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	September 2005 :: issue 23
	Books This Month 1. Offshore by William Brittain-Catlin 2. The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived by Amarillo Slim Preston with Greg Dinkin 3. Personal History by Katharine Graham 4. My Friend Leonard by James Frey 5. King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild 6. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy 7. The Europeans by Tina Barney   Feature: (A Book) Designed to Help Book News Credits/About Us The Fortune Issue You're in luck this month, as we cover fortune from several angles. For a taste of success, study up with the greatest gambler who ever lived, crib life lessons from a pioneering media mogul, or walk away with millions in a briefcase in the latest Cormac McCarthy novel. For a brush with the darker sides of fate and finance, take a journey through the virtual corridors of offshore holdings companies, then unearth the horrors of the Belgian colonization of the Congo — or brush up against the down-and-out with a friendly mobster who coaches memoirist James Frey through rehab. And for shameless gawking, don't miss some candid portraits of the European upper crust. Fortune is fickle, so pick a book and don't look back.

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NONFICTION Offshore: The Dark Side of the Global Economy by William Brittain-Catlin Published: July 2005 Pages: 288 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Links: BBC article PBS article Synopsis BBC producer and corporate investigator William Brittain-Catlin is on the trail of the notorious offshore businesses that hold over a third of the world's wealth. Review If you peruse the oversize pages of a travel magazine aimed at the most elite, wealthy readers in the world, you will doubtless encounter an advertisement from at least one Caribbean island recommending its shores for investment. Of course, unless you own a yacht or private jet, ride a limousine to work, or have access to a major corporate reception area, it is unlikely that you will ever see such a magazine, as they are rarely sold on newsstands. And according to William Brittain-Catlin in Offshore, this elusiveness is deliberate. The cherished rule of secrecy is the reason virtually no one knows what goes on in the Cayman Islands, and why there are so few successful investigations of the companies that conduct business there. Despite these formidable obstacles, Brittain-Catlin attempts to translate the murky realm of offshore companies for the layperson — no easy feat considering confidentiality is the watchword here. Against all odds, however, he manages to glean concrete evidence of a shady shell-game of epic proportions from a world that does not value disclosure. He sets out for George Town, the transactional capital of Cayman Island, seeking to get to the bottom of the rumors that of some companies exist only in theory. There, he promptly discovers the truth — they really do exist only in theory. Shadow companies abound on Cayman: numerous subsidiaries of Wal-Mart and Parmalat — known as Europe's Enron — reside in a database, and nowhere else. The more extravagant outfits sometimes spring for a brass plaque outside a nondescript, empty office, but most seem to stick to the comforts of a warm hard drive. The lax laws of these offshore refuges provide prime conditions for a leeching network of corporations seeking maximum profit and zero social liability. Their crimes far exceed tax evasion, but their corruption is often ignored, allowing the criminal element of big business the room to flex its muscles. Most consider the subject of corporate investigation a rather dry, uninteresting matter, but Brittain-Catlin reminds us in no uncertain terms that the corporate wizards of Oz running this elaborate charade behind tropical curtains thank you richly for your apathy. In essence, Offshore is the story you've been meaning to read since you first heard the name "Enron," but were too busy to decode the newsprint. (RB) back to top

MEMOIR Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived by Amarillo Slim Preston with Greg Dinkin Published: 2003 Pages: 270 Publisher: Perennial Links: NPR interview Synopsis A wistful and highly enjoyable memoir from the last of the old-time gambling legends. Review By his own estimate, Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston, the 1972 World Series of Poker Champion, has lost over 30 million dollars playing poker. And how much has he won? Though it's safe to say he's in the black, Slim won't give an exact amount. He never was too friendly with the IRS. But the man who brought Texas Hold 'Em to Las Vegas — and thus to the masses — is more than just poker royalty. Slim started playing professionally in the 1960s almost as an afterthought, only because there was no one left to hustle at the pool table. Word had gotten out that he'd beaten the infamous Minnesota Fats using a broom for a cue, so Slim had to look elsewhere for action. He found it, first on the shady circuit of backroom poker games throughout his native Texas and the Southern states, and then in Vegas, where he and legends like Doyle Brunson became fixtures of the burgeoning high-stakes poker scene. Along the way, he kept his gambling portfolio diverse: he took Willie Nelson for $300,000 in dominoes, beat Evel Knievel in golf using only a carpenter's hammer, and hustled the Taiwanese World table tennis champion at his own game (he insisted on choosing the paddles, empty Coke bottles, which he'd been practicing with for months). Slim once bet a notorious drug dealer $37,500 that he could predict which of five sugar cubes a fly would land on (you can win that bet, too: just lick your finger and tap the cube you're betting on while the other guy's not looking). Amarillo Slim is among the last of the old-timers, and in this age of anonymous online gambling, we won't see the likes of him again. So it's fitting that the book — which he dedicates to his "seven grandbabies" — has a grandfatherly feel to it: an off-the-cuff reminiscence of the good old days, when there was a sucker born every minute, and men like Slim were around to lighten their wallets. (CL) back to top MEMOIR Personal History by Katharine Graham Published: 1997 Pages: 688 Publisher: Vintage Links: Memorial page (Washington Post) WNYC interview Oprah interview Synopsis Born into privilege and surrounded by a who's who of 20th-century American politics, Katherine Graham charts her awakening from D.C. debutante to one of the most powerful women in America. Review When Katharine Graham wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Personal History, she was already an American icon. As the publisher of the Washington Post, she expanded the newspaper into a media conglomerate. During the turbulent '70s, she was a key behind-the-scenes player in the Watergate controversy that catapulted the Post onto the international stage. While later chapters are spiked with the controversy that toppled Nixon, the majority of the book chronicles her life's trajectory, from a shy, awkward silver-spoon childhood to phenomenal success at the helm of a Fortune 500 Company. With the breadth of an ancient historian and the insight of a modern psychologist, her lively, conversational prose chronicles her marriage, career, and eventual Pygmalion transformation. Whether greeting guests with Truman Capote at his famed Black and White Ball (she was the guest of honor), vacationing with President Johnson, chatting with Warren Buffet, or interviewing Egyptian President Nasser, Graham's talent for weaving together quotes, letters, and observations makes this a remarkably lucid window on the charmed world she created. Never exceeding its grasp, Graham's inspiring tale is candid about her husband's unsuccessful battle with depression, her professional inexperience, and her slow conversion to feminism (the journey is in the prose). As the story progresses, you sense that she experienced a lifetime all over again as she wrote, as innocently as she did the first time around — the thrill of discovery is always palpable. In 1969, Women's Wear Daily wrote that Graham seemed content playing second fiddle to all the men in her life. With this book, she proved that after 80 years she was finally comfortable alone in the spotlight. It's a remarkable transformation that unfolds page by page. (HV) back to top

MEMOIR My Friend Leonard by James Frey Published: June 2005 Pages: 368 Publisher: Riverhead Books Links: Author bio CNN interview The Times interview The Independent review Synopsis A recovering addict pieces his life back together in this devastating, yet, at times, surprisingly life-affirming, exploration of love and friendship. Review James Frey shamelessly promoted his debut A Million Little Pieces, an autobiographical account of addiction and rehabilitation. He riled his critics by proclaiming he was "the greatest literary writer of his generation" and "the new Staggering Genius." The first part of his memoir was flawed, but largely lived up to the hype. My Friend Leonard is the superior and extraordinary second installment which concentrates on Frey's relationship with the eponymous father figure — an unusually sensitive mobster he encountered in rehab. The book begins with Frey in prison, counting the hours until he is released and reunited with girlfriend Lilly. But tragedy strikes before he reaches her and Frey has to cope without the crutches of alcohol and drugs. He calls on Leonard for help and his friend is only too happy to provide financial and emotional support. It takes time to get to like Frey as a character, but Leonard is immediately engaging; a huge bear of a man, he's congenial, and generous, with a predisposition to weeping at Gauguin paintings. Mystery surrounds his dealings, but Frey enjoys the monetary fruits of Leonard and sidekick Snapper's labors, until he himself has a brush with the more sinister side of the business. The plot and characters travel across the US, taking in Chicago, LA, Vegas and San Francisco, but the geography seems somehow irrelevant against the backdrop of such acute characterization and punchy prose. His journey back to health and reality is chronicled beautifully and honestly, and retains a positive vibe, despite brutal and harrowing turns along the way. Sometimes entirely devoid of punctuation, the narrative is pacy and compelling, imbued with self-deprecating wit. This is an exceptionally moving work — try staying dry eyed as Frey and Leonard's story unravels. Direct, open, and well written with a wonderful twist — this is how autobiography should be done. (LCD) back to top HISTORY King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild Published: 1998 Pages: 384 Publisher: Mariner Books Links: Mother Jones interview Etude interview Film version Hochschild's other books Synopsis A journalistic account of King Leopold II's colonization of the Congo, which killed ten million Africans, inspired Heart of Darkness, and led to Mobutu Sese Seko's brutal dictatorship. Review When Adam Hochschild realized that King Leopold II's colonization of the Congo — a holocaust that killed ten million Africans — was largely untold and unremembered, he decided to write King Leopold's Ghost. Hochschild is a Berkeley professor, a long-time journalist, and cofounder of Mother Jones, and in his able hands what could have been a morbid read becomes an eye-opening, plotty story filled with intrigue and poignancy. King Leopold II assumed the throne of Belgium in 1865, and if there were ever a monarch whose ambitions did not fit his country, he was it. Hemmed in by an elected government and larger, stronger neighbors, Leopold's dreams of power, wealth, and empire seemed destined to wither away until Henry Morton Stanley emerged (barely alive) from his treks through the Congo in 1877. Courting the macho trailblazer, Leopold was able to get the inside scoop on the vast jungle from virtually the only person who could provide it to the Western world. It wasn't long before Leopold laid claim to an enormous swath of land, halving the Congo's indigenous population in 40 years and making himself rich and powerful. As the wealth stacked, so did the atrocities: children were clubbed to death to save bullets, women were abducted to compel men to work, and entire villages were razed to plant rubber. Despite the horror of Leopold's regime, King Leopold's Ghost is also a story of redemption. Hochschild relates the tale of George Washington Williams, a plucky African-American polymath who began the crusade to liberate the Congo from Leopold's grasp. Although tuberculosis claimed Williams before the Congo was free, the torch was picked up by E.D. Morel, a Liverpool dockworker who could not ignore his conscience once he realized that the firearms he helped ship to the Congo in exchange for ivory and rubber could only mean slave labor. Showcasing Hochschild's keen eye for detail, King Leopold's Ghost does just what a history should do; it relates an episode that we should care about, and tells it in a way that will make us want to know more. (SE) back to top

FICTION No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy Published: July 2005 Pages: 320 Publisher: Knopf Links: Unofficial McCarthy site New Yorker review NPR review Author bio Synopsis With his first book in seven years, the National Book Award-winning author of All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian returns with a gripping, modern-day Western. Review Setting the stage for this West Texas shoot-'em-up, Llewelyn Moss, a welder living in the Desert Aire trailer park, is out antelope hunting near the border when he happens upon several dead bodies, a stash of Mexican heroin, and an unmarked document case containing $2.4 million in cash. He takes the money. Now a marked man, Llewelyn becomes the target of a ferocious manhunt with trackers from both sides of the law. These pursuers include the cold-blooded psychopath Chigurh, suave third party hit man Wells, and the old-timer lawman Sheriff Bell. The story is gripping and fast-paced, and one can''t help but to be spellbound by the ruthless and thrilling world that McCarthy has created. These characters are real enough that the reader roots in turn for both Llewelyn and Chigurh — though each is determined to destroy the other. But while No Country for Old Men features the kind of muscular, bristly prose McCarthy is famous for, the novel lacks the kind of energy and wild ambition that prompted Shelby Foote to declare that the real hero in McCarthy's novels was "the English language — or perhaps I should say the American language." It sometimes seems as though McCarthy is simply reproducing his style here, rather than reinventing it at every turn. And while the characters are generally convincing, the philosophies that McCarthy has endowed them with to explain their deeper psychology — especially Sheriff Bell and Chigurh — often seem half-baked and flimsy. Still, No Country is probably the most accessible of McCarthy's books, and it stands as a worthy introduction to the work of an original and compelling stylist. So immerse yourself in this hardboiled yarn, but just be sure not to stop here — Blood Meridian or one of the Border Trilogy volumes are ultimately more representative of McCarthy's true ability. (LND) back to top

PHOTOGRAPHY The Europeans by Tina Barney Published: August 2005 Pages: 192 Publisher: Barbican Art Gallery and Steidl Publishers Links: The Guardian review Author bio Synopsis An astute observer of the American upper class crosses the pond to discover how the other half lives. Review It's no wonder Americans are obsessed with European aristocracy: we are a republic of arrivistes. Despite the national fixation on upward mobility, even the wealthiest Americans prove that money can't buy taste. Our most recent approximation of a royal wedding involved a failed model from Slovenia and so much gilt it looked as if Fort Knox had been raided. Our best-loved heiress might be named for a European capital, but her forebears were to the frontier born. The photographer Tina Barney made her name by documenting a quieter version of American privilege, but even the oldest of her Mayflower-descended, Social Register-listed, old-money WASPs look positively nouveau riche compared with the subjects of her newest work, The Europeans. Focusing on a world where fortunes aren't made, but simply transferred, Barney's images act as exclusive letters of introduction, offering readers a view onto a rarefied universe of tapestry-covered corridors, museum-like chambers, and facial features so fine they could only result from centuries of carefully brokered inbreeding. While Barney's European photographs play with the mode of classic aristo-portraiture, her aim isn't aggrandizement. Much the opposite, her subjects are placed in normalizing situations, humanely set alone or in family groups. Tellingly, these pictures lack the anxious, agitated movement of Barney's work documenting the American upper crust. The Europeans are remarkably still and carefully arranged, with placid eyes suggesting either the calmness of a persistent way of life, or a complacency leading to obsolescence. Barney directed her subjects, telling them where to stand or sit, but her titles (The Yellow Wall; The Armoire) often call attention away from the people altogether. In a few pictures, Barney diverts us even further. Butlers stand close at hand, ready to heed the call of their masters; a woman in a vineyard has a face so weathered we know she is a lady of the fields, not the house. Such pictures bring in a whole swath of Europeans that Barney's pictures do not capture, but whose labor is present in every inch of the tasteful settings, evidence of the very best money can buy. (SRP) back to top

FEATURE (A Book) Designed to Help   Malevolent weather and natural disasters have wrought so much havoc across the globe recently, with the fury of hurricane Katrina in the Southern coastal states raising the spectre of last year's tsunami in South Asia. But what's a book lover to do about all this misfortune? Early this year, UK designers iLovedust took a stab at answering that question when they created (A Book) Designed to Help. A lavish hardcover filled with new work from marquee designers worldwide, the book lives up to its name, with all proceeds going to non-profit CARE for their tsunami relief efforts. Available for some time now in Europe, Designed to Help is finally being sold in the US. To name names would just ruffle some pretty prissy feathers, so let's just say that this gorgeous tome features simply stunning creations from an unrivaled collection of top-shelf professionals. The opulent collection puts the extravagant impulses of the design community to good use, transforming luxurious layouts into much-needed munificence. "Can a typeface save the world?" asks one of the pages, rather plaintively. The answer might seem all too obvious, but consider this: these do-gooders have already collected almost 100,000 euros for charity. So drop a few dollars for quality design and a worthy cause. Here's to hoping there will be similar efforts for the battered, flooded, and neglected portions of our own South. In the meantime, please give generously to the Red Cross. (TW) back to top BOOK NEWS A few notable bits of recent book news. Trading up (USA Today) Publishers hope to reinvigorate mass-market paperback sales by moving toward a larger, "premium" format. Booker longlist announced (Guardian) Seventeen titles are chosen for the prestigious prize. Quidditch or the Quran (via the Complete Review) Harry Potter titles are the most in-demand books for Guantanamo Bay detainees. New editor on the block (Los Angeles Times) The LA Times has hired literary critic David L. Ulin as the new editor of its supplemental Sunday Book Review. Exact change, please (Washington Post) A French company debuts a streetside vending machine for books. Apparently, Baudelaire is holding his own against couscous cookbooks. back to top

	CREDITS Editors Toby Warner Mark Mangan Paul Laster Jocelyn K. Glei Çemile Kavountzis Jamend Riley Editors-at-Large Larry Weissman Sean McDonald Contributors Russell Brock Lucy C. Davies Larissa N. Dooley Scott Esposito Chris Lamb Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts Hrag Vartanian Production & Design Anjuli Ayer Morgan Croney William "Keats" Pierce Sascha Lewis Cover Image "Father and Sons" (detail) from The Europeans by Tina Barney Courtesy of D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc   ABOUT US Boldtype is a monthly, email-based review of books published by Flavorpill Productions. Our mission is to cover five to seven books each month that are worth reading. No money is accepted from any publishers, writers, reviewers, or marketing or PR companies. FEEDBACK We welcome any and all feedback — comments, criticism, and even effusive praise. To reach the staff at Boldtype, please email us at editor. SUBMISSIONS If you have a book that you would like us to consider for review, please send an email to books or mail a copy here: Boldtype c/o Flavorpill Productions 594 Broadway, Suite 1212 New York, NY 10012 MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS Boldtype offers exclusive monthly media partnerships — an opportunity for like-minded brands to integrate their creative into the mailer. For more information, please email us at media-partner. Our other email magazines: A twice-monthly email magazine highlighting the latest in electronic music — including news, reviews, and original features An email magazine covering a handpicked selection of music, art, and cultural events — delivered each Tuesday afternoon A twice-monthly fashion report providing an insider's view on trends emerging from Paris, London, New York, and around the world A twice-monthly email magazine covering art, design, and architecture with profiles, news, and reviews of inter-national shows
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