Ronan FarrowReviews

Gripping and enormously difficult at the same time. Also, often, absurd. The enormity of the networks in which men like Weinstein and Trump move and hide is staggering, and at the same time, the individual foibles of these men, and the people who helped them--their egos, their prurience, their certainty that money and power really can make anything disappear--all of that lends itself to a rich and ridiculous tapestry that almost makes you forget what's at the center of this story (these stories, this unending matryoshka doll of stories). Farrow doesn't forget it though, and he doesn't let you either. I can't write in any real way what reading the accounts these women give felt like, as a survivor. It's bigger than belongs on Goodreads, at the very least.

I did laugh at the National Enquirer's brief period of constantly soliciting dick pics from Ronan Farrow.

Engaging and sad look at the current state of diplomacy.

1. I really wanted to give it 4 stars because I'm not sure why Ronan feels the need to do accents for everyone in the audio book. It's actually kinda distracting. However, the content of the book is FIVE stars so five it is.
2. I knew what this was about, of course, but listening to it all again makes me want to take a shower for about 24 hours. THIS SOCIETY WE LIVE IN IS SO.FUCKING.FUCKED.UP. FUCK.
3. Also, fuck you to all of the companies out there shielding their shitty terrible rapist employees.
4. Ladies, we need to stop being so fucking terrified of repercussions.

This is a disturbing book about a predator who was allowed to harm countless women while people just looked the other way. I am going to read She Said next but first I have to digest the horror of this one.

Not as polished as some other exposes, but astonishing, infuriating and important and every bit a page turner

For me, this book is a little on the overrated side, but I'm giving it an extra star because of the importance of the reporting from a societal standpoint. Farrow shines a light where previously there was none, and I admire him for it.

But the writing didn't do it for me, and the book seriously could have been edited so much better and tighter. I guess I like my investigative reporting more arms length. In this book, the author is the story, more than the sexual misdeeds of Weinstein or any of the other criminal acts explored. So, the book almost reads as much like a memoir as anything else.

The book primarily focuses on how Farrow managed to finally get the story of Harvey Weinstein published despite tremendous hurdles. The book would have been well served to stick to that story as it was a horrendous tale of the abuse of power with NBC and other media outlets playing an active role in attempting to suppress Farrow's reporting at every turn. But no, we had to spend the last quarter of the book meandering aimlessly through Trump, Lauer, Moonves, etc. I think a one chapter summation of how the Weinstein reporting paved the way for other investigations and revelations would have been more than satisfying. Weinstein and NBC is the story Farrow knows, and I think a better book would have stuck to telling that story. The last quarter of the book felt superfluous.

In addition, the book screamed out for some kind of appendix with a listing of characters. There were so many ancillary people who played roles in either suppressing the story or bringing it to light. Thank goodness for Kindle X-Ray.

One thing I will say is that if you are the type of person who believes people are generally good and thinks conspiracies are always fabricated, this book will dispel all those beliefs in a hurry. If you had skepticism about the media before reading it, well after this book, you aren't going to feel better about it. There's the untrue news that gets published, but here we learn about the true news that does not . . .it's hard to say which is actually worse.

All in all, I give Farrow tons of credit for sticking with the Weinstein story over the incredible pressure, legal and other more ominous threats.

Holy cow! This book was so crazy, but crazy good. I'll be honest, I don't read blurbs, only genres. So I wasn't sure what I was getting into, I said holy shit many times through out this book. I will be writing a full review on aconitecafe.com but if you're into murder mysteries read this book!

The only negative that I came across, was there were a few points that the writer flat out gave away the foreshadowing word for word instead of letting their writing do the talking. Also the point of view changes from character to character within chapters and that was a little unsettling but you get used to it after a few changes.

I’ll never look at a “me too” scandal the same way again after seeing how much work goes in to discrediting and squashing the stories of victims. Book could have used a tighter edit and less focus by Farrow on Farrow.

Harvey Weinstein is a despicable man, and everything Mr. Farrow experienced simply trying to expose him illustrates everything wrong in this country.

Excellent and important book that should be required reading. It's really terrifying to see just how much the world wants to cover up and protect sexual predators as long as they're rich and influential.

This is an incredible and hard to believe read about the uncovering of Harvey Weinstein and the beginning of the depth of the number of metoo cases in the media.

What I enjoyed is he also wrestles with how he treated his sister during her accusations against Woody Allen.

I will say I think there were a few too many details as he talks about the number of times NBC tried to put his story on hold. There are just so many times which tells the story, but it was tedious to read. It could have been trimmed a bit.

https://www.bookcompanion.com/catch_and_kill_name_list.html

The above link is for an index of characters. Until I was almost finished with the book, I struggled to keep track of who was who. Then I thought to look up on the internet for an index. Duh.
Some disgusting excerpts:
"In the late '90s, Perkins [ Zeld Perkins, one of Weinstein's former assistants.] had started working as an assistant to gigliotti. In practice, this meant working for Weinstein much of the time. 'from my very first time left alone with Harvey,' she told me later, 'I had to deal with him being present either in his underpants or totally naked.' He'd tried to pull her into bed. Perkins was petite and blonde and looked younger than her years. But she also had a sharp personality and was, even then, defiantly assertive. Weinstein never succeeded in his physical advances. The unending fusillade of attempts, though, exhausted her."

"The first year they'd worked together, Canosa [Ally Canosa, former Weinstein's employee] had tried repeatedly to brush off Weinstein's advances. During one meeting about the Cassidy film, he casually told her he needed to go up to his hotel room to get something. 'It was like mid-afternoon or something. So, I just didn't think,' she said. When they got there, he told her he was going to take a shower. 'Would you get in the shower with me?'He asked.
'No,' Canosa told him.
'Just get in the shower with me. I don't even need to -- I don't want to have sex with you. I just want you to be in the shower with me.'
'No,' she said again and went into the living room. Weinstein announced, from the bathroom, that he was going to masturbate anyway and started doing so through the open door as she averted her gaze. She left Weinstein's hotel room, upset.
Another time, Weinstein left a jacket behind at one of their meetings and asked her to hold on to it. In its pockets, she pound a pack of syringes that googling revealed were a treatment for erectile dysfunction. She reeled at the implications of him arming himself for sex ahead of their meetings."

I'm a survivor of sexual abuse. Words can't begin to describe how disgusting Weinstein and other men like him are to me. Fat, bald, with horrible insides, how can they possibly think that anyone would be attracted to their horrible selves? And to use their wealth and power to force themselves on women? There's no punishment in the world tough enough and horrible enough for someone like this.
I struggled to make it through this book, because it was constantly triggering me. You can't imagine how much I hate men because of people like him.
Kudos to Farrow for standing up to the bullying, the surveillance and the job harassment that he endured to get this story out.
NBC, MSNBC, and NBCUniversal, you suck.

Things learned while listening to Catch and Kill:

If NBC says it, and it in any way defends a power structure, it is a lie. Not a misrepresentation or an omission; they flat out lie about everything.

Noah Oppenheim and Andy Lack should not only not have jobs, but they should never be allowed to work within any significant organization again.

Male power structures will always always close ranks when threatened (specifically, the media in response to the Trump audio, but see, also, individuals within the Catholic church), even when they are not technically implicated, because there is always a dangling "yet."

Ronan Farrow is an amazing dogged reporter who should work this beat, as necessary, until every person in power is made accountable.

And Ronan Farrow should never ever be allowed to do voices for an audiobook again.


Thing we already knew, broadly:

Matt Lauer is a huge piece of shit.

Works best when it is a valentine to Richard Holbrooke, as Farrow clearly had a lot of respect for the man and worked closely enough with him to have an understanding of him that is not hagiographic, exactly. Weirdly, this Holbrooke-centric nature means that the narrative skips, more or less from Vietnam straight to Clinton.

It goes without saying that the Trump State Department is known to be a diplomatic cataclysm, and so further reiteration of this is not needed. There is some light discussion of the hand that Tillerson was dealt in this, though he is somebody who does not need sympathy. But the book is a bit like a discussion of Antediluvian farming techniques. It isn't like farming tips aren't helpful, and won't be helpful again. But having the destruction of everything be the opening and concluding chapters makes the rest of the narrative feel a bit small beer.

The most interesting aspect for people not steeped in diplomatic history, likely, is how cyclical these disasters are: new administration thinks diplomacy is a waste of time, and by second term spends four years undoing the first term's mistakes. Obama comes in for this criticism as well, which is interesting for a foreign policy team who's mantra (not expressed here) was allegedly: "Don't fuck things up." But Carter and Reagan aren't covered at all, which leaves a massive lacuna in any such history, in my opinion.

If one has read recent histories like [b:The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government|24723229|The Devil's Chessboard Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government|David Talbot|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439315922s/24723229.jpg|44215740], one will ruefully nod in recognition of how many American disasters are predicated on consequences that are either unintended or to which the participants were indifferent for political reasons, though Farrow rarely gets into specifics about the political reasons, and instead simply acknowledges their existence.

The weirdest aspect is Farrow's tendency to foreground himself in the narrative, discussing the memos he sent or discussions he had in which he was always on the right side of history, lo, this one whole decade later. He's already become la belle enfant of investigative journalism. He really has no need to pad his resume in book form.

Chilling stuff.

Have you ever had the sneaking suspicion that people in power will go to great lengths to cover up each other's evil deeds? Well, this book will prove you right. It will also piss you off, but it's so worth reading. Glad that there are still some journalists in the world like Ronan Farrow willing to stand up to corruption and abuse.

This is an excellent book that really shows the power that Harvey Weinstein had and the clout which he used to secure his power. The only downside to the audiobook which I listened to was that Ronan Farrow narrates it and he does accents and voices for the various people in the book and at times these are really bad and distracting. But his own narration was excellent. So I still enjoyed the audiobook.

Ronan Farrow tells the story behind the story in his narrative of the Harvey Weinstein, scandal. Most of the facts of the case came out as Weinstein was accused in public and finally arrested and held accountable for multiple rapes, sexual assaults, and workplace sexual harassment. So those who followed the coverage will not find a lot new here but will learn a lot about the efforts the Weinstein company took to obstruct the investigation. Another more interesting angle of this book is the exposure of NBCs journalistic failures at the top echelons of the network. Farrow goes into deep detail of the process of building an investigative report which some may find tedious. I was intrigued and perhaps surprised, although I shouldn’t be, about the hours, days, months it takes to build such a report. Several years ago, I also read She Said, by Kantor and Twohey of the New York Times. These make good companion pieces. Farrow focuses on the process of getting powerful people to expose their peers. Kantor and Twohey got to know their sources and worked with them as equals. These are both important works and deepen our understanding of the Me Too! Movement.

I can't overstate the importance of this book. Finish whatever you're reading, then read this. It will make you angry. It will make you cry. It will make you scream in frustration at the unfairness of the world.

But it will also give you hope.

Wow, I thought I was angry enough with Weinstein, but this book made my blood boil. He created a system with many little helpers to silence all the abused women. And it's unbelievable that he could do all these things for so long. It leaves you speechless.

Ronan Farrow has done a great job writing up his investigation about Harvey Weinstein. The chapters are short, so they are easy to read. I struggled with all the names he mentioned, but I often found myself googling them anyway because I wanted to know more about their involvement with Weinstein.

Nonetheless, the book reads like science fiction or a spy story. The sad thing, however, is that this is reality. All these things are still happening. The fact that people can do such things to each other makes me shocked and outraged. I am proud and grateful for all the women who dared to speak out. My thanks also to Ronan Farrow for his incredible research and this book.

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Check out my blog www.wordsandfiction.com to find more reviews.

3.5 stars. Four for entertainment value. Three for reporting.

I think, i can safely assume most of us know about the movement from few years back when women across the world started raising their voice against sexual harassment especially at workplace.

Now, most of us may not know or remember what triggered these chain of events. The book is the story behind it. Well, actually the story of the story behind it.

In this book, Ronan compiles the story from the first ever interview with one of the victims of Harvey Weinstein (Former Producer and founder of Miramax), and goes on to give a complete account of the entire process of interviewing the victims while at NBC to eventually publishing THE Article in The NewYorker.

This book is about a sensitive topic. So, it is safe to assume some part of it can make you quite uncomfortable at times . Some pages of victims(for lack of a better word) explaining their experience with the Predator(Harvey) can be quite unnerving to read. But what got me was the intense cover up an entire organisation went through to sweep the story under the carpet.

When the stories from various sexual assaults were coming up one by one on our social media, one of the biggest question i think all of us had at some point had was why they did not say it before and why now(As a woman, it is still easy to forget sometimes when you are not the one at the receiving end). But reading this book gives you a whole new perspective into what was going through their minds when they faced not just the trauma of the assault but dealing with aftermath of not being believed when they tried to come forward.

In the end, what gives me a slight hope is, it took one woman starting to risk it and try one more time to stand up to practically an army defending the Perpetrator and the subsequent women, who were inspired by it and said #MeToo. Hopefully, the coming generation , men and women alike , will have each other's back when it happens to one of their own. Even better, the growing awareness gives way to a better future, where no one has to face one falls victims to such an unfortunate fate at all.

Excellent, excellent book.

Listened to the audiobook. Trigger warning for graphic descriptions of sexual assaults. Plural.

Yes, it's mostly about the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story, but it's also about the inner workings of what investigative journalism is like in the age of corporate ownership. Weaving in the National Enquirer and NBC News cultures of assault and harassment and non-disclosure agreements makes this a fascinating book. Didn't want to stop listening after a while.

The lengths Weinstein and his people went to cover their tracks and kills a story completely blew my mind.

It’s tough enough for any author to write a book. But Farrow had to face intimidation and threats from not only Harvey Weinstein and his cronies but also from his bosses, colleagues and management at NBC. It is amazing what it took for this story to come out. Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed, assaulted and possibly raped dozens of actresses and women. He was able to buy off the silence of many of the women and those he did not buy off, he intimidated by threatening to end their careers.

Weinstein had his supports as he was a huge contributor to the Democratic party and liberal causes as well as a friend and confidant of many heavy hitters in business, politics and Hollywood. No one wanted to cross Harvey.

This book has to be a movie in the near future as the story is so compelling. Maybe the best non-fiction book of 2019!!