It’s not fair to judge a person by a favorite book, but in my experience a devout fan of Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead would most likely not be the best company for a cross-country trip. Or even a crosstown bus ride. Based on this excellent and succinct biography of the author of those books, however, Ayn Rand herself sounds like fascinating company, whether talking about her upbringing in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, her time as a scriptwriter for Cecil DeMille in 1920s Hollywood, or her undying love of capitalism, free markets, individualism, and “the virtue of selfishness.” Come for the analysis of her philosophy called “objectivism” but stay for the details of an unorthodox life, including why her good friend Alan Greenspan had such irrational exuberance for her.
What is it about the Deep South that produces such lurid tales of sex, God, and murder, which, as it happens, is the subtitle of this riveting book, with the action taking place in Tallahassee. The year is 2000, and Mike Williams disappears on a duck-hunting trip, his body never found and presumably eaten by alligators. Five years later, best buddy and fellow Baptist Brian Winchester divorces his wife and marries Mike’s widow, Denise. Eyebrows are raised, but it is not until 2017, thanks largely to persistent pressure by Mike’s mother on investigators, that the shocking truth emerges. Mikita Brottman does a terrific job detailing the lives of the two couples and the dissolving marriage of Brian and Denise that led to the murder trial. Only folks not familiar with swamp noir will be surprised who received the longer sentence.
and Miriam B. Mandel
Luckily for us, Ernest Hemingway wrote lots of letters, as evidenced by the fact that this thick volume is the sixth published by Cambridge University Press and covers only the years from 1934 to 1936. There are gems on every page, here boasting to poet Archibald MacLeish about landing a 319-pound tuna in 48 minutes and there telling his editor, Maxwell Perkins, about his upcoming tax payments and could a loan possibly be transformed into an advance and, oh, by the way, he is giving up hard liquor for Lent. As for his opinion of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s suggested cuts to his manuscript of A Farewell to Arms? “Deplorable.” This book is literary gold, with discerning footnotes and a wonderful introduction by Kale. Kudos to Cambridge for undertaking this project, which when finished will clock in at 16 volumes.
Jim Kelly is the Books Editor at AIR MAIL
