Lunch Man: A Remembrance of Gerald Russello
By Jack Fowler There were many, hundreds upon hundreds, of emails that catalogued 15 years of friendship and low-grade skullduggery with Gerald Joseph Russello, a.k.a. Jerry. Or was it “Gerry?” Because in all of those years he never once signed off his missives with...
Joseph Kennedy, American Fascist
The Ambassador: Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James 1938–1940 by Susan Ronald. St. Martin’s Press, 2021. Hardcover, 464 pages, $30. Reviewed by Carl Rollyson In this meticulous, relentless biography, Joseph P. Kennedy is now firmly established in the annals of...
Beyond Black and White
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright. Library of America, 2021. Hardcover, 240 pages, $23. Reviewed by James E. Hartley Richard Wright’s most recently published novel is a cause célèbre. The Man Who Lived Underground, originally written in 1941, was...
A Puzzle-Box Book
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan translated by Yuri Machkasov Amazon Crossing, 2017. Paperback, 732 pages, $15.95. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet “… The House demands a reverent attitude. A sense of mystery. Respect and awe. It can accept you or not, shower you with gifts...
High School Students Encounter “The Conservative Mind”
By David G. Bonagura, Jr. “I think the greatest lesson that The Conservative Mind taught me was that conservatism, in its essence, is very different from other ‘isms’ (liberalism, communism, socialism, etc.) in that it is not an ideology. Rather, it is a way of...
Ah, just your typical 663-page light summer beach read for a @ubookman book review. Makes Wealth of Nations look like a Substack essay.