Taking its name from the iconic 1973 Martin Scorsese film, “Mean Streets: NYC 1970–1985,” this book by Edward Grazda captures the city in all its manic energy. Continue reading Mean Streets: NYC 1970–1985, by Edward Grazda @ NYJB
This week I review Norman Mailer’s selected letters, giving a new perspective on an iconic and controversial author. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Selected Letters of Norman Mailer, edited by J. Michael Lennon
Peter Weissman’s I Think, Therefore Who Am I? took place during the Summer of Love. It was an intimate exploration of the Sixties, the most glorified or vilified decade in recent history, depending on how far one lives from Real America™ (patent pending). His second volume of memoirs, Digging Deeper: a Memoir of the Seventies, chronicles Weissman’s life during a decade not liked by anyone, except perhaps the occasional roaming hipster burnishing his or her sense of ironic superiority. The memoir begins with Weissman crawling from the muck of hallucinogenic incoherence. Weissman’s inability to speak to others provides a dark … Continue reading Digging Deeper: A Memoir of the Seventies, by Peter Weissman
A Second Term and a Third-rate Burglary Now Watergate does not bother me Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth. “Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd (1974) Years of Upheaval, the second volume of memoirs by Henry Kissinger, continues his personal account of public service, spanning the time of Nixon’s re-election to Nixon’s resignation following the Watergate scandal. The memoirs record a short span of time although it encompasses a plethora of geopolitical, domestic, and personal events. In the words of Homer Simpson, this volume has it all, “the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles.” Riding on … Continue reading Years of Upheaval (1981) by Henry Kissinger
Tears of a Courtier Political memoirs are works of self-justification. In the case of Henry Kissinger, he packages these self-justifications in the first volume of his memoirs, White House Years (1979). As a major partner with President Richard Nixon, Kissinger, working as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (more commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor), he followed Nixon’s wishes to direct the nation’s foreign policy from the White House. Kissinger transformed himself from a Harvard academic to a diplomat engineering international relationships (political and military) of world-historical importance. During this period, Nixon and Kissinger could … Continue reading White House Years (1979) by Henry Kissinger
The Driftless Area Review 