She Said – A Gripping Account of the Harvey Weinstein Scandal and its Enormous Impact

“The Weinstein Story was a solvent for secrecy, pushing women all over the world to speak up about similar experiences. The name Harvey Weinstein came to mean an argument for addressing misconduct, lest it go unchecked for decades, an example of how less severe transgressions could lead to more serious ones.”

On October 5, 2017, New York Times published a shocking expose of influential Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long history of sexual harassment, power abuse, and cover-ups. Times reporters’ – Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey – relentless investigation of the Weinstein’s disgusting misdeeds (Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker also simultaneously broke the Weinstein story) among other things became the catalyst for #MeToo Movement, first on social media (millions of women shared their experiences of sexual harassment), and later led to protests, asking deeper questions about sexism, gender inequality in the contemporary workplaces and society. In She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, Kantor and Twohey chronicle how they set out to investigate Harvey Weinstein, highlighting how their investigative methods, free from sensationalism or ideological fervor, dealt the monumental challenges of ‘real reporting’.

The investigative reporters’ work was bestowed with 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. But Kantor and Twohey’s reporting, like every other news, did not happen in a vacuum. In fact, She Said opens with describing the stormy sociopolitical climate (following the 2016 release of Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s now-infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape) and the precedent set by Times’ Emily Steel and Michael Schmidt who published an investigative report on Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s history of sexual harassment. Megan Twohey has already worked on the story concerning Trump’s treatment of women and his tax history, whereas Jodi Kantor has reported on structural gender biases in the work places (particularly in the corporate culture).

Kantor writes that, “Gender is not a topic, but a kind of investigative entry point.” The entry point in the case of Harvey Weinstein is provided by actress Rose McGowan’s tweet (in which she alleged that she had been raped by a high-profile Hollywood producer; assumed as Weinstein). McGowan didn’t take the matter beyond the tweet, and some dismissed her as a failed actress trying to seek some attention. But even before McGowan’s tweet, there were rumors of the producers’ predatory, sleazy behavior. When Megan Twohey teamed-up with Kantor on Weinstein story, they tried to center their story on the horrific experiences the A-list stars such as Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow endured while working with the producer. The actresses were still uncertain about going on-the-record. But then Kantor and Twohey decided to broaden the scope of their story (on the insistence of their editor, Rebecca Corbett) by tracking down former female employees who worked at Miramax and TWC; the women who supposedly came in close contact with the producer’s ugly side.

As Kantor and Twohey collects stories of these women, a disgusting pattern seems to emerge. The assault follows with threats and payoffs. But although the reporters were made aware of gruesome accounts, they couldn’t report it, since they had no one on the record. The list of women abused by Weinstein was bound by confidentiality agreement. Some are just terrified by the prospect of standing against a powerful film producer. Soon, Kantor and Twohey themselves are warned of Weinstein’s mode of operation, whose clandestine tactics and team of fierce lawyers do everything in their power to stop the story going public. In this process, the Times reporters learn how the wealthy repeat offenders like Weinstein exploit the weak sexual harassment laws. The journalists observe that, “Some advocates for women profit from a settlement system that covers up misdeeds.” Even female lawyers who are supposed to be the defenders of women’s rights are proven to be part of this system that aids high-profile abusers (silence in exchange for money).

She Said excels in offering a blow-by-blow account of how the reporters gradually pieced together all the evidence – from on-record testimonies of abused women sharing their experiences to including all the incendiary E-mail and legal documents. The persistent yet delicate tactics Twohey and Kantor employs to persuade the women to come forward is also impressively noted. The most thrilling parts of the book involve the journalists’ & editors’ confrontation with unruly Weinstein and his suave lawyers. In one episode, we read the showdown on phone between Weinstein and Times executive editor, Dean Baquet. By the end of this exchange, it’s made clear that the producer’s years of bullying and harassing is coming to an end (although it can’t be surely said if he is ever going to spend some time behind bars). She Said, however, doesn’t end with the beginning of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall. It goes beyond chronicling the nuts and bolts techniques of investigative reporting and looks at the huge social impact of the story Kantor and Twohey broke.

In the third half of the book, the reporters jump to Christine Blasey Ford story. Mrs. Ford reported an alleged high school sexual attack on her by Supreme Court judge nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who eventually was confirmed in office. Although Kantor and Twohey only reported the Ford story from a distance, they offer a detailed account of how the events unfolded. This might be less compelling compared to Weinstein allegations, but the authors include the event to fit into the timeline, which starts with Trump, Bill O’Reilly and culminated in #MeToo Movement. Kantor and Twohey also addresses the backlash the movement received after it was labeled as ‘witch-hunt’ directed against men. They emphasize on the need to verify and check the allegations (a sort of structural change in the workplaces), and how the movement has become extremely divisive (“In a way, those who felt #MeToo had not gone far enough and those who protested that it was going too far are saying some of the same things: There was a lack of purpose or clear enough rules. The public did not fully agree on the precise meaning of words like ‘harassment’ or ‘assault’, let alone how businesses or schools should investigate or punish them.”)

She Said has a kind of cathartic epilogue which focuses on the gathering of 12 women who had been part of Twohey and Kantor’s reporting at one time or other. The gathering takes place at actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s house. Former junior employees in Weinstein Company and McDonald’s worker Kim Lawson are part of this small circle. The episode wasn’t as strongly written (the authors hint at the obvious class differences of the women), but it stresses on the need to displace the culture of secrecy and compliance through simple communication and upholding a sense of camaraderie. 

 

American Predator – A Gripping and Well-Researched True-Crime Narrative

“The Bureau’s top criminal profilers were at a loss. The only thing they could tell the team was that Keyes was one of the most terrifying subjects that they had ever encountered. There was no precedent for a serial killer with this MO: no victim type; no fixed location for hunting, killing, and burying; putting thousands of miles between himself and his victims; caches buried all over the United States.”

Israel Keyes is described as one of the most calculating and terrifying serial-killers you’ve never heard of. The recent TV series Mindhunter (2017--), based on the bone-chilling true story of the man who pioneered the science of profiling serial killers, immersed us into the dark deeds of some of the most twisted minds. From the intimidating and unbelievably self-aware Ed Kemper to the intelligent and well-spoken Wayne Williams, the series introduced us to the deviant minds who have committed the most appalling crimes. Nevertheless, it is the early efforts (in 1970s) of FBI men to understand the serial-killers through methods of psychological profiling (BAU – Behavioral Analysis Unit) that's alleged to have helped identify and solve the serial-murders. Although serial-killing (and names like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy) have strongly captured the public’s imagination, it is stated that less than 1 percent of annual homicides in USA are by serial-killers. And Israel Keyes is one of the truly rare serial-killer whose crimes have mostly gone overlooked – the one percent of the one percent, who if not for sheer luck would have gone undetected until his death.

Israel Keyes is an anomaly even among these darkest minds since his MO has baffled the practitioners of criminal profiling. Keyes (1978-2012) is believed to have spent at least fourteen years traveling in & around America robbing banks, kidnapping, raping, and murdering people. After serving in the US army between 1998 and 2001, Keyes was sought out for his handyman skills, and later started his own construction business in the small town of Anchorage, Alaska. When not working or spending time with his daughter, Keyes meticulously prepared himself for new hunts: studying maps (for the safest getaway routes), caching weapons (buried ‘kill kits’ all over the country), and even read the popular books of forensic specialists and FBI profilers. Keyes didn’t have a victim type. He killed indiscriminately and never chose a victim beforehand (his slaughtered victims only made the ‘mistake’ of being in his kill zone). Even though Keyes claimed, he never touched kids, the investigators have understood enough about him to treat this claim with skepticism (So, why did he do it? “Why Not?” was his answer).

Israel Keyes eventually came under the radar of FBI by making few careless mistakes. But until his death (by suicide) on December 1, 2012 there were lots of unanswered questions about the list of his victims. Keyes has confessed to 11 homicides, but he is hinted to be responsible for many more murders as he is supposed to have committed his first murder when he was only a teenager. Sadly, the incompetence of few officials while keeping him in the custody, and Keyes’ egotistical need to manipulate and control the interrogation never revealed the full monstrosity of his criminal behavior. Nevertheless, all the details unveiled so far about this lesser-known serial-killer are deftly presented in the investigative journalist Maureen Callahan’s true-crime book American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21^st century (published July 2019). Author Maureen Callahan does a fine job of distancing us from the killer, by telling the story backwards, i.e., from the bizarre kidnapping and brutal murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koening of Anchorage, Alaska (Keyes' last kill).

Maureen offers a thorough account of Samantha’s disappearance and the botched police investigation in the earlier phase. Yet group of dedicated professionals banded together, and thanks to few sloppy mistakes made by the suspect, their man was arrested in Texas, more than 3,000 miles from Alaska. In custody, Keyes confessed to the killing of Samantha. Only when he started to confess about the slaying of a middle-aged couple in New England, the investigators came to understand the truly diabolical nature of Keyes. Although details of certain crime scenes, especially the murder of Curriers, are luridly described, Maureen Callahan never commits the mistake of putting us in the killer’s perspective. Moreover, the author reports the peculiarity and deviancy of Keyes from the viewpoint of those closely involved in the case. The conversational tone maintained throughout the book, from digging up into the actual transcripts between Keyes and law enforcement officials, throws a lot of chilling details in a matter-of-fact manner. The abridged version of the transcripts also helps us comprehend the difficulties and challenges faced by the law enforcement officials in handling such smart, incredibly self-aware and ruthless serial-killers.

Overall, American Predator is a compelling account of a relatively unknown serial-killer who smoothly traveled all around post-9/11 America, casting an intricate web of murder and mayhem.

 

The Sound of Things Falling – A Reflective Novel on Remembering and Memory

“And I tell myself at the same time that we're terrible judges of the present moment, maybe because the present doesn't actually exist: all is memory, this sentence that I just wrote is already a memory, this word is a memory that you, reader, just read.”

Like the Chilean novelist and short story writer Roberto Bolano – often regarded as the most influential Latin American author of his generation – Colombian novelist Juan Gabriel Vasquez contemplates the troublesome history of his nation’s past, its culture of violence, and the political dysfunction through delicate, dream-like tableau. Mr. Vasquez’ third novel, The Sound of Things Falling (published 2011 and translated to English by Anne McLean) is falsely described as a tale exploring the Colombian drug trade. Although the readers can easily equate the word ‘Colombia’ with drug war (the popular history of Medellin Cartel and its notorious leader Pablo Escobar has had profound effect on people around the world) The Sound of Things Falling is primarily concerned with the trauma of living in a disorderly society where the past is a black-hole and memories are faulty. Vasquez strongly evokes the sense of a particular place and its history while universalizing certain aspects of his deeply introspective characters’ emotions.

In The Sound of Things Falling, Vasquez as usual offers dual narratives; one detailing the existential anxieties of the narrator, whereas the other intricate tale of an elusive past begins to gradually invade the emotional landscape of his narrator/protagonist. The novel opens with the news item of a shooting, not between drug cartel and paramilitary, but the shooting of a hippopotamus which has escaped from the broken-down private zoo of cocaine baron Pablo Escobar. The dead hippo and its connection to Escobar unveil the interior life of the story’s narrator, Antonio Yammara, a law professor in Bogota approaching 40 years of age.  Antonio remembers the time he visited (when he was 12-years-old) Escobar’s zoo against the order of his parents. But Antonio is not haunted by his childhood. He tells us that his life was changed in the mid- 1990s when he befriended a lonely, middle-aged man named Ricardo Laverde.

Antonio comes across the short and timid Laverde in the billiards club in central Bogota, since both of the lonely men are regulars there. Drug-related kidnappings and killings were the order of the day in the 1990s as Vasquez writes, “The violence that’s been ravaging Colombia is not just savagery of cheap stabbings and stray bullets, the settling of accounts between low-grade dealers, but rather violence committed by actors whose names are written with capital letters: the State, the Cartel, the Army, the Front.” By the time Antonio and Laverde get acquainted with each other, the worst of the nation’s violence (bombing commercial airlines, assassinating presidential candidate on live TV) has already become a memory.

Antonio Yammara, the handsome and smart professor belonging to Colombian intelligentsia, occasionally has an affair with his students. Nevertheless, he later starts to live with his ex-student Aura who becomes pregnant with his baby daughter, Leticia. Antonio is mildly fascinated by his billiards club friend whom he learns had made his living as a pilot. One day, Antonio sees Ricardo Laverde listening to a mysterious, unmarked cassette. Few minutes later, Laverde is killed in a shooting with Antonio receiving one bullet in his gut.

Antonio is saved physically, but mentally he doesn’t recover (suffers from PTSD), and gradually becomes obsessed with the life of his dead friend. Vasquez hints that the post-traumatic stress is a generalized condition of all Colombia’s citizens as they are still suffering and striving to recover from the nation’s bloody past. Ricardo Laverde has piloted small aircraft, carrying cocaine into US soil, for which he has spent more than a decade in jail. When Antonio receives an invitation from Laverde’s 28-year-old beekeeping daughter, Maya to visit her at a remote location, he immediately accepts it. In the trip, Antonio gets to know about Laverde’s life with his American wife Elaine Fritts, who first arrived at Bogota as a US Peace Corps worker (in the early 1970s). As Antonio delves deep into the memories of young Laverde’s life, his present life with his patient wife and lovely little daughter begins to founder.   

Vasques is skillful at tapping into larger themes of national identity, fatherhood, fear, love, and memory simply through one individual’s curiosity. The Sound of Things Falling, similar to his other stories, is an investigation of sorts. Yet the central mystery doesn’t provide an answer to a earth-shattering secret, but subtly introduces us to the Colombian national character. The author profoundly focuses on the social and psychological impact of Colombia’s violent past. There are no detailed portraits of drug trade or the nation’s debilitated political institutions (courtesy of giant neighbor -- US). Vasquez rather intimately showcases the psychological effect of violence in ordinary Colombian citizens’ life. And there’s undeniable beauty in the way Vasquez describes how these simple individuals are linked through history by the violence, fear and uncertainty, passed from fathers to daughters and so on.