Might be a weird request, but I love books that really delve into the minds of someone who’s clearly awful, but also portrays them as a human being and can even have you feeling compassion – not sympathy – for them and the conditions that made them possible. I find it a great mark of a writer if they can strike that delicate balance. Bonus points if its lively to read.
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by UnexpectedVader
3 Comments
Ah sorry, I don’t have a book suggestion but if you like podcasts I really recommend Behind The Bastards. It does exactly what you’re looking for.
*G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century* by Beverly Gage. It’s the first major biography of Hoover in 30 years.,
Hoover took a backwater minor government investigative agency and turned it into the FBI. He was hard-working, very well-organized, and very intelligent. He was also a racist and a virulent anti-leftist who used the FBI to spy on dissenters (Black Power organizations, anti-war organizations, etc.) He was almost certainly a closeted homosexual and did little to stop the discrimination against gays working for the US government.
Hoover is a person I find loathsome, but this book gives a rather nuanced view of him while not being on board with his over-reaching his authority. It’s very well researched and written. And if awards mean anything, Gage was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for biography for this book, among other awards.
Here’s [a review](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/books/review/g-man-j-edgar-hoover-beverly-gage.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4kw.wPzu.5eF_y8-jOHpr&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) from the NY Times.
Needle In A Haystack, By Casey Jordan