A painstakingly recorded, sensitively presented work of a unique “lived experience” in northern Mexico.
An affecting work of “participatory research” delves into the life of an Indigenous Rarámuri family who was forced out of their native region in Mexico by environmental degradation and colonization.
In 2009, Blanco, then on a yearlong Fulbright fellowship to collect oral histories of the Rarámuri people living around Chihuahua City, Mexico, met and befriended the Gutiérrez family. Displaced to El Oasis, a “settlement filled with subsidized housing for Indigenous peoples,” in the city several years before due to drought in the northern Sierra Madre, the family had fallen on hard times, as many similar families had. Martina and Luis had moved to live near other family in the city, and in the process, they had to give up the traditional practice of korima, the sharing economy that had sustained them since ancient times, and accept the capitalist market system, which ensured their impoverishment. Working as a day laborer, Luis was often extorted out of his wages, while Martina contributed by sewing. After school, the children were often required to ask for money or sell gum and other items among the cars at KFC. The oldest son, Jaime, became addicted to meth, “scouring the house for extra coins, shaking and nervous between pills, and one of the daughters, Lupita, who was sent to boarding school, ultimately got pregnant and was kicked out (though her boyfriend was allowed to stay). The cycle of poverty finally broke when Martina joined a cooperative market to sell Indigenous goods, saved money (a fact kept from her husband), and bought a piece of land to build a house. Throughout the poignant, sometimes heartbreaking text, Blanco intimately captures the details of this family’s practices and dreams, making the narrative read as fluidly as a novel.
A painstakingly recorded, sensitively presented work of a unique “lived experience” in northern Mexico.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781566896535
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Coffee House
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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