A biography of super-lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, whose shocking exploits over four decades have shaped the modern political era, most prominently the ascent of Donald Trump.
Offers an effective portrait of Cohn’s role in New York society in an era when sleaze and respectability were not clearly delineated. There is a great deal of salacious gossip; readers will learn far more than they ever wanted to know about Cohn’s sexual habits. Yet despite the extent of Bird and Goldmark’s research, the portrayal of Cohn as an unbounded narcissist misses some of what his life might tell us about the right-wing politics of his era.
I gobbled up every page ... A bounteous cornucopia of midcentury sleaze and uneasily addictive for just that reason ... As ugly and lurid as this saga is, American Scoundrel is consistently riveting, full of astonishing twists, ballsy plots, and eleventh-hour escapes from justice, like the legal version of the exploits of some Old West outlaw who is forever eluding the sheriffs by the skin of his teeth.
