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madmooney's review
4.0
As I read this book, two others had come to mind: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith and Wicked by Gregory Maguire.
Much like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Crooked attempts to reveal a 'more accurate' layer of paint under the veneer of whitewashed history we all believe to be true. In AL:VH, we bore witness to the true cause of the American slavery and civil war as discovered by Lincoln. Crooked is as much about Russia, the Cold War, America and all of its presidents as it is about Nixon himself. History buffs (which I am NOT) should enjoy the plethora of historical events mentioned in the book, accurately timed and given new life in the context of the story.
Much like Gregory Maguire did with Elphaba from Wicked, Grossman gives Nixon is given a more forgiving back-story, but not sympathetic enough to excuse then from the actions and behaviour that made them infamous. Even though you discover his motives to be more altruistic and noble, Nixon is just as much the duplicitous, backstabbing, pathetic character, cast by history. Do not expect to discover an unfound love for Nixon!
Crooked doesn't waste time: in its first pages you are thrown in medias res into Grossman's dark reflection of our world, where Nixon is engaged in some sort of blood ritual with his secret service involving the Watergate hotel. You are not given enough time to determine if he is using 'sorcery' to further his own means or to prevent something horrible before you are then thrown back 30 years to an America paralyzed by the Red Scare, with Nixon (as a young congressman naive to the chthonic horrors of the world) launching his political career in hot pursuit alleged secret Communists.
“This is a tale of espionage and betrayal and the dark secrets of a decades-long cold war. It is a story of otherworldly horror, of strange nameless forces that lie beneath the reality we know. In other words, it is the story of a marriage.”
Much like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Crooked attempts to reveal a 'more accurate' layer of paint under the veneer of whitewashed history we all believe to be true. In AL:VH, we bore witness to the true cause of the American slavery and civil war as discovered by Lincoln. Crooked is as much about Russia, the Cold War, America and all of its presidents as it is about Nixon himself. History buffs (which I am NOT) should enjoy the plethora of historical events mentioned in the book, accurately timed and given new life in the context of the story.
Much like Gregory Maguire did with Elphaba from Wicked, Grossman gives Nixon is given a more forgiving back-story, but not sympathetic enough to excuse then from the actions and behaviour that made them infamous. Even though you discover his motives to be more altruistic and noble, Nixon is just as much the duplicitous, backstabbing, pathetic character, cast by history. Do not expect to discover an unfound love for Nixon!
Crooked doesn't waste time: in its first pages you are thrown in medias res into Grossman's dark reflection of our world, where Nixon is engaged in some sort of blood ritual with his secret service involving the Watergate hotel. You are not given enough time to determine if he is using 'sorcery' to further his own means or to prevent something horrible before you are then thrown back 30 years to an America paralyzed by the Red Scare, with Nixon (as a young congressman naive to the chthonic horrors of the world) launching his political career in hot pursuit alleged secret Communists.
“This is a tale of espionage and betrayal and the dark secrets of a decades-long cold war. It is a story of otherworldly horror, of strange nameless forces that lie beneath the reality we know. In other words, it is the story of a marriage.”
songwind's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a great read.
Grossman has clearly done his homework on Tricky Dick's life, and taken advantage of peculiar and unlikely happenings to weave in an imaginative tapestry of Cold War spying, cosmic horror, and secret knowledge passed down from the Mayflower and through the Founding Fathers.
The only real complaint I have about the book regards some repeated foreshadowing that went nowhere. According to an early passing statement, Nixon faked his death in 1994, and watched American history unfold from "foreign shores." But the narrative ends before that can be expanded upon.
All in all, I recommend this book easily for fans of satire, alternate history, or cosmic horror.
Grossman has clearly done his homework on Tricky Dick's life, and taken advantage of peculiar and unlikely happenings to weave in an imaginative tapestry of Cold War spying, cosmic horror, and secret knowledge passed down from the Mayflower and through the Founding Fathers.
The only real complaint I have about the book regards some repeated foreshadowing that went nowhere. According to an early passing statement, Nixon faked his death in 1994, and watched American history unfold from "foreign shores." But the narrative ends before that can be expanded upon.
All in all, I recommend this book easily for fans of satire, alternate history, or cosmic horror.
montreux's review
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Crooked is a clever and satirical take on the world of presidential politics and the lengths people will go to gain power. If you want the full experience, do yourself a favor and get this book as an audio-book, which has fantastic narration.
Prior to reading this, I knew Nixon more by his failures than successes, so this book gave me a more nuanced take and at the very least, led to a few fun Wikipedia reading sessions (Alger Hiss, Nixon losing the CA governor's race, etc). The occult portions of the book I honestly did not care much for and found it to be the weakest part of the story; I'm still not really sure who was fighting for which side.
Prior to reading this, I knew Nixon more by his failures than successes, so this book gave me a more nuanced take and at the very least, led to a few fun Wikipedia reading sessions (Alger Hiss, Nixon losing the CA governor's race, etc). The occult portions of the book I honestly did not care much for and found it to be the weakest part of the story; I'm still not really sure who was fighting for which side.
megadeathvsbooks's review against another edition
4.0
This was great. It blends fiction and non-fiction together to create an enjoyable story. And it really explains some things about that time period...
kleonard's review against another edition
4.0
A brilliant Lovecraftian explanation for Richard Nixon and his presidency. Kissinger as a wizard of immense power certainly explains a lot . ;)
mollysticks's review
4.0
What and interesting take on the Nixon story, fun read. I was confused a number of times. For example, what happened Some of the paranormal things aren't explained fully and that also left me with some confusion.
Spoiler
in the bathroom when he met Gregor while the Watergate thing was happening? Did he just hit him once and that was it?librarimans's review against another edition
4.0
I'm not typically one for historical fiction, but this was a fun romp through Cold War era America and implicates Ike, Nixon, Kissinger, and many other political luminaries of the time into a secret cold war of alien and eldritch horrors. The story is narrated by Nixon and is a fairly easy, but enjoyable read.
andrewgraphics's review against another edition
3.0
As always, Grossman's writing is good: descriptive, well-paced, etc.
However, since this is a first-person narrative told by Richard M Nixon, a lot of his very public life is told from his point of view as if we all know the details, so some info is glossed over; because of this, it would help if there were footnotes giving the historical info, or if it was actually written out within the novel.
And finally, after a very promising beginning, the ending sputters thru its final pages and trails off without a proper denouement.
However, since this is a first-person narrative told by Richard M Nixon, a lot of his very public life is told from his point of view as if we all know the details, so some info is glossed over; because of this, it would help if there were footnotes giving the historical info, or if it was actually written out within the novel.
And finally, after a very promising beginning, the ending sputters thru its final pages and trails off without a proper denouement.
rbreade's review against another edition
How good a writer is Austin Grossman? Good enough to turn Richard Nixon into an antihero worth rooting for. Not by denying what Nixon was, fudging and airbrushing the historical record, but by making him the first-person protagonist and having him accept and confess, at least in the interior monologue to which we, the readers, are privy, his many flaws.
Grossman also gives him a reimagined Cold War to fight and embeds in that struggle an even darker threat, one that recasts many of Nixon's worst, lowest moments as quietly, anonymously heroic. It begins with Watergate, which, in this alternative history is not what we thought it was, and from there loops back to 1946, when Nixon was trying to make his mark hunting Communists such as Alger Hiss.
Grossman is one of those writers whose sentences are delightful, one moment muscular and packed with energy, another moment gently reflective and melancholy, yet another, deadpan funny. As in his wonderful debut novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible, he excels at writing about fantastic and supernatural elements. Take, for example, this passage where the sorcerer, Henry Kissinger, debriefs a collection of high-ranking military personnel and senators on the true dark heart of the Cold War, using the clipped language appropriate to such a gathering, though the content is rather different:
And this moment of clarity from Nixon:
This is Le Carre meets Lovecraft, the perfect fictional vehicle for examining those decades during the twentieth-century when two superpowers indulged their sick fascination for death on a global scale.
Grossman also gives him a reimagined Cold War to fight and embeds in that struggle an even darker threat, one that recasts many of Nixon's worst, lowest moments as quietly, anonymously heroic. It begins with Watergate, which, in this alternative history is not what we thought it was, and from there loops back to 1946, when Nixon was trying to make his mark hunting Communists such as Alger Hiss.
Grossman is one of those writers whose sentences are delightful, one moment muscular and packed with energy, another moment gently reflective and melancholy, yet another, deadpan funny. As in his wonderful debut novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible, he excels at writing about fantastic and supernatural elements. Take, for example, this passage where the sorcerer, Henry Kissinger, debriefs a collection of high-ranking military personnel and senators on the true dark heart of the Cold War, using the clipped language appropriate to such a gathering, though the content is rather different:
"Our principal opponent, the Soviet Union, has many forms of xeno-, exo-, and cryptobiological ordnance to draw upon. Some that emanate from the distant Precambrian past, and some from the far-distant apocalyptic future. Those that lie sleeping, and those that do not sleep and are ever vigilant." (252)
And this moment of clarity from Nixon:
I was thirty-five and I thought I was playing political poker and it turned out I'd been playing in some other game I didn't even know about. Like I'd been holding a hand of kings and then the people around the table started putting down more kings, a king with a squid's face, a naked king with goat's horns holding up a bough of holly. A Russian king with an insect's voice. I knew the look on my face because I'd seen it on other people's faces, that moment when the cocky junior-league card-sharp who thinks he's been running the show all night looks around the table and finally figures out who the sucker is. (58)
This is Le Carre meets Lovecraft, the perfect fictional vehicle for examining those decades during the twentieth-century when two superpowers indulged their sick fascination for death on a global scale.