Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks
Book by Patrick Radden Keefe
DETAILS
Publisher : Doubleday (June 28, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 368 pages ISBN-10 : 0385548516 ISBN-13 : 978-0385548519 Item Weight : 1.49 pounds Dimensions : 6.46 x 1.27 x 9.41 inches Best Sellers Rank: #7,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #6 in White Collar Crime True Accounts #9 in Criminology (Books) #36 in Murder & Mayhem True Accounts , NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing— and one of the most decorated journalists of our time—twelve enthralling stories of skulduggery and intrigue “I read everything he writes. Every time he writes a book, I read it. Every time he writes an article, I read it … he’s a national treasure.” —Rachel Maddow “Patrick Radden Keefe is a brilliant writer, and each of these pieces reminds you that this world and the people in it are more interesting, complicated and moving than you had allowed yourself to imagine. ROGUES is a marvel, showcasing the work of a reporter at the absolute top of his game.” —Daniel Alarcón, author of The King is Always Above the People Patrick Radden Keefe has garnered prizes ranging from the National Magazine Award to the Orwell Prize to the National Book Critics Circle Award for his meticulously-reported, hypnotically-engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker . As Keefe says in his preface “They reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.” Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, spends time in Vietnam with Anthony Bourdain, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the “worst of the worst,” among other bravura works of literary journalism. The appearance of his byline in The New Yorker is always an event, and collected here for the first time readers can see his work forms an always enthralling but deeply human portrait of criminals and rascals, as well as those who stand up against them. Read more
REVIEW
It's hard to say anything that hasn’t already been said about this book, a compilation of twelve extraordinary New Yorker essays from Patrick Radden Keefe about some of the more colorful characters and stories of our time. After all, the book has sucked up an awful lot of oxygen in the literary room since its release in June of this year. It is the very definition of blockbuster and deservedly so. One thing that does strike me is that is can be easy to to view "Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks" as a book all about bad people. While bad people certainly factor in, several of the essays are actually stories of good people who've nailed bad people. Others, per the word “Rebels" that’s kind of hidden in the title, are decidedly not bad folks, just different thinkers, such as Mark Burnett and Anthony Bourdain. Not a huge deal, just something that's occurred to me. The larger thing that strikes me, however, and what really draws me to weigh in on a type of book I tend to leave to others, is what it is made of--and that is the great, old-school long form essay traditionally crafted by great writers for great magazines which when combined under one theme make for such excellent books. Joseph Mitchell's "Up in the Old Hotel" -- another anthology of New Yorker essays which came out in 1992 -- is a great example of this and if you've not read it, you must. Of course The New Yorker, where again the essays that make up "Rogues" originally appeared, is as strong and reliable as ever in that area, but with few occasional exceptions, it begins and ends there nowadays. And this is tragic. So if by expressing my delight in Keefe's great work I can flag this unfortunate truth and perhaps make some people think about it, then this time and energy of mine was well spent indeed.
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