Ah, those whom the gods wish to destroy first make her a young heiress and daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James’s in the early 1920s. To be fair, Jean Buckman does survive her horrific marriage to a British lord, but only because she finds love and children elsewhere while still married. Buckman is no soapy heroine, however, and thanks to Vanessa Beaumont’s formidable skill in depicting a union gone to hell and the consequences of grief that only a mother can feel, The Other Side of Paradise is its own triumph.
with Lisa Dickey
What an unorthodox and original way of looking at events over the past 60 years or so: from the perspective of what transpired in the Situation Room of the White House, a remarkably unimpressive suite of offices in the basement, just off the cafeteria everyone calls “the mess.” George Stephanopoulos, of course, spent time there himself when he worked for Bill Clinton and traces the beginning of this space to the Eisenhower era, when it was recommended that a bowling alley in the West Wing basement be converted into what Ike called “a little watch office” to monitor military events from the White House. J.F.K. finally O.K.’d the Situation Room after the Bay of Pigs crisis, but some presidents used it more often than others, notably Ronald Reagan, who held weekly meetings there. It is in this room that President Obama and top officials planned and then watched the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, nicknamed “the Pacer.”
Stephanopoulos does full justice to the drama leading up to that moment, a valuable piece of historical writing since, at the time, nothing was allowed to be recorded on paper. The Situation Room is a terrific read, made poignant by the realization that the intelligence analysts and duty officers who work there 24-7 may be eased out by A.I.
Sportswriters, like cops, are a clannish group, so when Grant Wahl collapsed in the press box while covering the 2022 World Cup, in Qatar, and died of an aortic aneurysm at age 49, the grief of colleagues was deep and sincere. And, we should add, wholly deserved. As this collection of his pieces illustrates, Wahl was an unusually gifted storyteller, which means he was also a superb and empathetic listener, a quality that also made him a great friend. His cover story on LeBron James for Sports Illustrated, where he worked for a quarter-century, not only put the national spotlight on a 17-year-old high-school star from Ohio but created a friendship between the two that lasted until Grant’s death. His 2003 cover story on David Beckham, not yet as well known in America as he was in the rest of the world, ultimately led him to write a best-selling book about Beckham’s foray into U.S. soccer. To read World Class is not just to marvel at the skills of Wahl the writer but to savor the spirit and mind of Wahl the man.
Jim Kelly is the Books Editor at AIR MAIL
