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The Secret Parts of Fortune: Three Decades of Intense Investigations and Edgy Enthusiasms
In 1998, Ron Rosenbaum published Explaining Hitler, a national bestseller and one of the most acclaimed books of the year, hailed by Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times as "lucid and exciting . . . a provocative work of cultural history that is as compelling as it is thoughtful, as readable as it is smart." Time called it "brilliant . . . restlessly probing, deeply intelligent."The acclaim came as no surprise to those who have been reading Ron Rosenbaum's journalism, published widely in America's best magazines for three decades. The man known to readers of his New York Observer column as "The Edgy Enthusiast" has distinguished himself as a writer with extraordinary range, an ability to tell stories that are frequently philosophical, comical, and suspenseful all at once.In this classic collection of three decades of groundbreaking nonfiction, Rosenbaum takes readers on a wildly original tour of the American landscape, deep into "the secret parts" of the great mysteries, controversies, and enigmas of our time.These are intellectual adventure stories that ¸ The occult rituals of Skull and Bones, the legendary Yale secret society that has produced spies, presidents, and wanna-bes, including George Bush and his son George W. (that's the author, with skull, on the cover, in front of the Skull and Bones crypt) ¸ The Secrets of the Little Blue Box, the classic story of the birth of hacker culture ¸ The Curse of the Dead Sea Scrolls; "The Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal"; the underground realms of "unorthodox" cancer-cure clinics in Mexico; the mind of Kim Philby, "the spy of the century"; the unsolved murder of JFK's mistress; and the mysteries of "Long Island, Babylon" ¸ Sharp, funny (sometimes hilarious) cultural critiques that range from Elvis to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Bill Gates to Oliver Stone, Thomas Pynchon to Mr. Whipple, J. D. Salinger to the Zagat Guide, Helen Vendler to Isaac Bashevis Singer ¸ And a marriage proposal to Rosanne CashForcefully reported, brilliantly opinionated, and elegantly phrased, The Secret Parts of Fortune will endure as a vital record of American culture from 1970 to the present.
848 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2000
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271 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 21, 2009
It's hard for me to imagine an essay collection that is as thought-provoking, pleasurable, and varied (in equal proportions) as this one. Rosenbaum is a "buff buff"; in other words, he's fascinated by the phemonena that generate obsessive study. He's especially fascinated by such phenomena that have unanswerable questions at their heart. As such, the best pieces here concern the Dead Sea Scrolls and their effect on the men who've tried to unlock them; Lee Harvey Oswald and MaryMeyer, two murder victims at the heart of the JFK assassination; the Marcus Brothers, twin gynecologists who came to a mysterious end and inspired the film DEAD RINGERS; Henry Lee Lucas, who claimed to have serial-killed 600, only to recant and admit he was stringing along the Texas Rangers who were using him; Kim Philby, the double- (or triple-?) agent at the heart of the Cold War; the Skull and Bones Society; as Rosenbaum puts it, "Elizabeth Kubler Ross's Torrid Love Affair with Death"; and "The Octopus" that might/might not have gripped the Bay of Pigs, Watergate, "The October Surprise," and Iran-Contra--and the reporter who died trying to decide. That's only a few! Then there are Rosenbaum's own obsessions, like America's greatest unheralded "Great Novelist" Charles Portis, Rosanne Cash, Oliver Stone vs. Quentin Tarantino, and Vladimir Nabokov's PALE FIRE. Now that you don't have time to read entire books, you should find this, put it on your night stand, and read one essay a night (its 760 pages should keep you occupied for awhile). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Note: Also included is the magazine piece that turned into Rosenbaum's shattering EXPLAINING HITLER; you can decide if you'd like that book by reading the much shorter feature here.
Reviewed by:
Phil Overeem
Language Arts teacher
Reviewed by:
Phil Overeem
Language Arts teacher
September 28, 2011
I did not like the style of the author's writing. The book is a compilation of various articles written by Ron Rosenbaum about many different subjects. I found his writing to be a little bit scattered and difficult to follow (I'm not talking about each chapter being a different subject - I expect that in a compilation, obviously). Some of the articles were better, more concise, and more clearly written than others, and the subjects were interesting, but for the most part I found his writing too hard to slog through.
June 25, 2016
Rosenbaum's writing is simultaneously dark, conspiratorial, exciting, and sometimes strangely uplifting. This book covers a lot of ground, and it's probably best read in short bursts. A little goes a long way and will leave you thinking about the strangeness that is life for a long time afterwards. I read it years ago, and I still find myself wondering about some of these stories. Highly recommended.
May 18, 2018
A collection by a conspiracy connoisseur that includes essays on Pynchon, Nabokov, Skull And Bones, Hitler, Kim Philby, Miracle Dentists, Watergate, AND Burt Reynolds? Be still my beating heart!
September 5, 2020
The Secret Parts of Fortune, by Ron Rosenbaum; Random House: New York; 799 pages, hardback; $29.95.
Mystery and conspiracy are guaranteed to arouse the interest of the average American reader. Think of any of the several real world mysteries you’ve read about over the years, and recall how you’ve wished you could be around to discover the truth.
It is the particular gift of Ron Rosenbaum that he is a seeker after truth. He notes that often the search for truth is not necessarily that it will result in conclusive proof one way or the other, but will do something far more intriguing. The search about the veracity of an ongoing mystery may not result in final truth, but often results in dispelling long held truisms.
This collection of short essays does not give you a single moment of dissatisfaction. For example, there is his long essay on his book, “Explaining Hitler”. He wondered why a man written, studied, and spoken about by millions, is ultimately so little understood? What caused him to become what he was? Rosenbaum explores the numerous theories. There were the Freudians, the force of history school, the German strain school, and a host of others which sought to explain Hitler’s evil. All of them lacked something intrinsic to understanding the man. Then Rosenbaum considered traditional evil.
He considers too Kim Philby, the master spy for the Soviets, who was himself the heir of an English Gentleman. Thousands of pages of great spy literature have been devoted to this great conspirator. The question remains however, what propelled him to do what he did? He betrayed his country and his class. Despite all that was said and done, the question remains open: for whom did he really spy? Rosenbaum explores this entire panoply of investigations, and brings in tantalizing speculations from not only great English historians but CIA conjectures as well.
What he concludes is convincing.
He runs the gamut, offering interesting insights about the elusive J.D. Salinger, to mad cow disease, to theatrical productions. My favorite is his study of the secretive Skull and Bones fraternity at Yale. Indeed, the cover of the book shows him outside its mysterious ‘tomb’ headquarters on the Yale campus.
You’ll enjoy every one of these essays by a man who looks at supposedly well-trod soil and discovers what others hoped to find.
~ Book Review by John Davis
Mystery and conspiracy are guaranteed to arouse the interest of the average American reader. Think of any of the several real world mysteries you’ve read about over the years, and recall how you’ve wished you could be around to discover the truth.
It is the particular gift of Ron Rosenbaum that he is a seeker after truth. He notes that often the search for truth is not necessarily that it will result in conclusive proof one way or the other, but will do something far more intriguing. The search about the veracity of an ongoing mystery may not result in final truth, but often results in dispelling long held truisms.
This collection of short essays does not give you a single moment of dissatisfaction. For example, there is his long essay on his book, “Explaining Hitler”. He wondered why a man written, studied, and spoken about by millions, is ultimately so little understood? What caused him to become what he was? Rosenbaum explores the numerous theories. There were the Freudians, the force of history school, the German strain school, and a host of others which sought to explain Hitler’s evil. All of them lacked something intrinsic to understanding the man. Then Rosenbaum considered traditional evil.
He considers too Kim Philby, the master spy for the Soviets, who was himself the heir of an English Gentleman. Thousands of pages of great spy literature have been devoted to this great conspirator. The question remains however, what propelled him to do what he did? He betrayed his country and his class. Despite all that was said and done, the question remains open: for whom did he really spy? Rosenbaum explores this entire panoply of investigations, and brings in tantalizing speculations from not only great English historians but CIA conjectures as well.
What he concludes is convincing.
He runs the gamut, offering interesting insights about the elusive J.D. Salinger, to mad cow disease, to theatrical productions. My favorite is his study of the secretive Skull and Bones fraternity at Yale. Indeed, the cover of the book shows him outside its mysterious ‘tomb’ headquarters on the Yale campus.
You’ll enjoy every one of these essays by a man who looks at supposedly well-trod soil and discovers what others hoped to find.
~ Book Review by John Davis
June 15, 2025
"But not all such quests must necessarily be so grim. There is some primal pleasure in the process of decipherment, in decoding and disclosing the secret parts of things."
A somewhat interesting collection of essays about different topics.
A somewhat interesting collection of essays about different topics.
Read
October 5, 2025So much is written and published that I know nothing about. His proposal to Roseanne Cash is delightful.
Read
June 16, 2012The Dixie Chicks are among Ron Rosenbaum’s passions, joining an extended circle that includes Shakespeare, about whom the New York cultural critic writes better and more deeply than any living American academic scholar, taking special note of what most of them don't--the "auditory imagination" at its best and sometimes most literal; the too-little-known Southern comic novelist Charles Portis, whose books Rosenbaum single-handedly campaigned to get back in print; “rave-mom poet” Ann Magnuson; and various human incarnations of the mystery of evil.
Indeed, Rosenbaum’s post-Columbine column, “Pearl Jam and Littleton: The Theodicy of ‘Last Kiss,’ ” which ran in the NEW YORK OBSERVER, offered the most intelligent and ideology-resistant views of the student massacre that I read anywhere, in part because he has a poet’s mind: he not only resists the ease of conventional explanations, but he is also “able to amalgamate disparate experiences,” as T.S. Eliot (again) put the matter. Rosenbaum’s intelligence and erudition are dazzling, as readers of EXPLAINING HITLER: THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF HIS EVIL But this new collection, , which includes his pieces on the above subjects, sets a new standard for cultural affairs journalism. The Dixie Chicks piece is stellar; and since Rosenbaum's specialty remains making the most highly intellectual topics accessible for the general reader--and vice versa, is it too much to say that we his privates be?
(originally published, in part, in the NASHVILLE SCENE)
Indeed, Rosenbaum’s post-Columbine column, “Pearl Jam and Littleton: The Theodicy of ‘Last Kiss,’ ” which ran in the NEW YORK OBSERVER, offered the most intelligent and ideology-resistant views of the student massacre that I read anywhere, in part because he has a poet’s mind: he not only resists the ease of conventional explanations, but he is also “able to amalgamate disparate experiences,” as T.S. Eliot (again) put the matter. Rosenbaum’s intelligence and erudition are dazzling, as readers of EXPLAINING HITLER: THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF HIS EVIL But this new collection, , which includes his pieces on the above subjects, sets a new standard for cultural affairs journalism. The Dixie Chicks piece is stellar; and since Rosenbaum's specialty remains making the most highly intellectual topics accessible for the general reader--and vice versa, is it too much to say that we his privates be?
(originally published, in part, in the NASHVILLE SCENE)
September 29, 2007
So, anyone reading these reviews probably gets the idea that I love Ron Rosenbaum to distraction. They'd be right.
This is a collection of his magazine pieces and newspaper columns spanning the decades. Rosenbaum's voice is so strikingly empathetic without losing that urbane freelancer's edge that makes the New Yorker and Harper's so readable. He is honest without being ironic or dismissive. And everything he writes about comes alive as a result. He is also disarmingly frank about including himself in the story, which is such a welcome contrast, I think, from other, more self-aggrandizing practioners of New Journalism.
I took this book with me on a trip to Turkey and found the short pieces perfect for traveling. The book is thick, but you won't need anything else wherever you are going.
This is a collection of his magazine pieces and newspaper columns spanning the decades. Rosenbaum's voice is so strikingly empathetic without losing that urbane freelancer's edge that makes the New Yorker and Harper's so readable. He is honest without being ironic or dismissive. And everything he writes about comes alive as a result. He is also disarmingly frank about including himself in the story, which is such a welcome contrast, I think, from other, more self-aggrandizing practioners of New Journalism.
I took this book with me on a trip to Turkey and found the short pieces perfect for traveling. The book is thick, but you won't need anything else wherever you are going.
October 7, 2007
This book was fabulous, an elegantly-written, "intense and edgy" compendium by a smartypants journalist. There are some laugh-out-loud moments in this book; Long Islanders (and those who have hated, dated, or loved those inhabit the 516) will find his essay on the island that functions as Manhattan's crazy cousin hilarious.
September 21, 2012
This book contains a few 5-star essays, but it is missing some of the best Rosenbaum essays available.
December 6, 2012
One of three immensely interesting works of journalism and scholarship, the others being Explaining Hitler, and Shakespeare Wars.
December 8, 2014
A tour of the real american underground: barbiturate-addicted twin OBGYNs, phone-phreakers and Yale's Skull and Bones society. Proof the country is stranger than you can imagine.
July 28, 2015
Started but didn't finish it. I didn't really like the author's snarky style.
July 13, 2021
I may never not be reading this book
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews