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A review by lou_1440
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
The subject matter of this book is fascinating and the author spins a compelling narrative. The Feather Thief is just what you want out of a buck-wild niche nonfiction novel, until the last third of the book.
A pet peeve of mine is nonfiction books where the author gets too involved in their story and feels the need to tell their own story for a large uninterrupted portion of the novel.
Johnson writes a great story, tells it well, gets to a point that would be a good conclusion, and then still has a third of the book left. He has put some really impressive research into this book, and certainly his wrangling an interview out of his primary subject and a close associate are noteworthy and deserve to be mentioned. Unfortunately, the way Johnson elects to convey this research is not by weaving it into the historic narrative he has been telling but instead to switch away from the topic of his book to make himself and his research quest the main narrative. CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties does this as well and the story loses so much of its flow and impact when this framing device is used.
Whenever you're researching an underreported crime or conspiracy, there are going to be questions that cannot be answered. Reading about a lone author's obsessive quest to close every last loophole is far less effective than a book about the subject that wraps up at the conclusion of the known narrative and poses the author's remaining questions to the reader.
Had Johnson incorporated his interview material and personal journey more seamlessly into the first 2/3rds of the book, I would have rated this book much higher.
A pet peeve of mine is nonfiction books where the author gets too involved in their story and feels the need to tell their own story for a large uninterrupted portion of the novel.
Johnson writes a great story, tells it well, gets to a point that would be a good conclusion, and then still has a third of the book left. He has put some really impressive research into this book, and certainly his wrangling an interview out of his primary subject and a close associate are noteworthy and deserve to be mentioned. Unfortunately, the way Johnson elects to convey this research is not by weaving it into the historic narrative he has been telling but instead to switch away from the topic of his book to make himself and his research quest the main narrative. CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties does this as well and the story loses so much of its flow and impact when this framing device is used.
Whenever you're researching an underreported crime or conspiracy, there are going to be questions that cannot be answered. Reading about a lone author's obsessive quest to close every last loophole is far less effective than a book about the subject that wraps up at the conclusion of the known narrative and poses the author's remaining questions to the reader.
Had Johnson incorporated his interview material and personal journey more seamlessly into the first 2/3rds of the book, I would have rated this book much higher.