Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas
Glenn is a friend of mine and I’ve been looking forward to reading his book on the making-of Goodfellas. Glenn is an amazing writer (he blogs at Some Came Running: he doesn’t post often but whatever he posts is always thought-provoking. I love his style). Coinciding with the 30-year anniversary of Goodfellas, Glenn set out to tell the story, from conception to completion. He interviewed everyone involved, everyone he possibly could, from Scorsese to Thelma Schoonmaker, to De Niro, to people who had one scene. It’s fantastically rich material. I particularly loved Glenn’s chapter on the music in the film, one of its distinguishing characteristics – it’s practically a “jukebox movie”, a la American Graffiti, there are sometimes 3-4 songs included in one scene. Glenn knows a lot about music – he’s been in a band, he has a music background, I always love talking with him about music – and so he doesn’t just list the songs and how they are used, but provides backstories for each of the songs (and the musicians), so you get a sense of the surrounding context. By doing so, by digging into these backstories, you find deeper connecting threads than you might otherwise, if you just stayed in the realm of “this song works well in this scene and here’s why.” In this Day and Age, when pure uneducated “opinion” rules the day – it’s so nice to get some facts, some knowledge. It’s beautifully written, and I tore through it in three days. It’ll be a book I go back to again and again. I also had fun re-watching the movie, so the moments Glenn discussed were fresh in my mind.
Kaputt
In 2018 I read his Kremlin Ball, translated into English for the first time (via the indispensable New York Review Books Classics imprint). I couldn’t even believe the book existed. A first-hand glimpse of Moscow in the 20s? Of the hierarchy of toadies, glittering parties, how this supposedly proletariat leadership immediately re-arranged itself into a corrupt elite with all the perks? All written by someone who was there? Malaparte, born Curt Erich Suckert, was an Italian writer, diplomat, war correspondent. He played both sides in WWII, which makes some of his stuff sketchy, to say the least, but indispensable BECAUSE of that. How often do you get first-person accounts of the Axis point of view?? It’s grotesque. But it glitters, too. So I’m finally getting to Kaputt, which is basically a novel (wink wink) about a correspondent traveling around through Axis countries during the war. I’m only three chapters in but all I can say is: this is a book like no other. He’s an incredible writer (I suppose I should say – this is an amazing translation), and the images he pulls up – horrors – horses frozen in the lake in Finland, the empty landscape filled with smoking burning machinery … and also … the lack of moral outrage. Total lack. It’s a tough pill to swallow. But important! FASCINATING.
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
I’ll just repeat what I said, more or less, on Instagram: I am finally getting to Say Nothing, so get off my back everyone who keeps asking me if I’ve read it yet. I’m one-degree removed from this horrible story: two friends of mine, married, play a major part in this story. Both were interviewed extensively for the book, and one of them knew all the major IRA players, since he was IRA himself. He was in Long Kesh prison for 18 years and participated in the “blanket protest.” My friends are journalists and passionately dedicated to their work. I am proud to call them my friends. We stayed with them when we went to Belfast. We went to Bobby Sands’ grave – Milltown Cemetery is something else, man – and it was somehow perfect that I would visit with someone who actually knew him, considered him a friend. (Weirdly, back during the hunger strikes era, my family was in Ireland. I was a kid but I remember absorbing the tension. It’s just strange to think that up north a future friend of mine was in prison with all of those hunger strikers I was so worried about.) On one of our walks in Belfast we walked by the Sinn Fein offices with the mural of Bobby Sands on the side along with his famous quote about the laughter of children. “Oh shit, look.” one of my friends said, pointing. “That’s Gerry’s car.” Gerry. No last name necessary. Then we went home and had Bloody Marys and watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition, because that’s what you do when you visit your former-IRA friends. (Accentuate the “former”. This is why they’ve had so much trouble.) If you have been paying attention to the story told in Say Nothing (and it made recent international headlines), and the role Boston College played in the long overdue murder investigation – then you will have heard my friends’ names. They were central figures – THE voices, really – in the situation. (Side note: the library involved is the same library that took my dad’s valuable Irish book collection after he died. BC was his Alma mater). Much of this I had heard first hand from my friends – it was a years-long battle. I am finally getting to the book. I am gonna tear through it. I already can’t put it down.
Journey into the Whirlwind
I had been meaning to read this memoir for years. Ginzburg was a Communist, a proud Party member. A true-believer. Then Kirov was killed in 1934. And her world fell apart, as did the worlds of millions of others, caught up in the vice of “conspiracy” surrounding his murder, which was really just the pretext for Stalin to launch his Terror. Ginzburg was arrested in 1937 for … no reason. For lack of political orthodoxy – and she was a strict and devoted Marxist. She was “lacking in vigilance” – she DIDN’T criticize the people she should have criticized, or she didn’t criticize them enough, or in the right way. I can’t help it, I think of this when I watch these waves of scandals playing out on social media today. “Why didn’t you act the perfect way 20 years ago even though nobody knew the truth of the matter then? You were insufficiently vigilant. Your apologies are insufficient because you didn’t use the exact right words.” Listen. There’s historical precedent for how dangerous these views are, when exaggerated to their end point. I’m only 9 chapters in, but I literally gasped at one sentence, tossed into the middle of an action-packed chapter when she gets arrested: “I never saw him again.” She’s talking about her little son. She’s headed down to secret police headquarters for an interview, supposedly so she can clear up her “incorrect” attitudes towards a former colleague … and she has a casual moment with her son playing on the floor before walking out the door. “I never saw him again.” The book is brutal. You want to know why I distrust orthodoxy in any form it takes? It’s because of books like this.
“Kaputt” is a tough pill to swallow, but is worth it. One of the great World War 2 novels. Malaparte was a real wild card. He started out as a supporter of Mussolini, but ended up a Communist in the 50s. What a card! An elitist deeply suspicious of democracy and a venal opportunist, his pseudonym was well chosen. Godard used his villa to shoot most of “Contempt”.
What a dour quartet of books. I guess you just don’t do light and fluffy.
// What a dour quartet of books. //
Lol!! Good Fellas is fun though! Not dour at all!!
But yeah, you’re right – when I put up my 2020 books at the end of the year it’s going to be a very grim list. I did buy the new Elinor Lipman (one of my favorite contemporary novelists – who writes modern-day rom-coms but really comedies of manners – hilarious and smart – so I will get to that next to take a break.) Journey into the Whirlwind, in general, is terrifying.
So glad to hear your thoughts on Kaputt!! It’s SO worth it – I only read the first section so far – the “Horses” section – and am just so sucked in. Have you read Kremlin Ball? It reminds me of something Truman Capote wrote – a society gossip page – except with these monstrous bandits as the stars, as opposed to, oh, the Upper East Side elite.
// An elitist deeply suspicious of democracy and a venal opportunist, his pseudonym was well chosen. //
You really get the opportunist part – it makes him … relatable? Even though it’s not a part of “us” – i.e. humans – that we may want to admit. And it’s fascinating how … he doesn’t seem to have any compunctions about any of this. There’s a ghoulish-ness to him and it makes him fascinating.
I forget – what turned him off Mussolini? They turned on him?
And yes – that house in Contempt!! I actually worked on a piece for the T Magazine agazine about that house – and its history – by “worked on” I mean digital support, putting together the text and photos and layout – during my time at the Times. If walls could talk that house would have so much to say!
What have you been reading?
Malaparte was not doctrinaire enough for the fascists (or the communists). His first stint in jail, there were many, was for publishing a book called ” Technique du coup d’Etat”. Both a “how to” book and a history of 20th Century coups, the powers that be were particularly pissed off by the title of one of its chapters: “A Woman: Hitler”.
I wonder if Guy Maddin read “Kaputt” because horses are frozen in a river in “My Winnipeg.”
My favorite recent reads are:
1) “Sudden Death” by Enrique Alvarez, a phantasmagoric historical novel about Caravaggio.
2) “HHhH”, the first novel by Laurent Binet which concerns the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich; more World War 2 fu. His second novel is also superb.
3) “Loudermilk’ by Lucy Ives, an amusing roman a clef about the Iowa Writers Workshop.
I am eager to turn the pages of ” The Kremlin Ball”. Reading “Kaputt” about five years ago was a wonderful experience, but somewhat draining. I am now ready for more of his evil genius.
Biff –
// Both a “how to” book and a history of 20th Century coups, the powers that be were particularly pissed off by the title of one of its chapters: “A Woman: Hitler”. //
Wow. I need to read this.
// Malaparte was not doctrinaire enough for the fascists (or the communists). //
Good for him! lol I do not trust the doctrinaire!!
// I wonder if Guy Maddin read “Kaputt” because horses are frozen in a river in “My Winnipeg.” //
hmmm interesting.
Your books all sound so interesting!! I’d heard of the second one but not the other 2 – Loudermilk in particular sounds so good.
I’m finding Kaputt draining too and I’m barely into it yet. He requires a lot of concentration – there are so many layers of irony and symbolism – plus politics … I have to really focus and keep the surrounding context in mind.
Kremlin Ball is just ghoulish. But he lays bare the lie at the center of the whole thing – the so-called classless society, the classless Utopia, immediately resurrected the same old hierarchies. And I trust the same thing will happen again. And again. Human beings being what they are.
Sheila
Getting Made Men, sounds fabulous! thanks!
It’s so good, Regina – you will love it!
Have you read Eamonn McCann’s War in an Irish Town? He shows up early in Say Nothing and makes a few appearances late in the story. I’m not sure his book is available in print at the moment, but I know Audible at least has him reading it aloud and it’s a fascinating look at late 60s to mid 70s Derry, and a richly drawn portrait of a certain type of dude. I just wanted to stop him and debate with him about 1000 times while listening. I bet he’s a brilliant dinner date.
Patrick Radden Keefe is an incredible storyteller but perhaps a bit given to sensationalism and self-congratulation. There’s a bit of a twist ending to Say Nothing that is reminiscent of another piece he wrote, A Loaded Gun, a profile of mass shooter Amy Bishop. It left a sour taste in my mouth and eroded a good deal of my trust in him. Regardless, I thought Say Nothing was monstrously entertaining beginning to end, and admit to reading it more than once.
Yes I’ve read War in an Irish Town! It’s wild to see the names peppered through Say Nothing … the small town aspect of Northern Ireland where everyone intersects. Brendan Hughes was best man at my friends’ wedding! Hughes’ trajectory was similar to my friends. They still lived in an IRA stronghold when we visited them – the land of graffiti on houses – but they faced serious repercussions for speaking out critically – particularly against “Gerry”. Anthony McIntyre (one of these friends I keep mentioning) wrote a good book on all of this called Good Friday: The Death of Irish Republicanism. I recommend the site my friends founded and ran together called The Blanket – and Anthony has his own site called The Pensive Quill. He recently interviewed me about what books I was reading. lol So I feel very connected – by proxy – to all of these events.
I genuinely don’t know who could pass McCann’s ideological muster – I suspect just himself, plus those he loves dearly (Bernadette McAliskey, Dolours Price) by special dispensation. In a sense the post-Republican (? I don’t even know what to call it, dissident is too closely tied in the imagination to pfr, RIRA, Omagh, etc; Republican obscures peaceful socialists, on and on) community is a family bound together but unbridgeably divided by grief: no consensus on how to feel, what to want, how to act, instead just a constant beat of NOT THIS.
I’ve browsed TPQ and the Blanket a few times before, but I really should take a deeper dive. I figured you were talking about McIntyre and Carrie! Glad to hear they have happy HGTV moments amidst all the turmoil. Thanks for the rec; I’m going to pick it up.
I feel very connected – by proxy – to all of these events.
I bet! My family is all Derry/Tyrone/Donegal, but though we’re still insular and clannish, it’s been nearly two centuries that most of us have been gone. Obviously you’re much more closely tied, both by family and friends. I have a distant twangy sad interest; for you. this must be alive and bleeding.
Also suspect that the Chicago Irish experience is an easier one than Boston :-)
// community is a family bound together but unbridgeably divided by grief: no consensus on how to feel, what to want, how to act, instead just a constant beat of NOT THIS. //
That’s very insightful. I so agree.
// Glad to hear they have happy HGTV moments amidst all the turmoil. //
lol
Carrie and I sat there literally weeping about some homeowner’s reaction to their new house – and laughing at ourselves at the same time. Anthony was like, “I’ll just be in the other room for a while …” Two crying women on the couch, holding Bloody Marys.
// I have a distant twangy sad interest; for you. this must be alive and bleeding. //
In a way – although my families hail from Mayo and Kerry – so it’s distant enough – although I have great-uncles, etc., who were IRA during the teens and 20s – crazy Civil War times.
// but though we’re still insular and clannish, it’s been nearly two centuries that most of us have been gone. //
It’s amazing how the Irish diaspora maintains that connection over centuries. My dad raised us up in it, really – and we did live there while my dad was on sabbatical – so it was somehow made more concrete to see all the places he had been telling us about.
I met a guy in a bar in Dublin (because you always do) and he joked that some Irish Americans come to Ireland – STILL – expecting to find The Quiet Man. they’re, like, disappointed that the Irish have cell phones. lol I was like, “I apologize on my country’s behalf.”
I met a guy in a bar in Dublin (because you always do) and he joked that some Irish Americans come to Ireland – STILL – expecting to find The Quiet Man. they’re, like, disappointed that the Irish have cell phones. lol I was like, “I apologize on my country’s behalf.”
This is so relatable. It seems like once you’ve cleared some minimum hurdle of not being an idiot, most Irish cannot wait to unload their amazement and frustration at basically every other American they’ve met. I remember being 16 and on a walk with the daughter of the house where we were staying, listening to her complain about people genuinely expecting leprechauns or something.
Also ditto the man in the bar. Never anywhere else in the world have I met so many older men trying to sell me on their embarrassed sons.
It’s amazing how the Irish diaspora maintains that connection over centuries.
A thing that fascinates me is the oral traditions amongst Irish American families. I was raised up on all sorts of tales of the past, family legends and tragedies and the likes. This was pre-internet, and while my family wasn’t uncurious, they weren’t particularly bookish either, at least as far as Irish history went. But when I got older and was able to investigate some of the stories – most of which I chalked up to tales that grow in the telling, never letting the facts interfere with a good story – I was surprised to find how accurate most of them were. They were handed down, century after century, and almost wholly intact when they reached my ears.
There are certain national identities in the United States that have enormous sticking power, likely due to the unhappiness of the leaving and the unwelcomeness of the arrival. Polish, Italian, Mexican and Jewish also spring to mind. My dad was the first to marry out of the community in my family, but as far as our sense of identity went, my mom might well have come from nowhere at all. We were Irish, end of. I wobble between finding it unutterably odd and completely natural.
Hi Sheila!
What a wonderful pack of books! I’m not too familiar with Irish contemporary history, but I should begin to read about it. It must be strange to you to find known people and places in a book, right?
I don’t think reading dreadful things such as Ginzburg’s book is depressing, it’s a journey on other times, sometimes it could be exhilarating.
And Malaparte’s life? I got very curious!
What do you do with your books? I mean, you must have thousands! I just read an article on how people threw (and found) books in the streets during the pandemic, The book she mentions laying in the street, East West Street, is the best I’ve read this year. Who knew jurists could be so interesting!
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/pleasures-book-hunting-discarded-essay-rosalind-jana
Clary – // It must be strange to you to find known people and places in a book, right? //
yes, this is unique! It was this event that got all this publicity and took up years of my friends’ lives – so I’ve heard about it from their side, but it is interesting to take a broader view of it.
Thanks for the link – it sounds right up my alley!!
I am in a constant state of trying to pare down my collection. Of course I still buy books – so in a way I’m just maintaining the number of books – just trying to keep it all under control. I donate books all the time and go through periodic purges where I make some tough choices. This especially has to happen when I’m planning a move – which I am now. The first thing I did was scan my bookshelves like “Okay. Which one of you can I afford to lose.”