The Devil Problem: And Other True StoriesReaders know from his now classic Lenin's Tomb that Remnick is a superb portraitist who can bring his subjects to life and reveal them in such surprising ways as to justify comparison to Dickens, Balzac, or Proust. In this collection, Remnick's gift for character is sharper than ever, whether he writes about Gary Hart stumbling through life after Donna Rice or Mario Cuomo, who now presides over a Saturday morning radio talk show, fielding questions from crackpots, or about Michael Jordan's awesome return to the Chicago Bulls -- or Reggie Jackson's last times at bat. Remnick's portraits of such disparate characters as Alger Hiss and Ralph Ellison, Richard Nixon and Elaine Pagels, Gerry Adams and Marion Barry are unified by this extraordinary ability to create a living character, so that the pieces in this book, taken together, constitute a splendid pageant of the representative characters of our time. |
Contents
Winter on the Mountain Gary Hart | 3 |
The Situationist Marion Barry | 26 |
Negative Capability Mario Cuomo | 63 |
Copyright | |
17 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Alger Hiss American asked Barry's basketball began Belfast believe Bradlee Bradlee's British Brodsky called campaign Catholic Chicago Christianity Church Clinton court culture Cuomo early editor Elaine Pagels Ellison father feel friends Gary Hart Gerry Adams Gnostic Gospels Hamlet Heinz Hikari Jackson Japanese Jordan journalist Katharine Graham Kempton kids Knicks later Lipsky live look Luther Mario Cuomo Marion Barry mayor McGrail Michael Jordan Murray Murray Kempton Neuharth never newspaper Nixon once Pagels paper paramilitaries play players political president Protestant published race readers Reggie Reggie Jackson reporters republican Rodman says scholars seemed sense Shakespeare shot Sinn Fein social Sohmer someone Steve Sohmer story Street talk television thing thought tion told turned USA Today walked Washington Post watched Wilson woman write wrote Yiddish York young