Amazon.com
In Dani Shapiro's captivating new novel, a mother struggles to protect her young daughter from the dark secrets of her past. Haunting and insightful, Black & White explores the notions of family and motherhood, inspiration and obligation, and is sure to appeal to fans of Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve. Find out more about Shapiro's artistic practices and influences below. --Daphne Durham
10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Dani Shapiro
Q: What is your writing process like? Has it changed from book to book?
A: As I was doing my usual flailing around before I began to write Black & White, I found that I had some questions in mind that I hoped to explore, if not answer--and those questions very much came out of my preoccupations as a writer and as a mother of a young child: is it possible to be as fully absorbed as one needs to be to produce good, strong art--and be equally fully absorbed in the raising of small children? What happens when that delicate balancing act teeters? And also, as someone who has written quite a bit of personal non-fiction, I wondered: where is the line--or perhaps it's less of a line and more of a murky gray area--when it comes to writing about the personal stuff when there's this little person who's involved, a person who will grow up and read it some day? These ideas began to really preoccupy me, and finally the novel started to form itself around them. When I begin the first draft of a book, I write longhand. I've become quite attached to these particular spiral-bound notebooks that can only be purchased in my in-laws' hometown, and so whenever they come to visit I ask them to bring me a pile. I think most writers indulge in magical thinking when it comes to the process, and many of us require talismans; mine are these notebooks. I used to only write on the computer, but I've found, in the last number of years, that I feel much freer to have no idea where I'm going when I'm writing by hand. There's something very neat--perhaps too neat--about the blank computer screen, and the ease of cutting and pasting, moving whole blocks of text around. For me, it's infinitely more satisfying to scribble and cross things out and make big sweeping arrows and asterisks as I'm working on drafts. It looks messy and complicated--it looks like what it is. On those early pages I feel like I can see a map, or a diagram, of my process.
Q: What author/s have inspired you?
A: In the big, enduring ways, as a literary backbone: Tolstoy, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Philip Roth, Joan Didion, Saul Bellow, Grace Paley. And while I was writing Black & White, Alice Munro's stories in Runaway and Ian McEwan's novel Saturday were immensely important in my grappling with understanding how to create a close third person narrative without losing the periphery.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm trying to start a new novel. Viriginia Woolf wrote this great passage in her diary, after she finished The Waves: "I must hastily provide my mind with something else, or it will again become pecking and wretched." I'm a much nicer person when I'm working on a book. When I begin I have so little to go on--a feeling, a sense, an image or two. It's like coaxing shadows out of the corners.
Book Description
From the author of Family History (“Poised, absorbing . . . a bona fide page turner”—The New York Times Book Review) and the best-selling memoir Slow Motion, a spellbinding novel about art, fame, ambition, and family that explores a provocative question: Is it possible for a mother to be true to herself and true to her children at the same time?
Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter from the ages of three to fourteen. The Clara Series, which graced the walls of museums around the world as well as the pages of New York City tabloids that labeled the work pornographic, cast a long and inescapable shadow over its subject. At eighteen, when Clara might have entered university and begun to shape an identity beyond her sensationalized, unsought role in the New York art world, she fled to the quiet obscurity of small-town Maine, where she married and had a child, a daughter whom she has tried to shield from the central facts of her early life and her damaging role as her mother’s muse.
Fourteen years later, Ruth Dunne is dying, and Clara is summoned to her bedside. Despite her anguish and ambivalence about confronting a family life she has repressed and denied for more than a decade, Clara returns. She finds Ruth surrounded, even in her illness, by worshipful interns, protective assistants, and her conniving art dealer.
Once again, she is Clara Dunne, the object of curiosity, the girl in the photos. Except this time she has her own daughter to think about—a girl who at nine looks strikingly like the girl in Ruth’s photos—and she yearns to protect her, to insulate her from the exposure that will inevitably result when her two worlds, New York and Maine, collide.
As Clara charts a path connecting her childhood with her adult life, Shapiro’s novel weaves together past and present in images as stark and intense as the photographs that tore the Dunnes apart. A brilliant examination of motherhood—a novel that pits artistic inspiration against maternal obligation and asks whether the two can ever be fully reconciled—Black & White explores the limits and duties of family loyalties, and even of love. Gripping, haunting, psychologically complex, this is Shapiro at her captivating best.
Customer Reviews:
Very similar to another book...........2007-09-11
First things first, I have not read this book.
I was at the library today and picked it up. While reading the inside cover, I was overcome with a "haven't-I-read-this-before type feeling." The premise of the book is alarmingly similar to Miranda Beverly-Whitmore's "The Effects of Light"...down to the famous photographer's first name. Too many similarities for my liking.
Characters Hard to Believe.......2007-08-19
The main character is not developed enough to generate any real sympathy for her. The plot is superficial; there is no great depth or substance to it.
Relationships are Never Black and White.......2007-07-15
I loved this book. Other reviewers have sufficiently explained the story line, so I will stick with what more of a thematic review. The overarching principle of the book is that there is no such thing as simple black and white (right/wrong, love/hate) in relationships. Life is nuanced, as are our decisions and motivations. It would be simple to write off Ruth as a horrible selfish mother who didn't love her daughter, but SHapiro avoided the easy, cliche characterizations and offered us a family that had love despite the tensions that tore them apart.
Shapiro wrote vivid, accessible characters -- they are not simply good or bad either. For instance, Peony (Ruth's assistant) drove me crazy but I could also understand that she acted out of loyalty to Ruth. Clara's hurt and anger towards her mother was understandable, but there were still times when I wanted her to just get OVER herself. Every character, with perhaps the exception of Clara's father, had a carefully balanced character. (as a side note, Clara's husband and father are perhaps the most idealized characters. This is very much a book about mothers, daughters and sisters, more so than about the men who love them.)
The one weakness I found in the book was that the dates are not accurate. Clara is in 4th grade in 1982 (two years after John Lennon was killed) but then is in September of 7th grade when the iconic Vogue cover featuring the Lacroix jacket and faded jeans comes out. THat issue was actually Anna Wintour's first issue as EIC and came out in November 1988 -- Clara would have been in 11th grade in 1988.
Emotions Run High in this Family Drama.......2007-07-06
I thought "Black & White" was a very excellent book. The characters were well developed and Shapiro's descriptions of the various scenes, especially the photo shoots, were exceptional. I could easily imagine the characters and the scenes in my mind. There are many reviews on this book so I won't clutter up the page with more detail except to reveal that the story focuses on the relationship between the mother, Ruth Dunne, a noted photographer and her daughter Clara. And then there is the conflict between Clara and her sister, Robin. Clara runs away from home vowing never to return; starts a new life, gets married and becomes a mother, herself. Later in the novel the mother becomes very ill and Alone, Clara makes the difficult trip to New York to see Ruth. There is an attempt for reconciliation and forgiveness and toward the end of the book emotions run high in this family. I found this part very intense. Overall I enjoyed the novel very much and I thought Dani Shapiro created an excellent story.
Another great Women's Fiction novel I believe you would enjoy is Gathering of Cans by Robert L. Saunders. Don't Miss this One! The story is unbelievable (all 530 pgs) when you consider it revolves around 47 year old Zoie Baker gathering aluminum cans to raise money for a swimming pool. The author is an excellent storyteller, and worthy of your attention.
Great story potential, not fully achieved.......2007-06-25
Great storyline, but I expected more from the writing/writer (maybe that is the problem with being a big fan of one of the writer's previous books,Family History: A Novel, also a novel about mother/daughter relationship). I gave it three stars because of the great characterization of Ruth Dunne and for the story line. Couldn't give more because I couldn't stand the number of question marks in each page: everything Clara thinks/does is preceded by a question the character puts to herself (you could just remove all these questions and still have the same feeling about the doubts/questions in Clara's mind).
Amazon.com
Order this book ... and please don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all.
Book Description
This is a book that will "make you proud to be a member of the human race," says Mirabella, and countless readers have already discovered its power. Written in remembrance of his Polish-born, Southern-raised Jewish mother-who married a black man and raised twelve children, all of whom completed college-The Color of Water is a classic of the memoir genre, a testament to love, and a truly American story.
Customer Reviews:
If you like stereotypes..........2007-09-27
If you like reinforcing stereotypes, then James McBride's book is for you. Jews have big noses, they only care about money, and of course, his converted mother only finds love through Jesus. But let's move past that. A great mother? Perhaps her children would not have had to eat sugar as a meal or wake up at 3 am (when she came home from work with free food from her employer) to eat-- else they went hungry if she had the number of children that she and her could support. Perhaps living in a house where the dog's feces is kicked under the radiator is not an indication of a strong mother. How about when she pays one fare for the subway and puts herself and the twelve children through on that one fare. These are not virtues. The writing was weak; the message was weaker.
A Jewish Mother.......2007-09-24
Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise And Triumph of the One-drop Rule
A better title for this book would be: A Dark Mulatto's Tribute to His Jewish Mother. The word "black" denies the European Jewish ancestry of the author and his siblings and the word "white" denies his mother's ethnic heritage. Mrs. McBride's Jewish ethnic values were far more important to her children's success than being "white."
Parenthood Pride -- A Mother Must Whimper.......2007-08-13
"Times were different then." Something espoused by the author's mother -- a Polish Jew who grew up in the Jim Crow south before World War II, and then raced away from her self-described purgatory to New York -- where she embraced mixed union, poverty and Jesus Christ.
How people of mixed races could live without constant clamour and request for surrender is not known to the 21st century people -- I grew up with bussing and other issues, but never saw a segregated movie theater, water fountain, or seating area. We really don't know how far we have come. And, we don't know how hard the struggle of others has been.
And, to help us understand that path, we have James McBride's autobiography/biography -- in pica print is his tale and in italic (every other chapter) is his mother's biography written by her son or her autobiography as transcribed from her taped sittings with her son.
Some things which she lived with will astound you -- I refer not to the biracial issues, but to the classic violations of Judeo-Christian ethics by the author's grandfather. As a rabbi and devout conservative Jew, the author's grandfather, we learn, abused his spouse emotionally (if not physically), abused his daughter sexually, and abused the black man in the south for personal financial gain. Interestingly, all had the same achilles heel -- each was a weakened victim. The wife a victim of polio and contract marriage, the daughter a victim of youth, and the black people victims of unadulterated 1930's racism.
Emerging from this broiling escapade by the father came the flight of a young woman to New York (the author's mother) who raised 12 bi-racial children whose faces and hair told most strangers they were anything other than children of a conservative Jew who emigrated from Poland.
In the even-numbered paragraphs (those autobiographical passages of the author), I had laugh-out-loud episodes when he recited events of his naive youth when he asked questions about his race, about his mother's race and more. Like Frank McCourt, he delivers the lines in such accurate manner that you feel as though you are sitting back and watching kids in action doing their thing which we, as adults, can not well remember nor well imitate.
This was solid fun reading based upon an extremely unique factual content.
Very disappointing..........2007-07-18
I was very disappointed with this book, especially given so many positive reviews. Though I certainly admired McBride and his siblings' ability to achieve so much given so little, I was appalled and even morally offended by the sheer stupidity and negligence of his mother as she is described (apparently in her own words) throughout the book.
I think we the readers are so overwhelmed with empathy and admiration for 12 children rising out of poverty despite obstacles of racism, poor education, no support from extended family, etc., that we forget to ask the obvious question: why would any person raise 12 children in poverty in the first place?? How is this a good decision? A mother has no job and no discernable skills, and is married to what seems like a great man - wouldn't she think after the 4th kid that "maybe I should make sure I can provide for my first 4 children before I have a 5th..or a 12th?"! To me, this is morally reprehensible! And if that's not enough, the book is littered with negligent decision making while raising her 12 kids. For example, when she drives a car without a license, she seriously risks jail time (and bankrupcy/legal problems if she hits something/someone). What would happen to her kids then? I guarantee if this same woman with no license and 12 children ran into your car, you'd be thinking much different thoughts, the nicest being "what a complete moron"! She obviously must have been a good, strong, moral woman, but she was also lucky. For every 12 child family success story, there are probably 100 other abject failures.
If I went into the woods with no water and no food and no sense of direction, and I made it out alive after 10 days of on-the-verge-of-death adventure, you might be inspired by the luck/perseverence/moral fortitude...or you might just think "why did that moron go into the woods with no water, food, or sense of direction"? That's the way I felt about this book.
A Unique Perspective.......2007-07-14
I loved this man's view of his mother and her passions and struggles. He saw her imperfections but chose to focus elsewhere. In a world where so many are looking to blame others for their stations or place in this world, this son took the good that his mother offered and channeled it. I have always believed that one can either focus on the empty cup and rationalize why the cup cannot be filled, or go into the world and seek the fullness lacking. I love that God is the color of water since that is what I have always believed. My God is so colorless and my love of mankind is also based on a true belief that we're to focus outside ourselves and the world will be a better place. Naive one might say?? I say that it is only the truly brave that reach and expect the world to be a better place.
Book Description
In 1966, everyone who was anyone wanted an invitation to Truman Capote's "Black and White Dance" in New York, and guests included Frank Sinatra, Norman Mailer, C. Z. Guest, Kennedys, Rockefellers, and more. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings of the guests, this portrait of revelry at the height of the swirling, swinging sixties is a must for anyone interested in American popular culture and the lifestyles of the rich, famous, and talented.
Customer Reviews:
great gossipy goodness.......2007-08-18
a great, fun read. a nice look into truman capote's life, the social scene of nyc in the 60s and this fabulous par-tay!
Peering at the peerless.......2007-08-11
If you're fascinated by the 1960s, you'll love Davis's take of Truman Capote's legendary black and white ball held in the Grand Ballroom at the Plaza Hotel in November 1966. Davis has a gift for not patronizing her readers. To those readers who were living, thinking, socially conscious adults in the 60s and can personally recall Capote's self-aggrandizing antics, she retells the familiar story in a unique and lively manner. For those readers coming to this story very much after-the-fact, she succinctly provides all the necessary background information without overloading the story with unnecessary details. What I enjoyed most was Davis's ability to convey the tone and mood of the era she's describing. Nineteen sixty-six, in retrospect, seems to have been a pivotal year. Positioned as it was at the virtual midpoint between the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, it is neither a time of great optimism (American jingoism) nor a time of open rebellion. But clearly, the old order is beginning to fray at the seams. The anxiety people felt over not being invited to what promised to be "the party of the century" is hard to fathom today and is almost touching in its pathos. And to read over the list of "the invited" (which Davis provides as an appendix) is in a strange way somewhat comforting. Whatever their faults, these people (with the possible exception of Lee Radziwill) were at least famous because of their accomplishments or social status. But clearly the era of celebrities who would be "famous solely for being famous" was not far off, and Davis does a good job of suggesting its immanence. One can't help wondering if Capote's party didn't in some way help to bring it about. The last two chapters ("Hangover" and "Afterword") close the story with sobering accounts of Capote's artistic decline and of what eventually happened to some of Capote's famous guests. As social history or memento mori, THE PARTY OF THE CENTURY is a thoroughly satisfying read.
wrong info....about Mrs. Gloria Guinness.......2007-05-22
Ms.Davis yes,give us suppostly a good title,but inmediatly when I read the first 4 chapters...ohhh big dissapointment...no big research,about
the "ball of the siècle"...either her "swans"..for example..Mrs.Gloria
Guinness was born in Guadalajara,capital of the Jalisco,the richest and
more snobish place in all Mexico,for more detail in a patio downtown house
between the El Carmen and El Pilar churches in that city...then,one of
the most elegants areas in all Guadalajara.
In honor to the truth there is a big difference between born and grew in
Guadalajara(considerated in Mexico as Boston or Philadelphia are in USA)..¡¡to born and grew up in a ugly cargo ships port as Veracruz¡¡
Her`s mother was a very well know Hat designer...witch its not the same a "seamstress"...the family Rubio-Alatorre still living in Guadalajara
and are very well know people on the very close circle of the old
names of the higth society in the capital of the State of Jalisco,mostly
of those families trace his lineage to the XVI century...¡¡and the most
"news" on the beginning of the XVIII siècle¡¡
The world famous classical look of Mrs.Guinness,was and still very usual in Guadalajara:a twin set cardigan...black little dress and pearls...always pearls...in a city famous for the extraordinary beauty
and charm and natural elegance of the womans,the elegance of Mrs.Guinness was normal...another example was the recently death Countess de Teba y Baños(neè Elena Verea y Corcuera)another extraordinary women born and raised in Guadalajara,who` was married in Paris and living in Madrid and Guadalajara(her mother was painted for Lazslo in Paris)...she was very close friend and muse of
Cristobal Balenciaga,the king of the Haute Couture in Paris for many
years...Thats for sure Ms.Deborah Davis,author of this book maybe needs more exactly information about the "swans" of Mr. Capote..¡¡ not only go to the Wikipedia..¡¡
best regards
Fernando Partida Rocha
Great Read.......2007-02-19
If you're a Truman Capote fan, I thoroughly recommend this book. I enjoyed my encounter with Truman and his ascendence into society. An easy read,and fascinating to read about his never to be repeated, Black and White Ball.
Fun and interesting, not stuffy!.......2007-02-12
Great Book! Great semi-biography on Capote, really looks at the society side of his life, which in my opinion is pretty interesting. It's a good reminder of the way society used to be and the granduer that can't be recaptured again. It's pretty light and easy to pick up and put down. Would be an excellent beach read or vacation read, without the feeling of a trashy novel.
Book Description
It's smart. It's stylish. It's fun! And with its unique design, The New York Times Little Black (and White) Book of Crosswords is bound to be the "must-have" collection for any crossword fan. Edited by crossword great Will Shortz, this beautiful book offers 200 easy-to-hard puzzles in a convenient portable size, perfect for carrying in your purse, briefcase, or backpack. Features:
* 200 of The New York Times' best puzzles, arranged according to difficulty
* Sleek design with a covered spiral binding makes it easy to solve puzzles
* Durable hardcover protects the book as it travels with you wherever you go
* The perfect crossword gift for any holiday
* Edited by Will Shortz.
Customer Reviews:
Travel-sized NYT crosswords.......2007-09-27
This travel-sized collection features 200 New York Times daily crossword puzzles originally printed in 2003. The puzzles are clustered from Monday to Saturday in increasing order of difficulty as shown by from one to six top hats on the page. There are 50 puzzles from each of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. There are 30 Thursdays and 10 each of Friday and Saturday.
Clues appear on the left side and 4" x 4" puzzle grids appear on the right side. Answers are provided on the last 50 pages. The book is spiral bound with sturdy cardboard front and back covers. Unfortunately the puzzles herein overlap with about 75% of the 2007 page-a-day calendar content instead of mixing puzzles from several years.
The predominance of easier early week puzzles make this a great gift for a casual or new crossword fan. This will be a fixture in my suitcase for some time and I hope that St. Martin's Griffin will print a second 'Little Black (and White)' collection.
Worth it for the fan.......2007-05-08
This is a quality, well-crafted book. It's too heavy to keep in your bag, but great for your desk. The range of difficulties is great if some days you want a challenge but other days you just want to feel smart. My only complaint is that the paper is such high quality-- thick and glossy-- that it doesn't take ink or pencil the way it could. Overall that really isn't a big deal, and the number and variety of puzzles is great for the price!
Great puzzle selection, great format.......2007-03-01
This is a great choice for those (like me) who are new to the Times crosswords. There are puzzles of every level, Monday-Saturday, and unlike some other Times puzzle books they are organized and labeled by difficulty so you know where you are in the week.
The smaller size is very comfortable, with the puzzle itself always on a right-hand page and clues on the left. That might make it a little tricky for left-handers to get around the spiral binding, but for the rest of us it's very comfortable. I really like the paper quality on this one, too. It's a heavier weight, slightly glossy, true white paper that feels nice to write on.
All said, it's a great way to get started on Times crosswords!
Love the Crosswords, Hate the Paper.......2007-02-28
Ever since watching the fun documentary "Word Play", I've been a huge crossword puzzle devotee. I've purchased several NYT crossword puzzle books and hungrily completed them, enjoying the word play and the perplexing clues. I was so thrilled to discover the new edition "Little Black and White Book". While there are many things that I really like about this edition, it does have some drawbacks.
First, the format of this book is quite nice. It's smaller than most books, which makes carrying around in your coak pocket very doable. The puzzles are organized in order of difficulty, so if you feel like an easier puzzle or a harder puzzle, it's at your fingertips.
What I don't like is the paper that the puzzles are printed on. Now, I'm an ink solver, but I use an erasable pen. Using one of those pens on this shiny paper creates such a huge mess. The ink doesn't erase well at all, but it smears all over the page. The previous reviewer mentions solving these with pencils, so maybe that's the answer.
Overall, any crossword edition by Will Shortz is a winner in my book. I just wished the paper was of a different quality.
Best Little Crossword Book Ever.......2007-01-02
When I got this book for Christmas, I was not only amazed, but stunned. The quality is unsurpassed. The paper quality is such, that if you do the 200 puzzles in pencil (yes I know, a sin to "real" crossword solvers"), you will be able to erase all traces of answers, and do them over and over again.
The hardcover and spiral binding is top quality. I know I will never have problems taking this book with me. It is just the right size for my "bag of holding", I mean purse, or would fit nicely in a briefcase for lunch time sovling at work.
The 200 puzzles are neatly arranged from One to Six Top Hats, based on the Mon - Sat New York Times difficulty. There are enough of each type that I can lope through them easily or if I want a harder challenge I can have that as well.
I can't reccomend this book enough! Thank you Will Shortz for putting together such an amazing book!
Book Description
Foreword by Adam Gopnik. Levitt's new collection of personally-selected images, Here and There, a charming monograph featuring over ninety never-before-published photographs, including portraits of her friends James Agee and Walker Evans. The recently discovered photographs featured in Here And There represent Levitt's own favorite images selected from her immense private collection. Shot over seven decades, Here And There reveals Levitt's acute sense of how cosmetically street life has changed - and how substantially it has remained the same. The sheer determination of this inimitable photographer to walk the streets of her beloved city for this length of time and take pictures of what she sees reaffirms her unofficial status as New York City's visual poet laureate.
Customer Reviews:
New York's Best Photographer.......2004-03-27
New York's Photographer
Helen Levitt, born in Brooklyn in 1913, took up photography when she found she couldn't draw. For seventy years. she took her cameras down the New York streets where tourists seldom wander. She photographed janitors, children, pushcarts, subway riders, and dogs.
Crosstown (Powerhouse Books, 192 pages, $75), a collection of many of her best pictures, became an instant classic when it was published in 2001. Now her publisher has followed up with the less imposing, less expensive, but equally remarkable Here and There (Powerhouse Books,120 pages, $40). It's a selection of 120 black-and-white photographs, also taken mostly in New York City. The book is graced with an especially perceptive foreword by New Yorker critic Adam Gopnik.
Yorkville. Spanish Harlem. The Lower East Side. Levitt's people abide in a landscape without foliage: a desert of sidewalks, store fronts, and empty lots. Their lives slide by unnoticed, unpraised. Yet their faces are maps of emotional nuance. There's half a boy and half a man under that fedora. You would not want to mess with that moving man in the middle of the trio. Note the nearly penitent posture on that big guy in his undershirt getting the word from that tiny little dog.
There is not a single picture here that has much of real interest "going on." Yet everything's going on, all around, all the time, here and there. Levitt possesses that rarest of gifts, an original temperament. The artist who look these pictures knows the world will always be full of dead cats and kids bawling their eyes out. She also knows how gratifying its daily illuminations can be.
Levitt requires neither celebrity nor flamboyance (much less decadence) to give us portraits as emotionally complex as drawings by Durer or Rembrandt. In this sense, she is the quiet opposite of every superstar New York photographer from Avedon to Warhol.
And as anyone who has lived there knows, these are authentic New Yorkers. They may be invisible to the crowds uptown, but what pride there is in that profile, what resignation sulks in those eyes, what mischief electrifies that grin.
It's as though each of Levitt's pictures had its own wire that plugged directly into a tiny but precise aspect of the human condition. Her skill with her Leica is such that we are made to stand in her sensible shoes, to see through her comprehending eyes. And so we are transported to a spot in the sidewalk across from a building that was torn down forty years ago. And it's more real than anything in Vanity Fair.
Levitt's pictures send a message to serious photographers. "You don't have to get outside your own life," they assure us. "All the material you can handle is right down the street."
CAMERA ARTS magazine
Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Shackling Water comes the first great race novel of the twenty-first century, an incendiary and ruthlessly funny satire about violence, pop culture, and American identity.
Macon Detornay is a suburban white boy possessed and politicized by black culture, and filled with rage toward white America. After moving to New York City for college, Macon begins robbing white passengers in his taxicab, setting off a manhunt for the black man presumed to be committing the crimes. When his true identity is revealed, Macon finds himself to be a celebrity and makes use of the spotlight to hold forth on the evils and invisibility of whiteness. Soon he launches the Race Traitor Project, a stress-addled collective that attracts guilty liberals, wannabe gangstas, and bandwagon riders from all over the country to participate in a Day of Apology—a day set aside for white people to make amends for four hundred years of oppression. The Day of Apology pushes New York City over the edge into an epic riot, forcing Macon to confront the depth of his own commitment to the struggle.
Peopled with all manner of race pimps and players, Angry Black White Boy is a stunning breakout book from a critically acclaimed young writer and should be required reading for anyone who wants to get under the skin of the complexities of identity in America.
Customer Reviews:
An Idiot's Tale, Signifying Nothing.......2007-04-16
There is a contradiction inherent in this novel. On the one hand, it clearly espouses the anti-intellectualism of hip-hop (witness the hero's belief that he, and other hip-hop bards like him, will eventually surpass Shakespeare's still-intact record for new usages in English). On the other hand, Adam Mansbach wants to be taken seriously as a prose stylist -- witness the inflated, baroque language in service of mundane action(from p. 311: "The backs of the rest-stop buildings wizened, shrunk, and joined the past . . ."). For every attempt at the high style, there are counterweights like this, from p. 72: "Fly women speckled the crowd, and he found a spot along the back wall, posted up and smoldered his eyes at them, hoping in vain to catch some rhythm in return."
This brings us to another contradiction, this one in Mansbach's writing itself. Although he wants to be taken seriously as a stylist, there are many, many misuses of the language in the short space of "Angry Black White Boy." For instance, the line just cited at page 72 assumes that "smolder" is a transitive verb (that is, one capable of taking an object). I have checked the dictionary -- it is not. Mansbach, here, has mistakenly given "smolder" an object -- "his eyes."
Another error is the misuse of the word "transverse" as a verb (I regret I have no page number for this, but I can assure you it's in there). While "transverse," according to my research, may function as a noun or an adjective, it is not properly used as a verb.
A further error -- "he hit the breaks" (p. 277), in reference to a vehicle's brakes. I realize, of course, anyone can make a typo, but this is a piece of literary fiction published by a division of Random House. This is the age of grammar check, spell check, and completely computerized type-setting -- it is now possible to publish books free of that sort of error.
There are some who will object to the fault-finding tone of this review, to the seemingly picayune nature of the objections. But let us be clear; this is a book by an author who believes he's competing in the same league with Shakespeare. Mansbach himself has dictated the rules of the game he wants to play; it is one for all of the marbles. The self-congratulatory tone, the bombast, the tumescent language pushing a muddle-headed notion of social justice (no matter how praiseworthy) all demand this sort of cutting down to size, not to say the red pen.
Sadly, if Mansbach really wishes to follow his desire (that is, the one I assume on his behalf, that of being recognized as a stylist) he is hopelessly without the talent for achieving that end. He has none of the requisite linguistic wherewithal, and more importantly, none of the artistic discipline necessary to keep naked declarations of theme in check.
He may instead wish to pursue a career in politics, where bombast, and brute force, have their places.
Have we won the war on racism?.......2006-08-29
Nah, kinda hard when few are fightin. This book will make you look at the world a little differently as it reveals to you the constant ignorance surrounding us. A perfect blend of insight on the hip hop culture and a page turning novel.
Race relations needed this.......2006-03-21
I'm a teacher working in a predominantly urban environment, and in Macon I see so many of the kids in my school. I've recommended this book to every colleague who will stop long enough to hear me rave about it. Mansbach's words and characters (none of whom are given short shrift) got so deeply into my head that as the conclusion hit me, I was overcome and wept. I was truly disturbed by this book, because it is just beyond the realm of possibility, but dwells far enough within the boundaries of our imaginations that we should be wondering if such a thing could happen.
Some people think the ending ruins the book, but with a book like this your eyes are held straight through, and if you can buy the rest of the story, the ending is a strangely logical conclusion. People will call it explosive, controversial, and whatever else they call books they don't quite understand. The fact is that Mansbach is right on so many levels. Who owns a culture? Who can ingratiate themselves into a race? If someone tries, are they deserving of punishment for trying? The levels of hatred, misunderstanding, and bemused tragic observation are so prevalent here. I'm in awe of this book, and I don't say that lightly. Please read it.
an instant classic.......2006-03-18
This novel is incredible. The range and complexity of Angry Black White Boy emotionally, socially, politically and stylistically is damn near unmatched, and it's funny as hell. I force my friends to buy this book.
Great Start, Disappointment Overall.......2006-01-07
What a disappointment. I truly enjoyed the first two thirds of this book, but the story dropped off so steeply at the end, that the whole book was spoiled in retrospect.
It was a great concept, and Mansbach deserves praise for creating believable and three-dimensional characters. But as soon as the story moves beyond New York City, grotesque stereotypes emerge.
Macon Detourney was a great character. His imagination is wild, and he tends to interpret the goings-on around him through the lens of TV and popular culture. Unfortunately, the same can be said of Mansbach's relationship to the America outside of New York City. He has seen imagery on TV, but doesn't have the same sense for real and imaginary.
The hip hop writing is great.
Book Description
-- Amy Gilman Srebnick, American Historical Review
Interzones is an innovative account of how the color line was drawn--and how it was crossed--in twentieth-century American cities. Kevin Mumford chronicles the role of vice districts in New York and Chicago as crucibles for the shaping of racial categories and racial inequalities.
Focusing on Chicago's South Side and Levee districts, and Greenwich Village and Harlem in New York at the height of the Progressive era, Mumford traces the connections between the Great Migration, the commercialization of leisure, and the politics of reform and urban renewal. Interzones is the first book to examine in depth the combined effects on American culture of two major transformations: the migration north of southern blacks and the emergence of a new public consumer culture.
Mumford writes an important chapter in Progressive-era history from the perspectives of its most marginalized and dispossessed citizens. Recreating the mixed-race underworlds of brothels and dance halls, and charting the history of a black-white sexual subculture, Mumford shows how fluid race relations were in these "interzones." From Jack Johnson and the "white slavery" scare of the 1910's to the growth of a vital gay subculture and the phenomenon of white slumming, he explores in provocative detail the connections between political reforms and public culture, racial prejudice and sexual taboo, the hardening of the color line and the geography of modern inner cities.
The complicated links between race and sex, and reform and reaction, are vividly displayed in Mumford's look at a singular moment in the settling of American culture and society.
Customer Reviews:
1920s: Miscegenation as Vice???.......2005-10-17
Nowadays, most of us would assume some (and I stress, some) people may turn up their noses to interracial couplings or encourage their children not to partake of it, Little would most of us realize that the government and various police departments were actively engaged in keeping people of different races from getting sexually or romantically involved with each other. Well, just like now, the couple that reaps the greatest wrath is that of a black man and a white woman. Here, Dr. Mumford shows that in the 1920s, demarcated areas of large cities became places where the races mixed surreptitiously, just as others would drink alcohol during Prohibition or engage in any other stigmatized practice.
I enjoyed hearing of my hometown of Chicago in the same breath as New York City. Usually, academics focus on the latter and forget the former. This book was a breath of fresh air which reminded me that there was a long period when Chi-Town was the Second City. Dr. Mumford states that other cities, such as Cleveland and Detroit, had interzones. Graduate students in those localities may want to use this book to write their own specific research in this area.
Even though this book covers sexual activities, it is far from sexy and that will disappoint many. This text does not give juicy accounts of people from 100 years ago talking about their own interracial sex lives. Instead, it is filled with quotes from police investigators discussing this activity. If you got a kick out of seeing the film "Mandingo" or reading about Malcolm Little's exploits "across the color line," you will find nothing that titillating here.
Dr. Mumford asserts that anti-vice advocates suppressed white prostitution and thus prostitution became a whiteman-blackwoman activity. This is not surprising since this sexual coupling was common before the Emancipation Proclamation. However, there are many racist people that would not hold company with blacks. Dr. Mumford suggests that white clients were more than happy to contract black prostitutes, but I imagine that in the pre-Civil Rights era, many clients would have said, "If I can't get a white woman, then I don't want anybody at all." Dr. Mumford mentions that the Cotton Club had black entertainers and white audiences, but refused to allow black audiences inside. I wonder if the same dynamic happened in these interzones. Did white men go to brothels in black neighborhoods, but still in pursuit of white sex workers?
Dr. Mumford actually discuss venues where Asian men danced with white women before talking of black-white couplings. Thus, he breaks the black-white binary that many Latino and Asian academics lament. However, he never mentions whether these brideless Asian men could have or tried to connect with African-American women. Other academics have noted that in California Asian Indian men married Mexicanas when their were no Asian women around to marry. Did the same thing happen in Chicago and NYC? Why does the author ignore the potential dynamic between groups of color?
Dr. Mumford states that he is biracial and wants this book to be a source of strength for other biracial persons in America. While an admirable goal, I highly doubt this book would make biracial readers happy because it says nothing about happy mixed couples raising children with positive identities in a supportive community. This book was all about authorities trying to break up mixed couples and mixed couples usually getting together for X-rated activities or failing to be allowed to marry. While we grow from learning the tragedies of the past, reading of that past can be a bitter pill to swallow.
Dr. Mumford includes a chapter on gay dynamics in these interzones. Gay studies enthusiasts may really want to peep this chapter. Dr. Mumford cites John D'Emilio, Jeffrey Weeks, and other gay studies experts. It truly shows how their founding work has influenced many aspects of the study of sexuality. Still, I found the gay chapter to be a bit cluttered.
The back cover states that Dr. Mumford is an independent scholar who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Any college should jump at the chance to hire this author, especially UW at Madison, given it lack of racial diversity and its controversies surrounding it. They would be foolish not to hire him for a tenure-track position immediately. In fact, any college in or around New York City or Chicago would greatly benefit by having such a rigorous and promising scholar in their history department. A guy this sharp who can write a book this strong should not be just floating out in the wind.
Dr. Mumford's book mostly move chronologically, then, near the end of the book, he mentions "Birth of a Nation," a film made in 1915, not the Roaring Twenties. This non-linear move doesn't make sense. I also thought the conclusory chapter was irrelevant. Dr. Mumford moves from police reports to theater to more police reports to a film. This vacillating between life and art may bother some readers, especially hardcore historians. However, since I think art influences life and culture heavily, I did not have a problem with it.
Book Description
Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was perhaps the most notorious white patron of the arts of black America, particularly during the Harlem Renaissance. In 1932, he gave up a career as a theater critic and a novelist of light fiction to become a full-time amateur photographer. His photographs of the era's celebrated African American cultural figures are well-known, but until recently his private, homoerotic interracial photographs were sealed in an archive.
Author James Smalls considers how these images relate to Van Vechten's public persona and private desires. He discusses the interracial photographs in the context of white privilege and exotic tourism, primitivism's relation to modernism, camp sensibility and theatricality, and the vibrancy of underground gay visual culture during periods of political oppression. He also considers contemporary viewers' conflicting responses to the eroticized black male body in Van Vechten's and later twentieth-century photography. This original and provocative book embraces transracial voyeuristic pleasure while acknowledging the negative political implications of that pleasure.
Amply illustrated with 60 pioneering duotones, The Homoerotic Photography of Carl Van Vechten celebrates the sensual nude male form with both candor and reverence, offering a rare glimpse into the private domain of the master photographer and his handsome subjects.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing.......2007-01-23
As a photographer, Carl Van Vechten was no great shakes. The author seems to realize this, and pads the somewhat thin photo selection with works by Mappelthorpe and others. The book's text is dull and uninteresting.
Average customer rating:
- Truth that reads much like fiction
- Excellent and thought-provoking
- Author's comment--not a review
- Author's Comment
- A family that was mixed but not "black"
|
Love on Trial: An American Scandal in Black and White
Earl Lewis , and
Heidi Ardizzone
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
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ASIN: 0393050130 |
Book Description
A modern Cinderella must defend her fairy-tale marriage in a scandal that rocked jazz-age America. Upon marrying Leonard Rhinelander in 1924, Alice Jones, a former nanny, became the first black woman to be listed in the Social Register as a member of one of New York's wealthiest families. When their marriage became a national scandal, Alice and Leonard found themselves thrust into the glare of public scrutiny--and into a Westchester courtroom. Earl Lewis and Heidi Ardizzone tell the story of the marriage and the annulment trial that opened the lives of two vastly different families to the media. Tracking the public obsession with the case, they unfold a fascinating story with a dramatic cast of characters. Would the jury believe Alice's claim that her husband had known she was of mixed racial ancestry before their marriage? Would Leonard's social status sway the verdict? How much ancestry made one black? Love on Trial recalls a struggle that raised questions about race and identity that continue to haunt us today. 40 b/w illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Truth that reads much like fiction.......2006-08-26
I came across a review of this book when scanning a genealogical magazine. The author of the review stated that this work of non-fiction reads much like fiction, and I concur. Most of the book is well-written and engaging, though it leaves the contemporary reader scratching his head in wonderment that these events happened less than a century ago. Ultimately, there are no heroes in this book, however. It still seems incredible to me that there was virtually no discussion of race or ancestry, either within the Jones family or with Kip Rhinelander. Rhinelander really comes off as quite the cad. He appears to have genuinely loved Alice Jones (as she did in return), but he was so spineless in being "forced" into pursuing an annulment of his marriage. It is also sad that Alice never remarried or had children. Both her life and Rhinelander's appear to have been largely wasted. That is the real tragedy of the tale.
Excellent and thought-provoking.......2004-03-17
Hmm, I don't know if everyone reads the book carefully, but very clearly, one of the main arguments of this book is how american culture tried to portray something ambiguous (race) as something precise and scientific, and was caught in its own lie.
The book is human and interesting, but it lets that human interest come from the story. Many books of this nature are ruined by authors who want to make more of a novel, injecting dialogues and thoughts that the author has invented to flesh out the facts as they are known. We don't know exactly what the young couple were thinking or how their feelings might have changed over time, but the author doesn't pretend to know, either, and that makes the events more compelling and the book more truthful.
I like this book because it has been written with a soft touch, presenting facts, and allowing them to make the story.
We are not given a romantic, overdone cartoon of the case, but merely invited to see how absurd a love affair is when it is divorced from its personal nature, and how equally absurd the scientific classification of "race" is when it cannot even be measured with scientific precision.
Author's comment--not a review.......2004-01-30
I'm glad to see ongoing interest in this book (which is available in paperback now.) I'm even happier to see ongoing discussion of the issues it raises. That was one of the reasons we wrote the book. I'd just like to briefly correct a few misreadings in A.D. Powell's review. I am certainly not a proponent of one-drop racialism. While it is true that for much of American history, both blacks and whites assumed people of mixed ancestry to have more in common with their black peers than their white, much of my work actually highlights situations where this was not the case. People might certainly have black ancestry they are unaware of, but in the present context I don't advocate that they must identify themselves as black. However, in the 1920s, in some states, if a seeming white person were to be discovered to have a black grandparent or even great grandparent, that person's legal status would shift to black. Virginia was particularly well known for pursuing family trees and make such changes, although they allowed for some Native ancestry in a legally white person. One drop racialism was one of the primary ways white Americans defined race at the turn of the century. It was never the only way, and it was a system full of illogic and contradictions, which we state several times in the book. In fact we talk extensively about the ambiguity of Alice's identity and ancestry, and how that ambiguity challenged American efforts to eliminate an intermediary category between blacks and whites. It is that ambiguity that made the story compelling to us as historians and writers. We don't really know what her father's ethnicity was, and we say so quite clearly. But we do analyze the trial and the news coverage of it primarily in the context of "black and white" as the title suggests. This is because, while Alice and her family never identified themselves as black, the newspaper editors, journalists, and commentators who spun the story for public consumption routinely did. That is, Alice was treated in the press and (we argue) in the courtroom as if she were black.
Elsewhere Ms. Powell has suggested that I should be careful lest my own Italian ancestry lead me to be labelled a mulatto myself. I'm not sure why that would be something I should fear. In the book we discuss the racial ambiguity of the new immigrants, including Italians, Asians, Indians (who are determined to be Caucasian but not white by the Supreme Court in 1924 which may have impacted Alice's legal strategy), Southern Europeans, Slavs, and Mexicans. The mutability, inconsistency, and ambiguity of race in the 20th century reveals race to be essentially a political and cultural system, not one based in biology or logic.
NOTE TO AMAZON: I am the author of this book and would prefer not to have to rate it to have my comments posted. Thank you.
Author's Comment.......2004-01-30
I'm glad to see ongoing interest in this book (which is available in paperback now.) I'm even happier to see ongoing discussion of the issues it raises. That was one of the reasons we wrote the book. I'd just like to briefly correct a few misreadings in A.D. Powell's review. I am certainly not a proponent of one-drop racialism. While it is true that for much of American history, both blacks and whites assumed people of mixed ancestry to have more in common with their black peers than their white, much of my work actually highlights situations where this was not the case. People might certainly have black ancestry they are unaware of, but in the present context I don't advocate that they must identify themselves as black. However, in the 1920s, in some states, if a seeming white person were to be discovered to have a black grandparent or even great grandparent, that person's legal status would shift to black. Virginia was particularly well known for pursuing family trees and make such changes, although they allowed for some Native ancestry in a legally white person. One drop racialism was one of the primary ways white Americans defined race at the turn of the century. It was never the only way, and it was a system full of illogic and contradictions, which we state several times in the book. In fact we talk extensively about the ambiguity of Alice's identity and ancestry, and how that ambiguity challenged American efforts to eliminate an intermediary category between blacks and whites. It is that ambiguity that made the story compelling to us as historians and writers. We don't really know what her father's ethnicity was, and we say so quite clearly. But we do analyze the trial and the news coverage of it primarily in the context of "black and white" as the title suggests. This is because, while Alice and her family never identified themselves as black, the newspaper editors, journalists, and commentators who spun the story for public consumption routinely did. That is, Alice was treated in the press and (we argue) in the courtroom as if she were black.
Elsewhere Ms. Powell has suggested that I should be careful lest my own Italian ancestry lead me to be labelled a mulatto myself. I'm not sure why that would be something I should fear. In the book we discuss the racial ambiguity of the new immigrants, including Italians, Asians, Indians (who are determined to be Caucasian but not white by the Supreme Court in 1924 which may have impacted Alice's legal strategy), Southern Europeans, Slavs, and Mexicans. The mutability, inconsistency, and ambiguity of race in the 20th century reveals race to be essentially a political and cultural system, not one based in biology or logic.
btw: Target's website wouldn't let me post this without entering a rating so I went for 3 stars to try not to affect the overall rating. If there is a person editting this, I'd prefer not to be rating my own book--that just seems wrong!
A family that was mixed but not "black".......2003-11-25
This book is a history of the infamous 1920's "Rhinelander" case, in which a high society poor excuse for a man named Leonard Rhnelander tried to get his marriage to quadroon Alice Jones annulled because she allegedly "lied" about her "race."
Authors Lewis and Ardizzone are advocates of the idea that anyone who even might have a "drop" of the dreaded "black blood" is instantly a member of the "black race" and "African American" ethnic group. They want people to believe that you can be "black" without even knowing it. Non-black phenotypes and cultures are dismissed as unimportant. Note again that, through silence, they pay tribute to the greatest "passers" of all, the Latinos and Arab-Americans, by being careful not to mention their embarrassing relationship to the "race" they claim to champion.
In Love on Trial, Lewis and Ardizzone use their editorial perogative to continually describe Alice Jones as "black" and "African American" as if these were objective facts. Yet, Alice was the daughter of immigrants from England. She had no ancestors among American "Negroes" or even mulattoes. Her mother was described as "pure white" and her father's ancestry was actually unknown. He was the son of a working class white Englishwoman and a father who was presumed to be from one of the colonies of the British empire. To this day, Alice's paternal grandfather has not been identified -- racially or otherwise. Her father, George Jones, was darker than "white" but otherwise had no Negroid characteristics. Culturally, the Jones family (including two other daughters) did not consider themselves "black" or "Negro" and did not participate in "Negro" organizations. Like many mixed families, they varied their answers when completing the "race" question on official documents. Sometimes they were "colored" and sometimes "white." The authors admit that "colored" was not synonymous with "black" or "Negro," and the Jones family did not consider an admission of "colored blood" to be synonymous with accepting membership in the "Negro race."
The irony, again, is that the actual facts of the case show the ambiguity of mixed-race status. If Alice had been "black," she would not have defeated Rhinelander's suit. She would not have acquired massive sympathy from working class "whites" as a poor working class girl mistreated by a cowardly, high society cad who professed his undying love and them submitted to the authority of his aristocratic father. Also, contrary to the "passing" myth (upon which the "lying" about "race" accusation rested), Leonard was well acquainted with Alice's parents, her sisters, and even a really "black" brother-in-law. He often visited their home while he was courting Alice. The jury realized that Alice's husband didn't care about her ancestry until his father put the screws to him.
Book Description
In Black and White on Wall Street, Joseph Jett describes the combative environment of a Wall Street trading floor, where the driving forces are greed and competition, whatever the cost. For Jett, the price was his career, his reputation and the distinction of being a Wall Street pariah. Like James Stewart's Den of Thieves, Black and White on Wall Street reveals not only the excitement of the game but the Street's own brand of corruption as well. Its power-hungry, wildly rich players have their own set of rules and though Jett got caught in the crossfire, he isn't going down quietly.
In 1994, Joseph Jett found himself at the center of one of the biggest Wall Street stories of the decade. Just months after naming him "Man of the Year" for heading a phenomenally successful bond-trading team, Kidder, Peabody & Co. accused him of recording $350 million in phony profits and taking more than $8 million in bogus bonuses. Jett was forced out of his job and charged with masterminding one of Wall Street's largest securities scams in a scandal that played out in newspaper headlines and television broadcasts for months. Jett's career was crushed in an onslaught of accusations from one of the most powerful corporations in America, Kidder's parent company, General Electric. His family, his childhood and his personal life became fodder for countless lurid media stories.
Customer Reviews:
Racism is present on Wall Street and Jett proves it. .......2006-07-09
When I first read the book, I was sympathetic to Mr. Jett because many times blacks must walk into corporate America with "double consciousness"----knowledge that you have to be twice as good to land and maintain your image in corporate America. Yet, Mr. Jett should have seen the cycle of set-ups. When one of the fund managers asked him "How many blonde women have you f-c-k-ed?" It should have been obvious that they were in a competition and that there was a type of non-Oedipal "penis-envy" occurring. However, Mr. Jett proceeded to acknowledge this question, answer it, and state that he had "done" more than his colleague. Knowing the history of lynching, Mr. Jett should have known that this was a booby trap. Yet, he didn't deserve the set-up. I read this book because during the time of its publication, I worked in corporate America and I needed coaxing. I was the highest producer on my unit. Yet, no one seemed to appreciate it and I felt unwanted, and often, downright ignored. I since quit and started my own business and selling real estate. The book provided catharsism because it helped me see that racism was not personal; it was racial. I am glad that Mr. Jett had a chance to exonerate himself.
Rightly Accused.......2005-06-29
It's been a long time since Joe Jett was in the news, despite his hefty PR Agency bills, but I just couldn't resist making a couple of comments.
I was flying home yesterday on a AerLingus flight from Dublin and by chance flipped to one of the in-flight channels that was showing the 1999 BBC "documentary" Blood on the Carpet. I had never seen this "documentary," before and was surprised to see iit aired so many years after the actual events took place. II worked with Joe at CSFB in the mid 1980's. I was amazed to how the BBC was capable of painting Joe as the good guy-- as someone who's been falsely accused, and used as a scapegoat. Joe was fired from CSFB for a reason. He was probably one of the most unethical (and ineffective) people I have ever worked with in my 22 years on Wall Street. He was deceitful on more than one occasion in an effort to improve his position within the firm. I've never seen anything like it since. But that's not why he was fired. He was fired because he produced very little that was considered to be value added, socially as well as economically.
I'll never forget the day in the early 1990's when an old CSFB colleague called me and mentioned that Joe was now considered to be a big shot on Kidder's government trading desk. I was dumbfounded, commenting on how this couldn't possibly be the same Joe that I knew. It wasn't long after this call that Joe's Kidder career came to an end.
What strikes me most about the BBC's "documentary" is the lack of research that was done prior to it's production. Not one former colleague was interviewed other than the Kidder or GE bosses that were involved in the legal proceedings. Joe demonstrated a pattern of deceit during his career, and any investigative reporter (or employer for that matter!) worth his/her salt would have looked into why he was fired from 2 firms in a relatively short period of time.
However, Kidder is not without blame. Joe's boss and the firm allowed the fraud to occur by not being more careful about how strips and Treasury bond profits/losses were accounted for. Unfortunately, Kidder (apparently) wasn't thinking enough about how a rogue trader might use the system for personal gain.
Finally, it's worth mentioning the outcome of Joe's appeal to the SEC's ruling. Joe filed an appeal on 8/11/1998. On March 5th, 2004, the SEC ruled that Joe was indeed required to disgorge $8.21mm in unearned income, and also had to pay the $200,000 in civil penalties. Joe was also barred from working in any registered securities business for life. (Hedge Funds are unregulated)
Why do I feel compelled to write about Joe and the series "Blood on the Carpet?" For several reasons I suppose. Joe, in my humble opinion, is a fraud. And yet, the BBC (and by Joe's own accounts in his many books) has him portrayed as the good guy being attacked by big corporate America and subject to overt racism. What a great story for the media, it's got all the right stuff. Color, money, sex, bla, bla, bla. What a bunch of B.S.
What have I learned from this experience? Several things, but number one is to be very careful about who you hire. Kidder blew it by hiring this guy. All they needed to do was to dig a little into Joe's past, and they could have saved themselves alot of grief. This is particularially true in the financial services industry. It only takes one rouge trader or crook to take the whole place down. There have been multiple examples; Barings, Kidder, immediately come to my mind.
SWAMPLAND IN FLORIDA.......2002-06-05
It's been a few years since I read and first reviewed this book. In that time I have come to appreciate the details quite a bit more.
Kidder Peabody was a trading operation, just like Enron. If we had taken Mr.Jett seriously, perhaps a few people would still have their 401k's at the Houston company. For those who say Jett is a liar, compare his situation to what brought down Enron. Read June's issue of L.A. magazine, there's a story of a young Enron trader who couldn't quite figure out how his company made either.
If by now you still don't believe Mr. Jett, I've got some swampland......
Ends up as story where you just don't care..........2001-08-18
This could have been an interesting book -- a black man who fights his way to Wall Street, makes millions, and ends up in tangled web of lies and corruption. I picked it up because the story of Joseph Jett seemed intriguing, but sadly, the book ends up being dragged down by the fact that Jett is a very unlikeable person, the way he tells the story makes it obvious that he is lying about what actually happened, and in the end the book doesn't say much more about Wall Street than we already know.
Jett was fingered as the guilty party in a bond trading scandal at the firm of Kidder Peabody and black-listed from Wall Street. This book is Jett's attempt at his side of the story in an effort to prove his innocence. The main problem for me in reading this book is that Jett comes across as a real jerk, and as a result, I really didn't empathize with his position and I really didn't care about what happened to him -- my feeling was "This greedy arrogant jerkwad got what he deserved."
Secondly, the parts of the book detailing what supposedly happened at Kidder Peabody just don't seem realistic. I've worked in the securities industry, so I have something to guage Jett's story by, and it just doesn't come across as 100% accurate. I think the real truth is somewhere in the middle of what Kidder Peabody said, and what Jett said.
The early chapters of the book, where Jett describes his upbringing and life before Wall Street, were the best ones, because you get to understand the forces that drive him and the barriers he had to overcome. The book rapidly degenerates after the early chapters and I found it quite boring. If you haven't read any books about Wall Street or the real world of finance, then you might find this interesting. If you have, you won't miss anything by skipping Jett's tale.
Execellent Book!.......2000-11-25
As a African-American I found this book to be very informative. It helped cultivate my knowledge of blacks in corporate America. Moreover, Jett is a great writer, I've also learned many new vocabulary in this book.
This book also teach you to trust no one.
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