3 comments about Wainewright the Poisoner: The confession of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright--Regency author, painter, swindler, and probable murderer--brilliantly woven from historical fragments.

1. This is a strange animal, neither fish nor fowl. The book is marketed as the fictional confession of a real, and seemingly fascinating, character--writer, painter, swindler, companion of famous Romantic authors, probable murderer, and criminal transported to Tasmania. Publishers highlight the fact that Andrew Motion, the author, is both Poet Laureate of Great Britain and a professor of creative writing, and words such as "brilliant," "memorable," "engaging," and "convincing" attach to the book and appear in reviews. With credentials like these, this book should be one of the most vivid and exciting reading experiences of the year, if not the decade.

   Unfortunately, this is not the case. The book is so erudite--so like a doctoral dissertation--that the reader never gets close to the subject. The voice of Wainewright, done extremely well in the formal language of the period, nevertheless keeps him at an unbridgeable distance. Wainewright himself never admits his crimes--in fact, does not even recognize them as crimes--and seems to be solely concerned with his own ends, not characteristics allowing for reader identification. Most unfortunately, footnotes so heavily burden the narrative they constitute almost as many pages as the novel itself, and they bring any flow the author does create to a juddering stop. Appearing at the end of every chapter, rather than at the end of the book, they act as deadweights throughout.

   Andrew Motion is a respected biographer who appears to have chosen to write a novel because it's the only way he can fill in the gaps in Wainewright's shadowy history, but he is too much the conscientious scholar to be able to exploit the privileges which fiction allows him. We end up, ironically, with a footnoted, scholarly account of Wainewright, a man who lived almost totally in the moment.




2. Andrew Motion has blended two of my favorite genres -- true crime and historical biography -- then wrapped the whole in a carefully crafted and very clever fictional fabric. Surprisingly, "Wainewright the Poisoner" holds up on all levels: as a deft work of literature, an insightful biography and a masterful mystery. I enjoyed the brief, incise chapters of the "Confession" followed by the scholarly footnotes liming the real Wainewright (as available from exisiting sources), the times in which he lived and the extraordinary cast of characters (real) with whom he associated, ranging from Byron and Blake to the inmates of that prison island, Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania). The ease with which Motion moves from the scholarly to flights of fancy (his own as well as the unstable Wainewright's) makes this book one of the most satisfactory, and unusal, reading experiences I've had in quite some time. Very well done, well done indeed.



3. The story of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright should be a fascinating read--the idea of a chirasmatic, possibly murderous swindler at the heart of Victorian letters is certainly attractive. However, the execution, using the convoluted prose of the 19th century, but without the subtlety or wit, is profoundly flawed.

   The footnotes, which develop the historical basis for what is essential several hundred pages of whining, are actually more interesting than the novel itself, and show what Motion, a competent and conscientious historian, is capable of when he does not hamstring himself by setting up too restrictive a scenario. Motion is obviously not comfortable portraying the literary giants with whom Wainewright interacts, and so he shows them only through the jaundiced (and totally unsympathetic) eye of Wainewright himself. The footnotes are essential in figuring out where Wainewright is sowing truth into his lies, but frankly, I was not able to become interested in Wainewright enough to care about when he tells the truth, and when he lies.

   Those interested in this genre of historical fiction are encouraged to check out Tim Powers, who manages to portray historical figures more realistically and sympathetically, even when he's throwing ghosts and vampires into the mix.

1 comments about You're Under Arrest I'm Not Kidding.

1. I bought both of Don Parker's books: "You're Under Arrest I'm Not Kidding" and "Officer Needs Assistance...Again." Both are jam packed with funny, incredibly well written stories about a cop on the beat. These stories are for anyone who likes to laugh. I am not a cop, and I've never been arrested. But while reading these books, I found myself riding with Deputy Don and laughing both WITH him and AT him. I loaned both books to a friend as MUST READ material. When he moved away without returning either book, I bought them all over again because I didn't want to be without these books in my library. Get both these books. If anyone ever asks you if you've got any good books to read, loan them these... but make sure you get them back. Otherwise, you'll miss them so much you'll have to buy them twice!

No comments about Free from Death Road.

2 comments about Mob Rule Inside the Canadian Mafia.

1. I have always been interested in the mob and, when I saw this book, I had to read it. Unfortunately, it was out of print, so I had to do a special order to get it and I got it. It was very good and Paul Volpe was a very interesting gangster to read about. It kinda sucks how his life ended the way it did; but, other than that, it was one of the most interesting biographies that I ever read.



2. All history buffs have heard of Meyer Lansky, Al Capone, and Bugsy Siegel, but few have heard of Paul Volpe, the boss of the Toronto Mafia from the early-1960's up to his death in 1983. I picked up this book, intrigued by the fact that it was someone different and, especially, someone from another country. The book detailed the Canadian mob while weaving in the biography of Volpe - his bootlegging days as a young man, to his initiation into the Mob, his stints in jail, and then the details of his death. If you are a history buff who enjoys reading about the Mafia and are interested in learning more about Mafia bosses from other countries, then this is definitely a book you'll want to check out. The only problem is that it's rare and you might have a difficult time finding copies.

No comments about The Frayne Bros.

No comments about Cops, Crooks, and Criminologists: An International Biographical Dictionary of Law Enforcement.

No comments about These Strange Criminals: An Anthology of Prison Memoirs by Conscientious Objectors from the Great War to the Cold War.

No comments about Prison to Paradise and Writings to the World.

No comments about Underworld to Undercover: From Smuggler to Con to FBI Informant.

No comments about Watergate: The FBI Files.