Reviewed by Mr. Overeem (Language Arts)
It's hard for me to imagine an essay collection that is as thought-provoking, pleasurable, and varied (in equal proportions) as this one. Rosenbaum is a "buff buff"; in other words, he's fascinated by the phemonena that generate obsessive study. He's especially fascinated by such phenomena that have unanswerable questions at their heart. As such, the best pieces here concern the Dead Sea Scrolls and their effect on the men who've tried to unlock them; Lee Harvey Oswald and MaryMeyer, two murder victims at the heart of the JFK assassination; the Marcus Brothers, twin gynecologists who came to a mysterious end and inspired the film DEAD RINGERS; Henry Lee Lucas, who claimed to have serial-killed 600, only to recant and admit he was stringing along the Texas Rangers who were using him; Kim Philby, the double- (or triple-?) agent at the heart of the Cold War; the Skull and Bones Society; as Rosenbaum puts it, "Elizabeth Kubler Ross's Torrid Love Affair with Death"; and "The Octopus" that might/might not have gripped the Bay of Pigs, Watergate, "The October Surprise," and Iran-Contra--and the reporter who died trying to decide. That's only a few! Then there are Rosenbaum's own obsessions, like America's greatest unheralded "Great Novelist" Charles Portis, Rosanne Cash, Oliver Stone vs. Quentin Tarantino, and Vladimir Nabokov's PALE FIRE. Now that you don't have time to read entire books, you should find this, put it on your night stand, and read one essay a night (its 760 pages should keep you occupied for awhile). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Note: Also included is the magazine piece that turned into Rosenbaum's shattering EXPLAINING HITLER; you can decide if you'd like that book by reading the much shorter feature here. ( )