Author Archives: gordonhastings

07.16.11
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Reckless Endangerment-Excellent Reporting-Pulitzer Worthy

Gretchen Morgenson has again distinguished herself as the finest reporter of financial matters in the  American free press.  The added research of Joshua Rosner raises the new book RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT to an even higher level of excellence and credibility. Recognition of the full title of this work is essential. RECKLESS-ENDANGERMENT, HOW OUTSIZED AMBITION, GREED, AND CORRUPTION LED TO ECONOMIC ARMAGEDDON.

Morgenson’s  and Rosner’s  investigative reporting and writing ( an appropriate description) ) not only tells this nearly unbelievable story but it is a statement about the importance of newspapers and journalists who are committed to upholding the tenants of a free press in a democracy.

The following paragraphs from  RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT  preview the depth to which the book travels to tell the story leading up to the  economic meltdown of 2008 and more disturbingly raises the prospect that at this very moment it may well be happening all over again.

“Just as drug lords know that their products pose hazards to their customers, the Wall Street firms packaging and selling mortgage pools to investors knew well before their customers did that the loans inside the securities had begun to go bad. But with the mortgage mania raging and profits still flowing the investment bankers had no interest in coming clean.”

“The Incident was the first of many times that the heads of organizations accused of improper conduct were not held accountable for the damage they did to shareholders and , later, to taxpayers.”

“Will a debacle like the credit crisis of 2008 ever happen again? Most certainly, because Congress decided against fixing the problem of too-big-to-fail institutions when it had the chance.”

Page by page with incredibly impressive detail , facts and substantiation, Morgenson and Rosner describe  the lead-up to the carnage to the American economy and citizenry, and to the financial crisis that the government is still facing.

There are pages in this book that you simply will not want to believe. However, you will! All of the economic meltdown characters are there with the ironic twist that nearly all of them are still controlling the levers of economic power. The list of key players in the meltdown who are still  on stage  spans pages 305-308!

 

07.09.11
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Tom Clancy Back to Back After Ten Years/ Prescient!

Just caught up with Tom Clancy’s fourteenth novel, Dead or Alive.  Published just last year after a ten-year hiatus Clancy has yet another new book just out, Against All Fears ( 2011) written with Peter Telep. 

Dead of Alive written in conjunction with Clint Blackwood brings back Jack Ryan, Jack Jr. and many of the familiar Clancy players in the search for the “Emir”  a thinly veiled  hunt for Osama Bin Laden. As always, even though it was written  a year before Bin Laden was shot and killed by Navy Seals, Clancy’s novel in great part nailed the scenario including  ” Hiding in plain sight!”  Every Clancy fan will love the book, thick as always, filled with detail and action.

Of course Tom Clancy novels are most enjoyable if you have had the privilege of reading them in sequence, and I have been that fortunate. Starting with Hunt for Red October  and just finishing Dead or Alive I have read them all and now have Against All Fears in the queue. I would find it difficult to choose one favorite so I will name three of the fourteen! The Cardinal of the Kremlin ( 1988), Clear and Present Danger( 1989),  and Without Remorse ( 1991).

If you have not  read Tom Clancy you have missed the master of intrigue who ties his books to reality and world events in an incredibly prescient manner.

Here is the list in order of publication : The Hunt for Red October( 1984), Red Storm Rising(1986), Patriot Games (1987), The Cardinal of the Kremlin(1988), Clear and Present Danger(1989), The Sum of All Fears(1991), Without Remorse(1993), Debt of Honor(1994), Executive Orders( 1996), Rainbow Six( 1998), The Bear and the Dragon( 2000), Red Rabbit( 2001), The Teeth of the Tiger( 2003), Dead or Alive( 2010), Against All Enemies(2011)  Enjoy! Yes, many are frightenly prescient!

07.06.11
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Gordon’s Good Reads In July-August VENU Magazine

Gordon’s Good Reads appears in the July-August issue of VENU Magazine now available at choice cultural and retail establishments in Fairfield and Westchester Counties. This issue of VENU also contains a fabulous review of the Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris among other great articles on art, automobiles, entertainment and fashion. Enjoy!

07.03.11
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Midnight in Paris, Hemingway, Hadley, The Paris Wife

Several months ago on this blog I posted a review of Hadley by Gioia Diliberto. ( Biography blog archives February 11)  Hadley is a wonderful biography of Hemingway’s first wife and their early life together including their move to Paris in 1921.  Woody Allen may well have read the book before writing Midnight in Paris the newly released movie receiving rave reviews, including mine! I saw it this week and it is a wonderful movie, even better having read Hadley first!  The irony is that Hadley Hemingway does not appear in the film but the scenario set by Deliberto in her book makes the movie all the more impactful. All the  characters are there, Ernest , LuTrec, Gertrude Stein, Picasso , T.S. Eliot, et al!  

Another book on Hadley Hemingway which I have not read as yet, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, is also appearing on best seller lists and receiving good reviews.  Hadley Hemingway is receiving much attention from both the new book by McLain and from Midnight in Paris . In the past week it has topped all hits on this blog! Not bad for a book published in 1992!

Personally, I am delighted to have read Hadley before seeing Midnight in Paris because it set the scene  for the movie’s Moveable Feast,  in a sense reincarnated in the Woody Allen film. I am sure that reading The Paris Wife  would work in the same manner.   It is a Hemingway renaissance! Enjoy the new but if you have not already done so, please go back to the originals! There lies the prose including a wonderful lines by Hemingway in the movie that begs you to read or re-read The Sun Also Rises and For Whom The Bell Tolls!

06.29.11
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Her2 by Robert Bazell. Similarities to the Avastin Controversy

A book on the subject of breast cancer does not properly fall under the category of Good Reads and therefore for the purpose of this blog allow me to change the appellation to Important Reads.

The Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy is a national organization based in Connecticut that funds research and clinical trials to find new treatments for all types of cancer through gene and cell therapy. (acgtfoundation.org)  The organization has in excess of $25-million dollars invested in research.  A friend at ACGT brought to my attention an important book, written 15 years ago by NBC’s Chief Scientific Journalist Robert Bazell.  The work is Her2 The Making of Herceptin, A Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer. Her2 is the name of a cancer-causing gene. The book renews its relevance today in light of the current controversy over FDA withdrawal of Avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer.

 Her 2 is the story of the development of the breast cancer treatment drug Herceptin, developed in conjunction with and manufactured by Genentech, the same company that is making news today with Avastin. Like Herceptin, Avastin was taken to human clinical trials and made available to cancer patients after a long and arduous process.  The FDA has withdrawn Avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer, and emotions ran high as the FDA listened to testimony from patients. “I owe my life to Avastin,” said Patricia Howard, age 66, of New York, who has been treated for breast cancer since 2005. “I’m not just a piece of anecdotal evidence. I’m a wife, mother, sister, aunt, friend, and grammy.”  Sadly, you will find dozens of similar quotations in Her2 before Herceptin  was made available to terminally ill breast cancer patients.

If you have a personal connection with breast cancer, I urge you to read Her2, The Making of Herceptin.  Bazell places in laser focus the science, politics, ego’s, emotion,  corporate and government bureaucracy, jealously and the economics of getting a drug from the laboratory to market. It is both a clinical and human story written with extraordinary care. It is a very human story indeed.

When you read Her2, you will recognize in the Herceptin story the same emotions  as being played out with Avastin and you will find it difficult not to share the frustration of those scientists, patients and doctors who are desperately waiting for new cancer fighting drugs to become readily available.

06.20.11
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THE WINGS OF THE DOVE/ HENRY JAMES IS PRODIGIOUS!

Those of you who have paged through Gordon’s Good Reads know that I have a penchant for playing catch-up with great writers who have escaped my time and attention. 

Henry James, the American born  novelist ( 1843-1916) whose most prolific years were spent living and writing in England, is a classic example of a novelist for whom anyone who has a love for the form will find his work a Good Read. In making my “classic” Henry James selection I chose The Wings of the Dove (1902) a book credited by many as among the best novels of the 20th Century.

Henry James writes in a unique style. His sentence and paragraph structure is complex and his character development is intricate. The characters are  the narrators of the story. The Wings of the Dove is typical of many James novels in that it pits American and British traditions and values against one another.  James creates eight central characters that interact in life’s dramas of love, greed, envy and deception.  The book travels from  America to England and Venice.

Henry James has been described as an “Impressionist” in his ability to create characters and then with the minutest attention to personality cast them in relationships and enviornments that are so complex that they sometimes defy a “Now I understand!” moment. One is constantly required to turn yet another page for answers which often lead to more questions.

The reader of Henry James ought to be prepared to  traverse a hundred pages to become accustomed to the rhythm of his prose. However, once you find the tempo the paragraphs become lyrical.  You will come to be accustomed to sentence structure where a half-dozen commas and a few added semi-colons are commonplace! The complexity has a magnetic effect that draws the reader to make every word count. No skimming in reading The Wings of the Dove!

James wrote his greatest works during three periods, the 1880s, 1890s and 1900s.  The first period culminated with The Portrait of a Lady (1881), which remains his most popular work of fiction.  In 1886 James wrote The Bostonians themed around the early feminist movement in America.  Following The Wings of the Dove, James wrote The Ambassadors (1903), and then the famous short story The Turn of the Screw, later adapted for the stage.

I have often said in these pages “The best new book is one you have not read.”  Henry James, The Wings of the Dove is no easy literary undertaking but I found it to be worth every minute.

Like many writers, James has favorite words which reappear throughout his work. In The Wings of the Dove you will come upon “prodigious,” again and again.   It is a fitting description of The Wings of the Dove.  “Impressively great in size, force and extent. Marvelous.”

06.05.11
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THE FINAL STORM-JEFF SHAARA

During this week as we reflect upon the 67th anniversary of D-Day I completed the fourth book in Jeff Shaara’s historical novels on World War Two. 

The Final Storm, which has just been released is the story of the War in the Pacific culminating and with the greatest emphasis on the battle for the island of Okinawa. Okinawa was to be the last stepping stone before an invasion of Japan.  The Japanese land invasion was of course preempted by the decision to drop the Atomic Bomb.

Shaara , as always,  magnificently tells his war epochs by placing the reader in the boots of the soldier, slogging through the life and death drama of war.  It would be impossible to put down The Final Storm without the greatest empathy and understanding of the men who gave everything to defeat the Japanese, not only on Okinawa ,but on all of the Japanese held Pacific Islands.   The book also provides dramatic personalized insight into the decision and the actual dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima.

The earlier books in this Shaara collection concern the North Africa Campaign and an introduction to Eisenhower and Rommel in The Rising Tide,  the European Invasion and D-Day in The Steel Wave, and the great march across Europe including the Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge in No Less Than Victory.

It would be difficult for anyone with an interest in WWII  to overlook these four volumes.  

Shaara’s portrayal  of the reality of war through  the prism of historical fiction is in my view unequaled.  Then again, having read his father Michael Shaara’s   Killer Angels, you know it is in the genes.

If your interest lies with the Civil War you will want to read Jeff Shaara’s  Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure. Also do not overlook his  great novel on the American Revolution,  Rise to Rebellion.

Here is a promise. After reading a Shaara  novel  you will regard all service men and women with awe, respect and gratitude. An important thought during this period encompassing  Memorial Day, D-Day and the Fourth of July.

06.03.11
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CHANGES AT THE NEW YORK TIMES! WHAT WOULD MCGOWAN THINK?

The announcement of Bill Keller stepping down as Executive Editor of the New York Times makes reading McGowan’s Grey Lady Down even more timely!  See my earlier post of May 15.  Keller will be replaced by Jil Abramson.  The news makes reading McGowan’s writing even more compelling.  America needs a strong, vibrant, objective New York Times and time will tell if Abramson is up to the task.  It will also be very interesting to read Keller’s work as an op-ed contributor.

05.24.11
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TABLOID CITY, PETE HAMILL

Long ago I joined the chorus calling Pete Hamill a New York City Treasure. I enthusiastically expand the geography to a National Treasure!  Pete Hamill again  earns those accolades  with  his new novel Tabloid City!  If you have an ounce of New York City in your DNA you will  be captured by Hamill’s intimacy with his beloved turf.

Tabloid City  is set within 24-hours of life in New York. Terrorist plot, a daily afternoon newspaper in its last days, the legendary editor, typewriters, reporters who can not write without a cigarette, society ladies, an embittered disabled veteran, lost love, misplaced affection and a very old man who in his dying days does the right thing!  There is a line in Tabloid City that perfectly describes Hamill.  The copy refers to Sam Briscoe, editor of the The World.   ” You’re such a lucky man, Sam. You didn’t get the world secondhand. You didn’t take a course in it.  You Lived it! ” That is Pete Hamill!  The Wood! ( You will see).

There are three other Pete Hamill books which I relished with wonder. Downtown, My Manhattan. The title says it all!  A moving memoir of Hamill’s days and nights in New York from Times Square to the tip of Manhattan.  Street corners, movie theaters,  the pulse of anger, rebellion, hope, enterprise, greed  and celebration. The writing of a newspaperman. Not a wasted word!

One of Pete’s greatest treasures is PIECEWORK (1996) a compendium of his best writings dating back to 1970. Men and women, small pleasures, lost cities within the city, Gotti, Sinatra, Vietnam, Lebanon, Tyson, Madonna, cigarettes, typewriters, linotype , deadlines and headlines.

Hamill’s novel Snow in August, ( 1997)  is a fabulous read.  A story that could only unfold in New York where people who shouldn’t get along do so and where relationships blossom out of  fear and mis-understanding.  Snow in August is about Catholics and Jews, hope and transformation through the creation of characters in a plot that is entwined in the culture of Hamill’s  town. These are just four of Pete Hamill ” treasures.” Others include North River, Forever, A Drinking Life and Why Sinatra Matters.   Summer is coming. Go for them all!

05.19.11
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THE HELP , NOW THE MOVIE, BUT READ THE BOOK FIRST!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett has been on the New York Times Best Seller List since its publication in 2009! The Help has enjoyed its incredible success despite an unfavorable initial review by the Times Janet Maslin.

This August, Dream Works releases the movie The Help starring Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer and Emma Stone.   Just as I suggested for Water for Elephants,  if you are not one of the millions who have already read the book, do so before seeing the movie !  This may not be an easy screen play. There is no  traditional love story as in Water for Elephants but the book is filled with villains, heroes, secrets, relationships, compassion drama and of course the underlying theme of race relations.  Considerable material  for the big screen.

I read The Help when the ink was barely dry and Stockett told her story with incredible insight!  The Help and their struggles within an imposed social structure are vividly reflected in what in reality is a memoir.  As in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, there is redemption! 

Read the book and then see the movie. We will  have answers in August! I am hoping for a blockbuster!