret Stalinist, who arrived at the house on August 20 to discuss "a document" with "the old man" but stabbed him instead.

The murderer had several names and backgrounds: Jacques Mornard, Frank Jacson, Ramon Mercader. At the time, Mexico had no death penalty, and he was sentenced to 19.5 years for premeditated murder and six months for illegal possession of arms. 

Later, his parole request was rejected because the killer was considered "socially dangerous," and the courts decided it was hard to grant parole to a person "if no one knew officially who he was." 

Trotsky lived until the next day when he died at a hospital. When it lay in state, an estimated 300,000 filed past his body. 

Lenin had ostensibly "appointed" Trotsky his successor of the Soviet Union. Stalin was "rude" and unpolished, rough like the countryside, his origin.

Chasing Trotsky, his greatest rival, throughout Europe, Stalin delayed Trotsky's execution for years to avoid public fallout. After all, it was good public relations to keep him alive and have a scapegoat; Stalin could blame him for everything: the wheat crop failure, the pig swine fever, railway problems, factory destructions, even "nails in butter"!  

Trotsky knew he was a targeted man.

Trotsky and his wife, Natalia Sedova, arrive in Mexico, January, 1937, with Frida Kahlo behind them/Photo by unknown author, Wikimedia Commons

Eventually, after their itinerant European residencies, Trotsky and his wife found their way to Mexico in 1937 and the home of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the latter who claimed credit for getting them admitted to the country. (After Trotsky's death, Rivera, man of honor that he was, said he was working for Stalin to lure Trotsky to his death site.) 

The Trotskys lived with the artists for about two years until, several stories go, Rivera flirted with Trotsky's wife (and vice-versa) which, combined with political disagreements, ended the happy arrangement.

American supporters helped raise money for Trotsky's last residence which became the scene of the murder.

Leon Trotsky's grave in Coyoacan, Mexico City/Photo, Wikimedia

His ashes and those of his wife, who died in 1962, are entombed at the Coyoacán house, open now as a museum.

The Trotsky home is definitely on my "must see" places whenever I get to Mexico City. 

*It is on view at Washington's International Spy Museum.  The weapon was missing for several decades until it was found under a bed and went on the market.  

Patricialesli@gmail.com

Rating the Trump books

I haven't read the estimated 4,500 Trump books which is the amount the Guardian estimates has been published since he took office in 2017, but I have read a few which I rank for you below.

My choices are based on new information, style, interest, content, documentation, readability.

If you only have time to read one, the best, most interesting, the one which is most captivating, whose author still commands a daily audience (if you follow him on Twitter) is:

1.  Michael Cohen's Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. It's short and fast. In retrospect (I read it last year), I can't believe it's 432 pages for it seems like half that, which gives you an idea of the speed per page.

2.  John Bolton's The Room Where It Happened:  A White House Memoir, filled with lots of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes glimpses of what went on when Mr. Bolton spent 17 months in the Wild House. Lots of unexpected humor by means of the author's snarky comments. 592 pages.

3.  Mary Trump's Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.  She, of course, is his niece and a clinical psychologist.  Very quick. Short and not so sweet. 240 pages.

4.  Bob Woodward's Rage. A little dry in places, but, if you get this far, worth a read. 480 pages.

4.  (A Tie with Woodward's) Peter Strzok's Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump.  I listened to this book by a former FBI assistant director.  Why the author doesn't sue Trump for defamation is beyond me. Perhaps Trump's office at the time protects him who can say whatever he wanted since that's what his content is. 387 pages.

I read about half of Brian Stelter's Hoax:  Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth until I finally realized (dumb me!  Read the sub-title!) it really was about Fox and who cares about Fox? Mr. Stelter is the host of CNN's Reliable Sources which airs every Sunday at 11 a.m. and which I try not to miss. 448 pages.

If you have recommendations and/or comments, please write up!  Thank you.

I be done with Trump and his books (I hope!).

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John Bolton's hilarious 'Room' of their own

You just thought Trump's White House was chaotic. Readers, not only was it chaotic, but John Bolton is here to tell you it was lots more than that!

I may not agree with the author's politics, but I can sure laugh at his anecdotes from his short (17 months) tenure in the Wild House. It's nothing short of rockhouse madness.

Bolton must have carried a secret microphone/recorder inside his breast pocket for his recollections of so many fine details of the day-to-day chaos in Trumpland, described in The Room Where It Happened.

I detected no conceit, no self-applause, no boastings in his memoir. When Trump complimented Bolton's "'troika of tyranny'" speech, Bolton reminded him that one of the president's own speechwriters had written it (p. 249). 

Bolton's snide comments ricochet throughout the book; some of the highlights:

He writes more than once:  "You couldn't make this up" referring to the daily frenzy engulfing the administration (258). 

His background on Venezuela and the Middle East makes all those WAPO editorials easier to understand. 

"God only knew who he [Trump] was talking to or whether he had just gotten a case of the vapors* because things were still uncertain." 

After an attack in the Gulf of Oman, Trump believed "that if you pretended bad things hadn't happened, perhaps no one else would notice" (392).

("I found these weekly trade meetings so chaotic I largely left them for {Charles} Kupperman to attend, which punishment he didn't deserve, but life is hard" (460).)  Kupperman was the deputy national security advisor. 

At the G20 trade summit in Buenos Aires, no one knew "from one minute to the next" what Trump would say. He envied Xi Jinping's lifelong term as Chinese ruler and told Xi, "that people" in the U.S. were clamoring for an end to the president's two-term limit. 

Writes Bolton: "I was aware of no such chatter" (297).

Bolton didn't like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin too much. 

At the G20, Bolton writes Mnuchin spent the day "beavering" with China's #3 man, Liu He (296).  After all, Mnuchin was a "panda hugger"(290).

Munchin got all excited at China's agreement to purchase more soybeans "just as if we were a Third World commodity supplier to the Middle Kingdom" (297).

During the Venezuelan revolution, Mnuchin worried about the banking sector and the risk to credit card companies. Bolton reminded him that the thousands protesting in the streets, "the poorest people" did not have, nor were they "thinking about Visa and Mastercard!" (269). 

Bolton was only too happy to announce to principals that he thought "Treasury was not entitled to its own foreign policy" like Mnuchin desired (273). 

Mnuchin spent so much time in the White House, on presidential trips and in California ("who for some reason was in California again" (258)*) that they "'hardly recognize him in his building,' said [John] Kelly disdainfully" (241).

Mnuchnin, was "basically a Democrat" who maintained "his campaign for doing nothing" (252).

Bolton was not a big fan of Defense Secretary James Mattis either whom he continually portrays as a cry baby. 

If "his view didn't prevail, which was standard operating procedure for him: stress that timing was urgent, which is what Mattis said when it suited him, and predict doom and gloom if he didn't get his way" (176).  "Mattis obstructionism at work" (190) ....Trump never liked him either: "a Democrat." 

Preparing for the meeting with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Bolton worried about the "daily explosions everyone became inured to in the Trump White House."

Bolton says another Trump-Kim Jong Um summit looked "depressingly inescapable" for Trump was hot-to-trot and get a deal done with Kim. It was not to be.

With his good buddy, Shinzo Abe of Japan, Trump lamented the fact that Abe's father was unsuccessful as a World War II kamikaze pilot, forgetting that, had his father achieved his goal, there would have been no good buddy Abe, born after the war. "Mere historical details." says Bolton (345).

Remember the columnist, Charles Krauthammer (1950 - 2018)? Not a Trump fan. He told Bolton he'd been wrong to characterize Trump as an 11-year-old: "'I was off by ten years'" (8).

While leaving the White House after his job interview, Bolton writes he felt like he was in a college dorm, with people going in and out doors. Wasn't there a crisis underway to try and repeal Obamacare? Bolton didn't recognize the place (18).

At the Trumps' first state ceremony with French President Emmanuel and Mrs. Macron: "Sadly for the press, nothing went wrong" (68). 

"Later, the black-tie state dinner was very nice, if you like eating until 10:30" p.m. With the John Kellys, the Boltons skipped the after-dinner entertainment and went home (70).

At Trump's Turnberry* Scottish golf resort, Greenpeace* breached security by flying an "ungainly contraption," akin to a "a bicycle with wings" hauling a flowing banner which said Trump was "below par." The Secret Service hustled Trump and later, Bolton and Kelly, inside before anyone could look at it too long, although Bolton wanted to prolong his viewing.

On a visit to London and Scotland, Trump called the US and UK relationship, "'the highest level of special,'" which Bolton called "a new category."

Trump repeatedly instructed his staff to avoid criticizing Russia too much publicly (179).

In a "discussion" with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump told the Turkish leader that Christians were "going crazy" about Turkey's incarceration of American pastor, Andrew Brunson, and Erdogan responded that Moslems in Turkey were "going crazy" and Trump interrupted him to say "they were going crazy all over the world."  

Writes Bolton: "If possible, the conversation went downhill thereafter" (184-185).

Don't forget Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN. Not only were the Turks unable to understand what she was trying to negotiate, neither could the Trump team (186).

The "Haley Problem" included her belief that the US ambassador to the UN was the Secretary of State. 

From everything Bolton heard "including directly from Trump, she and Tillerson [Rex Tillerson, secretary of state] cordially detested one another (well, maybe not cordially)." She wanted to visit India and visit the Dalai Lama:  "The purpose of this trip was unclear, other than getting a photo op with the Dalai Lama, always good for an aspiring pol" (238).

When Bolton was at the Justice Department, "we called the Southern District [of New York] the 'Sovereign District of New York' because it so often resisted control by 'Main Justice,' let alone the White House" (185-186).   

Discussion about the Korean War and its aftermath involved a continual re-education of the president as Bolton tried to enlighten him about that history.  

Why "were we still there?" Trump complained. "Every few days, someone would inadvertently press a button somewhere, and Trump would be repeating his lines from the same movie soundtrack" (210).

It's easy to understand why Trump did everything he could to stop, to stall, to change the content of this book (491). Like so many tomes, it reveals him to be the Emperor of No Content. 

* Although there are several references to Mnuchin and his trips to California, California is omitted from the otherwise good index, as are other words (vapors, Greenpeace, etc.). 

Coming up: I rate the Trump books!

patricialesli@gmail.com