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Craig Brandon

Auteur van Murder in the Adirondacks

6 Werken 107 Leden 6 Besprekingen

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Fotografie: Craig Brandon

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Geboortedatum
1950-08-01
Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
USA
Geboorteplaats
Akron, Ohio, USA
Woonplaatsen
Keene, New Hampshire, USA

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Besprekingen

In 1906, a handsome young man by the name of Chester Gillette, who had a roving eye and a history of petty crimes, got his co-worker Grace Brown pregnant. The obvious solution would have been for him to marry her, but Gillette was still dating other women and seems to have been tired of Grace anyway. So, rather than marry her, he took her on a "vacation" to various resorts in the Adirondacks. At one of these, they hired a boat. Chester never returned the boat or paid for it, and Grace's body ended up on the bottom of the lake with signs of having been attacked before going into the water.

Chester Gillette had never signed his name to the hotel registers, using several pseudonyms, but he was soon apprehended. He told various stories about what happened, including that Grace had committed suicide by jumping from the boat, but he was nonetheless charged with murder. There were no witnesses to the crime itself, but there were many witnesses to Chester seducing Grace, taking advantage of her desperate love for him, skipping out on his bills, faking his name, and leading her to the death spot. There was also his history of minor thefts and his history of being involved with multiple women. After a long trial, he was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. There were appeals, but he went to the electric chair -- quietly, seemingly fearlessly, even contentedly -- in 1908.

The trial had been a media circus, with the papers competing to tell more lurid stories -- often invented stories, especially during the long jury selection or on the days when the court was not in session and they had to make up something to grab readers' attention. It was out of this witch's brew of fact, fiction, and sheer tackiness that Theodore Dreiser fashioned his An American Tragedy, changing all the names and overlaying it with a sociological viewpoint very far removed from the lives of Chester and Grace. But then, the love triangle he portrayed was also far from the actual history of Chester and Grace; although he dated many women, none other than Grace seem to have been deeply involved with him.

Dreiser's book (which, in the hierarchy of these things, was not a retelling, nor even really "based on a true story," but more "inspired by a true story") in turn inspired two movies (which themselves rewrote Dreiser's rewrite), the better-known being A Place in the Sun, but it was many years before there was an attempt at a non-fiction account. And even that was pretty lurid.

Finally, in 1986, came two serious books, this one and Joseph W. Brownell and Patricia A. Wawrzaszek's Adirondack Tragedy: The Gillette Murder Case of 1906. Both worked hard to get to the actual facts as far as they can be known. Later, Brandon and Jack Sherman published The Prison Diary and Letters of Chester Gillette. These three volumes together contain just about all the serious scholarship about the Gillette case that has appeared in book form.

All three books are reasonably well-documented and strike me as reliable (though the diaries are dishwater-dull unless you want to read about a psychopath's conversion to a version of Christianity I find rather unpleasant). Brownell/Wawrzaszek is shorter and a slightly easier read; it is probably where I would start someone with a casual interest in the case. But this book is much fuller and brings you closer to the story. It also feels as if the research is better, although I haven't checked the references to be sure. And it isn't a bad read as long as you can handle the occasional gory moments (which are, after all, a part of the actual history).

The Gillette story is ugly; I only researched it because there is a ballad about the case for which I wanted background. These aren't my sorts of books. But if you want historical background on an actual event that has resonated through American literature ever since, I don't hesitate to recommend this volume.
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Gemarkeerd
waltzmn | 2 andere besprekingen | Aug 6, 2021 |
Initially, this book started interesting, but after a while Brandon's strong biases, including his desire for more in loco parentis and treating 18-year-olds like minors, basically overwhelmed the book. That there is a slight hysterical and/or alarmist tone to the book probably does not help. And the thing is that a lot of what he writes about is true, and that something needs to be done about it. However, after a while, the messages seem to get lost in the alarmist writing.

So, what are the basic messages of the book? Allow me to summarize, and for many, this may save you from reading the whole thing:

*Kids are coming to college less prepared than ever. OK, this is not really new, and we could go on a new rant just discussing how public schools have basically become holding pens rather than actual educational institutions. Thus, they are less ready for college.

*However, that they are unprepared for college does not seem to matter given that colleges are pretty much giving kids a not-quite-free pass. The big deal is that colleges have gone from educational institutions to business ventures. In the spirit of being business ventures, keeping the customers (i.e. the college students) who pay the tuition (and thus the revenue the college needs) happy at all costs becomes the main concern. Course too hard? Dumb it down? Professor grades too hard and makes you work? Get him or her to make class more fun, grade less, give less homework, and curve the grades. And if he does not comply, well, the customer (student) can get even at the end of year evaluation. You can rest assured that guy won't be getting tenure when review time comes around. This is another thing I could go on another rant about because working in higher education I have seen and lived it. As an adjunct many moons ago, I had students throw tantrums because they thought the classwork was too hard and interfered with their partying. And that is just one example.

*College is not safe. We are dealing with kids who just became adults; legal adulthood in most places is 18 years of age whether Mr. Brandon and other paternalistic people like it or not. Sadly, for many of these new adults, it means extreme freedom, and they will do stupid and even deadly things. The problems really surface when the administration just wants to hide it using things like FERPA and just cooking the books in relation to the Clery Act. This is where the author and I disagree. Author advocates basically treating the college students like children again. I say, if they are adults, treat them as such. Let the local police handle them (after all, they are adults living in the college town) and let the students take their consequences. Expel them if need be too. This would make sense, but see the previous point about school being a business; you can't expel your source of revenue.

*The college loans racket that basically turns students into oppressed indentured servants. And this is just going to keep getting worse as states and society give up on their social contract of investing in the future generations and the families have to turn more to loans to pay for their students' educations. Loan money that the colleges are glad to take (again, see school as a business pattern. Do you get the idea now?) without regard to whether the kids succeed or not. However, the longer the kids stay in school, the more money they get.

The book makes some very important points. I do think a lot of parents should be reading it, especially the section at the end with the key questions and red flags about what makes a party school. By the way, I don't think a lot of what he says applies to only "party" schools. However, as I said, much of the good message gets lost in the demonizing of colleges; see the chapters on college safety. While there are dangers, Brandon makes it sound like most colleges in America are teeming with rapists, murderers, and drug dealers waiting for your kids to come out from their nightly Greek house drunken bacchanalias. Yes, there are dangers. Yes, in many instances, a lot of kids party way too much. No, not all campuses are like that, but the ones that are need to be exposed. And students certainly need to have better work ethic, but society needs to demand it too.

So, overall, there is some food for thought here, but as a reading, it is not too great. Once you get the basic points, the rest seems a bit redundant.


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Gemarkeerd
bloodravenlib | 2 andere besprekingen | Aug 17, 2020 |
This book was on a very interesting topic, and was unfortunately horribly written.
 
Gemarkeerd
lemontwist | 2 andere besprekingen | Feb 20, 2012 |
In this book, the author (a former professor at an unnamed “party school”) asserts that the state of academics in higher education is in disarray and presents his idea of how and why it got this way and what needs to be done to turn things around. Specifically his focus is on so-called “party schools” where students binge drink, sleep through class, and negotiate with professors for “B” grades when they have earned “F's”. It's a laudable topic but the author loses major points for presenting mostly anecdotal evidence with no firm indication of how widespread the problems are.

One of the authors major talking points is that colleges and universities are run like businesses, not places of education. He argues that students are increasingly seen by college administrators as consumers and should therefore not be turned away no matter the poor academics of the students. The author extrapolates this to its logical conclusion; that it winds up being very close to a simple cash-for-degree transaction and places the blame squarely at the feet of the college. This is what I take issue with. I see this as a demand problem. As long as an insatiable desire for a degree (no matter the cost and no matter the caliber of degree) there will be some college there to provide it. I see the problem as being consumers who aren't rationally determining the value of the degree versus the cost (in time plus money) it takes to obtain it.

The author states many times that college students (18, 19, 20 year-olds) are not mature enough to make these kind of cost / benefit decisions and therefore parents, professors, administrators, and legislators should do more to look out for the interests of the student. Frankly, I've never heard anything so asinine in my life. I have two words for the author and these “party students”; Personal Responsibility. If you believe someone is going to be there to guide you and protect you your entire life, you are in for a rough ride. It may sound cynical but that is the cold truth.

Personally, I believe the author is attempting to scare parents of students into taking a closer look at what they are paying for in higher education. Although I think it could be handled more tastefully, this method could work. Especially with the economy tanking, the high rate of unemployment and the lack of a guaranteed good job that a degree used to bring this message will resonate with anyone paying for a college education in the coming few years.

I would recommend the final two chapters (6 and 7) to anyone considering college as well as their parents and guidance counselors. To many young people it is a given that they will attend a university immediately after high school. To these students it is not a privilege to attend but an obligation and is therefore not treated as the opportunity it should be. These closing chapters discourage this lack of thinking and encourage people to have a good reason for attending. It's an obvious, common sense message, but maybe that's what we need most of all these days.
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Gemarkeerd
brownmn | 2 andere besprekingen | Feb 28, 2011 |

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Werken
6
Leden
107
Populariteit
#180,615
Waardering
½ 3.3
Besprekingen
6
ISBNs
13

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