Archive for the ‘sexual predators’ Tag
Bodie Kane, a successful podcaster living in Los Angeles, returns to her alma mater, a private boarding school in New Hampshire, to teach a podcasting and a film class. The trek down memory lane reveals several unresolved issues; including questioning her role in what she now suspects is the wrongful conviction of the school’s athletic trainer for the murder of her high school roommate.
In I Have Some Questions For You, Rebecca Makkai has crafted an engaging narrative by combining elements of a murder mystery with the transience of memory.
When two of her students choose the murder as their podcast topic, Bodie is both intrigued and uncomfortable, although the former soon overrides the latter. Bodie is forced to examine her own past at the school.
As narrator, Bodie occasionally addresses questions to an unknown reader. The identity is eventually revealed, but the inquiries help guide her as she learns more about the night of the murder, initially viewed as suicide. She considers the school’s eagerness to settle the matter and the possible culpability of numerous students and faculty.
Makkai’s characters are intelligent and credible thanks to an array of foibles. Bodie is separated from her husband with whom she’s maintained a friendly relationship. When he’s called out on social media as sexual predator, Bodie unwittingly comes to his defense, which leads to a new set of problems. All of this comes down to power and privilege, themes further raised as the students’ podcast assumes a life of its own.
I Have Some Questions For You
Four Bookmarks
Viking, 2023
438 pages
The phrase Catch and Kill, the title of Pulitzer Prize winner Ronan Farrow’s account of power brokers’ abuse of women, has its roots in journalism. It refers to a media outlet obtaining the rights to a story and then letting it rot. That is, the public never sees it.
Farrow writes of his efforts to expose Harvey Weinstein who used his power as a Hollywood producer to take advantage of women by promising, or at least suggesting, he would help further their careers in exchange for sexual favors. This isn’t about a singular or a few incidents; there are many, but it took Farrow’s determination to uncover the truth.
Although Weinstein is the focus, Farrow also recounts efforts by other men in similar roles to keep their secrets from surfacing. These included threats of intimidation to keep the victims of abuse silent; spies, financial payouts and efforts to kill the story – not just once but multiple times.
When Farrow began working on the story he was an investigative reporter for NBC News. The more information he obtained, including on-the-record statements from the victims, the more the was thwarted by upper management at the network. He was finally given approval to pitch the story elsewhere, which is how it came to be published by The New Yorker.
Farrow recounts the numerous fact-checking, the uncovering of documents and a general resistance to revealing the facts associated with how the story broke. He imbues the narrative with sensitivity, vulnerability, occasional humor and tenacity.
Catch and Kill
(subtitled: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to protect Predators)
Four-and-a-half Bookmarks
Little, Brown and Co., 2019
448 pages (includes index)
The Blue Page Special 