The Devil Problem: And Other True Stories - Hardcover

Remnick, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679452559 ISBN 13: 9780679452553

Publisher: Random House, 1996

Synopsis

Readers 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.

About this title

Review:

David Remnick's previous book, Lenin's Tomb, was a razor-sharp portrayal of both the rulers and the ruled in the closing days of the Soviet Union. The Devil Problem pulls together profiles of athletes and politicians at the end of their careers (Reggie Jackson, Gary Hart), writers thriving in exile (Joseph Brodsky) and struggling in their homeland (Ralph Ellison), and scholars searching for the very origin of the devil (Elaine Pagels). Especially devastating is a profile of radio talk show host Mario Cuomo, who clearly preferred life as Governor of New York. These pieces previously appeared in Esquire, the Washington Post, and the New Yorker.

About the Author:

David Remnick is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and other publications. Mr. Remnick received a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his first book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. He was a reporter for The Washington Post for ten years, including four years as Moscow correspondent. A graduate of Princeton University, and former visiting fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Remnick lives in New York with his wife and two sons.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0679452559
• ISBN 13: 9780679452553
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 404