High Treason – Robert J. Groden & Harrison Edward Livingstone, 1989 ★

Who Shot John

Many books posit the idea of a high-level conspiracy in the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, books with titles like Six Seconds In Dallas, Best Evidence, and Crossfire. High Treason is different in a way signaled by its title.

Goodbye Mickey Mouse – Len Deighton, 1982 ★★½

Chasing Cupid and Messerschmitts

The difficulty of writing historical fiction often lies in getting facts straight. For Len Deighton, a former RAF pilot as well as an avid chronicler of World War II in both fiction and non-fiction form, authenticity was not a challenge for this tale of American Army Air Force fighter pilots in England. Goodbye Mickey Mouse is solid there.

But you need more than authenticity to make a novel click. You need an engaging plot and lively characters. It’s there the novel sagged for me.

MAD Strikes Back! – Harvey Kurtzman, 1955 ★★½

Taking a MAD Look Back

Last month came further evidence of the Apocalypse: MAD magazine rebooted itself. After a run of 550 issues begun in 1952, the humor staple officially rehauled itself with a new Issue #1. Readers of the latest ish were greeted by new staff, new logo, and new overall design.

Bullet Park – John Cheever, 1969 ★★

Leading Lives of Unquiet Desperation

Was John Cheever an elegant miniaturist out of his depth when writing longer fiction? Or do I need to expand my reading horizons and allow for some suburban surrealism divorced from narrative constraint as long as it is ennobled by fine prose? I go back and forth after this, my latest venture into the tangled hollows of Bullet Park.

FIASCO: The Inside Story Of A Wall Street Trader – Frank Partnoy, 1997 ★★★

PERLS Before Swine

Partly a first-hand account of the culture of derivatives trading and Wall Street in the early 1990s, partly a cry for greater regulation in the face of increasingly out-of-control investment practices, FIASCO is an entertaining read hampered by a scattershot focus and offputting tone.