am slowly slowly reading some chapters from Leo Katcher's book because Fallon, and i just... often want to punch the book in the face, though of course it isn't the book's fault. mostly the fault of my own ridiculous mind. maybe.
Katcher's tone irks me, as does his... i guess would call it a tendency to level judgments all over the place. like I AM PAINTING A VERY PARTICULAR PICTURE and... allowing suggestions of other reads, but mostly blocking all with a lens of 'this is what i think and this is what sounds slick.' which is, eh, just my opinion or whatever.
so anyway. book itself is The Big Bankroll. have been noting in the margins and on plurk, and am copy-pasting my scattered plurk notes here becauuuse i do use this for reference purposes. so here are some scattered whatevers, noting of course that i have my own strong biases and approximately 0% expertise on anything. hurrah.
so Katcher hits some valid painful fucking points about Fallon
but he's also like
got some major antagonism/fuck you going toward Fallon
which is probably fair
but makes me bristle.
a lot.
like yeah i dig the thought that he was trying to live up to an image of himself that he couldn't actually attain and knew he couldn't attain. for various-various reasons.
and he could be a complete fucking child.
and responsibility was not so much a strong suit at all.
but i really, really don't think he's on point using the dummy/ventriloquist image for Fallon and McGee. which... i don't have a wholeeee lot of backing for. but all of the Fowler and newspaper reading just... suggests otherwise. pretty strongly. especially since Fallon spent a decent span of time not with McGee. and... really seems to have, you know, had pretty stellar faculties of his own. just a problem of lacking direction.
among other problems, sure.
OKAY SO BASICALLY I AM IRRITATED BY THAT COMPARISON AND THE BASIC TONE HE USES TO SPEAK OF FALLON AND IT MAKES GETTING THROUGH THIS TRICKY
but also, again, some fine thoughts to keep in mind and to jump ideas off of, so.
"Fallon pawned his soul for another drink."
ahahahahah
ha
...ha.
except actually for other reasons/ends i think and THIS is something that gets me, the flippancy and just... this "i'm making statements because they sound great-glib" sense that i get off of Katcher's writing. which might just be my imposition, but. rgh.
"The fantasy was larger than the man, demanded too much of him. When Fallon found this out he took to drinking too much. Drunk, at least he did not have to see himself clear."
again, seems partly dead-on, partly far too fucking cut-and-dry. am always wary of taking any of these books and articles as truth, per say... and this one. will probably call most of this half-possible, words that suggest some sort of truth while missing a fuck of a lot. which is fine. which is valuable. but which also just rghhhhhhhhhh.
"He was paid by Rothstein to do Rothstein's bidding. He resented this, took out his resentment in bitterness and sarcasm, like a small boy drawing caricatures of the teacher on the schoolboard."
okay, so that
last part seems pretty apt. parts of the first. hmhm.
"Gene McGee said of Fallon, 'He lived as if he were afraid the light would go out any minute and he wouldn't have another quarter to put in the meter.'"
GENE WHEN DID YOU SAY THIS AND TO WHOM now i must know. damnit.
"Fallon had no self-respect and sobriety showed him he could not believe in himself."
ehhhh... the more i think on this... again, partly yes, but something about it seems far the fuck off.
like egh i think there was doubt at play, especially as he fell further into the thorn-tangle of New York life, but it seems... not apt that all of his self-confidence was manufactured. the balance there is something for me to think on, yes.
"He was personally unclean."
wtf does that mean?
"Fallon had no respect for money, only a great need for it. That was his weakness and Rothstein exploited it."
a weakness, anyway. and, well... sure.
i don't know about your downplaying Fallon's own legal knowledge, kiddo. i do not know.
gdi Arnstein: "I don't hate Fallon and I'm not bitter about him. How can you hate, or be bitter about, a dead man? He let me down, but that was long ago."
taking that for whatever it's worth, 'course.
yeah but giving money to Fallon for a haircut won't do a damn bit of good because no barbers. clearly, this is an important point to make shut up shut up it totally is.
Just got through reading David Pietrusza's Rothstein book. I really enjoyed it, save for the occasional prolonged tangents the author would go off on about people/ subjects only moderately related to AR. I most enjoyed the bits that gave insight into his personal life and character and, unfortunately, I felt those were rather lacking. I understand, also, just from following a ton of knowledgeable Rothstein fans, that he was rather an enigma, and though a lot of people knew him, very few people actually KNEW him. That comes through very clear in the book. Still, I find myself going through a mild period of obsession at the moment, and the Pietrusza book has not sufficiently satisfied my Rothstein craving. Has anyone read the Leo Katcher Big Bankroll book? I am thinking of picking it up, and I am wondering how it compares to the Pietrusza book. Anyone?
