Sam Roberts (1) (1947–)

Hoping to find a book about the famous Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case, since my limited knowledge on the subject was that of documentaries that did quick snippets of the case. I thought I was in luck when I came across the Sam Roberts book The Brother: The Untold Story of the Rosenberg Case. With a ringing endorsement by The Washington Post on the cover stating," A fresh and fast-paced study of one of the most important crimes of the twentieth century" how could I go wrong? Well, that show more comment had to make me laugh since it took about 60 pages before the book even flows at a halfway decent pace. Roberts using the beginning of the book almost like a summation to give us the readers the details of The Brother aka David Greenglass' childhood as a way to make you understand why he decided to spy for the Russians. But no words written by anyone can redeem David as shown through his actions played out in the book; he is an egotistical & self-indulgent man only looking out for himself and his wife, Ruth. The book left me questioning the mindset of the government as they use David to convict his sister, Ethel and Julius to death for espionage. When David only received ten years in prison for being the one who stole the plans for the nuclear bomb and his wife only a slap on the wrist for her part. I will give Roberts credit for showing the real injustice of the case against the Rosenbergs by the government, even though I am not saying they are innocent either. Still after a long 517 pages, you are left with more questions than answers. show less

I picked up this book from the library based on a recommendation of a fellow LTer, and I was excited to read it since I had just come back from my trip to New York. I had never heard of Sam Roberts before, but I was pleased to find that he has a great writing style! Each mini-essay (taken from podcasts he's done for the Times) explores the people, history, and personal stories he has about New York. At 3-5 pages each, they provide fun snippets and make the book a breeze to read. It would be show more fun if he did an updated version with more recent essays.

My only complaint is that I wish some of the essays were longer! show less

The New Yorkers by Sam Roberts combines biography and history into a compelling story of a city and, by extension, the country.

There have been a couple of books that have used this method of tracing the history of a city. Roberts mentions Parisians, and there have been a couple of others. Each puts a slightly different twist on the idea of a history or, as this one calls it, a biography of a city. Makes sense since each city is different. This volume works very well.

I enjoy biographies but show more usually want more about lesser-known people. While there have been more like that in recent years, they also lend themselves to being almost niche reads, in that I might want to read about lesser-known activists but not lesser-known sports figures, while someone else might be the opposite. This book brings together a variety of people and, because there is a thread tying them together, even they all were of interest to me. Not equally, but there were none I skipped or skimmed because each covered a period and a moment in the bigger picture and I wanted the complete picture, not a partial.

Each chapter is a mix of contextualizing history as well as the story of, usually, a particular incident in the person's life and how that event fit in both their life and the city's history. So everything is woven into a tight fabric that entertains and informs.

In recommending this there are the usual suspects, readers of biographies and readers of history, particularly those interested in NYC. I would also include a specific type of reader, one who likes to have a book handy for when they have limited time and don't want to dive back into a novel or a long single argument nonfiction book. This book can easily be enjoyed as a collection of biographic episodes as well as a single 'biography' of New York. So if you keep collections of short stories or essays handy, this would make an excellent candidate as well.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

This is one of those books that only a New Yorker could love. A compilation of brief tidbits about aspects of “The City” that most never think about, to outsiders from Omaha or Hot Coffee, Mississippi who have never visited this will come off as a, well, only-in-New-York-who-gives-a-crap type of book. I represent the in-between set. I visit often but have never been a resident; I could almost conduct walking tours throughout large swaths of Manhattan, yet I don’t know jack about the show more other boroughs. Predictably then, I find that the essays vary in interest. New York’s obviously an amazingly complex, multi-faceted metropolis and I think Roberts’s various pieces parallel, perhaps even exude, that aspect. That being said, some of this is so site specific and/or fleeting that I can’t imagine anyone but residents of a specific four-block area might really care. Some Manhattanites – like their elite, implant-packed SoCal brethren – have a fetish about the “right” zip code? How disappointing. How long does it take to change a light bulb on East Ninety-sixth Street? I would guess that it depends on the current administration. Generally, this is an enjoyable aggregation of New York-specific anecdotes written with a refreshing levity. I just doubt this will garner mass appeal. show less