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Mad Sculptor, The: The Maniac, The Model, And The Murder That Shook The Nation (2014)

by Harold Schechter(Favorite Author)

3.33 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1480555622 (ISBN13: 9781480555624)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Brilliance Audio

review 1: Let me start by admitting that I did not finish this book but that I came oh-so-so-so close. I had purchased the audiobook and was only two hours away from the finish line when I finally said fuck it. I’ve got Shirley Jackson’s marvelous “The Haunting of Hill House” on the side, and its just WONDERFUL, and so there is no reason to slog through drivel when I can just move on.I do have reasons though for quitting. GOOD REASONS THAT THIS IS A BAD BOOK- maybe I can save you some pain:First - Do NOT get the audiobook. The narrator is just pits. HE tries on these half-hearted accents willy-nilly, and he waffles between talking too slow and too fast for different “characters.” It’s very frustrating and it knocks you out of the listening experience.Second - If you fe... moreel compelled to still get the actual book be prepared for disjointed and bad story telling!The main problem with this book is that the crime isn’t interesting- it’s just sad. Robert Irwin was a man with very serious problems. He tried to castrate himself, he flew into uncontrollable rages, and in the end he though God would grant him infinite wisdom if he killed the two women, one of whom was Veronica Gedeon. That’s not an interesting crime. He didn’t try and cover his tracks. He didn’t premeditate. The poor man was just absolutely insane, a danger to himself and to those around him. I hate to say that it’s boring, because it’s tragic, but it’s a boring crime to wrap a nonfiction crime novel around. Now the author could have improved the narrative by using this crime as a platform to discuss the evolving state of mental health care in America (psychology was just starting to be widely accepted), about police brutality (17 hour long interrogations at the end of a fist), about shoddy and unscrupulous to the point of evil journalism, or even how crime scene investigation was finally becoming a thing that people did to solve crimes. BUT NO. At most the author nods to these themes by throwing information randomly about but never fully realizing a single idea. Instead we learn all about Irwin’s crazy life… which isn’t that interesting and could have been done in a single chapter. We learn a little bit about Veronica Gedeon, the model he slew, but the author only talks about her to show why the media was obsessed with this case..Oh, and randomly you’ll learn about 4 or 5 other murders around Beekman Place, because I think that’s what the author really wanted to write about. It’s really too bad, because the first murder is the most interesting one and it all goes downhill from there.I would like to get to the part where Liebowitz represents Irwin. Now there is a guy to write a book around! In the last two hours, with Irwin unable to be found after the murders, the book veers wildly off course to ANOTHER murder and we proceed to learn about that victim’s entire family history. The entire problem with the book can actually be summed up by saying the author had NO consistent thesis. He makes no argument. He just rambles through the story much to the loss of the listener.
review 2: This is a well researched, eminently readable and fascinating account of a murder that took place in New York City, in the 1930s. It is an in-depth look into the social morays of the time. Schechter describes the lives of not so quiet despair during a time of upheaval and uncertainty, the clash of cultures in an immigrant city, and the religious fervor that informed the lives of many. It is also a story of insanity, most likely the result of congenital syphilis. A brilliant, talented, and tormented man who was his own worst enemy and everyone's boogeyman. less

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