{"id":2232,"date":"2008-08-10T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2008-08-10T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=2232"},"modified":"2008-08-10T21:59:51","modified_gmt":"2008-08-11T01:59:51","slug":"the-good-rat-try-the-totally-freakin-awesome-rat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-good-rat-try-the-totally-freakin-awesome-rat","title":{"rendered":"“The Good Rat”? Try “The Totally Freakin’ Awesome Rat”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I enjoy the heck out of Ron Rosenbaum’s essays<\/a>\"\" and columns<\/a>, but my track record with his book, movie, music recommendations isn’t great. Sure, he turned me — and a generation of readers — on to Charles Portis, and he also lightened my heart with Rosanne Cash.<\/p>\n

But then there’s the Rosenbaum who contends that Domino<\/a> “captures, purely with its look, the way we look” and “will be a cultural referent longer than many movies that make more money.” In fact, Domino<\/em> is a terrible movie, the acid-green-iness isn’t very innovative, and it still doesn’t answer the question of whether Keira Knightley is hot.<\/p>\n

And don’t get me started with the number of months my wife & I were sucked into the hypersaturated void of CSI:Miami<\/em> on Ron’s recommendation<\/a>. Sure, it was stupidly entertaining, especially with the Caruso-isms. But, dude . . . Zoroastrian undertones?<\/p>\n

What I’m saying is, some of Ron’s suggestions are good, some are bad. And I’m telling you that he hit a home run with his recent praise for Jimmy Breslin’s new book, The Good Rat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I downloaded the book shortly after reading Ron’s article, and I could barely put it down. I’ve gone back to reread chapters this weekend. It’s a fantastic non-fiction book about a career mobster who testifies against a pair of crooked (now retired) cops. Much of the book consists of the man’s testimony, balanced by Breslin’s wonderful interjections, his anecdotes about criminal New York’s past and dissolving present, character sketches, and his own past as a newspaperman, chronicling the city’s underworld.<\/p>\n

The book is a sort of elegy for those early days, exploring the contradictions of the glamor, mundanity and evil of the mafia. The mobsters commit evil acts — the center of the book involves a heartbreaking story of murder-by-mistaken-identity — but they lead common lives, and Breslin is adept at drawing out these tensions. These men aspire to some sort of greatness, but they can never amount to anything more than elderly men trying to stay ahead of the feds. This may seem passe, post-Sopranos, but Breslin makes it a joy to explore this world.<\/p>\n

Go get The Good Rat<\/a>\"\". It’s the best book I’ve read this year. (I count The Heart of Darkness<\/em> as a novella, not a book.)<\/p>\n[As an aside, I should point out that the biggest tragedy in the death-of-the-newspaper phenomenon may be the loss of great city & political columnists like Breslin, Mike Royko and Murray Kempton (another Rosenbaum recommendation). I only read a few papers nowadays, but I can’t think of any newspaper writers working now who could reach their heights.]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I enjoy the heck out of Ron Rosenbaum’s essays and columns, but my track record with his book, movie, music recommendations isn’t great. Sure, he turned me — and a generation of readers — on to Charles Portis, and he also lightened my heart with Rosanne Cash. But then there’s the Rosenbaum who contends that … <\/p>\n

Continue reading ““The Good Rat”? Try “The Totally Freakin’ Awesome Rat””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[256,86],"class_list":["post-2232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jimmy-breslin","tag-ron-rosenbaum"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-A0","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17784,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-659-ron-rosenbaum","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":0},"title":"Episode 659 – Ron Rosenbaum","author":"Gil","date":"October 21, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 659: Ron Rosenbaum \"I'm always looking beyond the surface of the words to deeper meanings. Or sometimes shallower meanings.\" One of my fave writers, Ron Rosenbaum, returns to the show to celebrate his amazing new book, BOB DYLAN: Things Have Changed (A Kind Of Biography) (Melville House\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1302,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/2006-2007-nfl-playoff-challenge-round-3","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":1},"title":"2006-2007 NFL Playoff Challenge, round 3","author":"Gil","date":"January 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had bigger balls in the first half of this decade. Back then, I found it easy to call literary people with no entree beyond, \"I'm a small press publisher and I'd like to talk to you about a project I'm working on.\" That opening got me into phone conversations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Football"","block_context":{"text":"Football","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/football"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0674535812","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3340,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/follow-the-code","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":2},"title":"Follow the code","author":"Gil","date":"January 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark Cuban reminds us that he's a tech geek at heart by exploring the Bernie Madoff case from the angle of the computer system Madoff used to generate his fraudulent transactions. It's a fun post, and hey, his thesis is more sensible and responsible than when Ron Rosenbaum went kinda\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16244,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-550-ron-rosenbaum","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":3},"title":"Episode 550 – Ron Rosenbaum","author":"Gil","date":"August 15, 2023","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 550: Ron Rosenbaum \"We're in an age where machines \u2014 AI, big data \u2014 are taking over human emotions and endeavors.\" With the release of IN DEFENSE OF LOVE: An Argument (Doubleday), Ron Rosenbaum offers up a series of essays to save love from scientizers, extremists, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":451,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-stuff","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":4},"title":"New stuff","author":"Gil","date":"January 17, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year, VM reader Elayne and essayist extraordinaire Ron Rosenbaum goofed on me for never having watched an Errol Morris movie. I finally sat down and watched my TiVo'd copy of The Fog of War a few nights ago. I'm still picking up pieces of my brain from the floor\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8070,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-re-explaining-hitler","url_meta":{"origin":2232,"position":5},"title":"Podcast: Re-Explaining Hitler","author":"Gil","date":"July 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories: Ron Rosenbaum\u00a0- Re-Explaining Hitler \"The choices that an artist makes are not traceable back to a particular set of neurons firing. They're choices made by the complete consciousness of a person. Art, in a way, validates free will, and thereby validates the notion of evil.\" Ron Rosenbaum returns\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=0306823187","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2232"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions\/2235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}