Crooked Paperback – August 2, 2016

I held high hopes for this book, yet it never produced anything remotely satisfying. There is a lot - perhaps too much - trying to occur in 40 years and 350 pages of the author's imagination. Yet, it remains too disjointed. Eisenhower is barely depicted, Pat Nixon is a non-entity until the last 20 pages, and the author ignored Spiro Agnew (who is rather blank canvas). The reader is teased with a World War II Kissinger on pages 214-215 as a "young man", yet the author recasts Kissinger as an ancient wizard a mere 25 years later.The book reads like "Nixon goes from Point A to Point B and then Point C" as the author hits the high points of press conferences and events. Yet, the plot is not tightly woven together; it remains thread-bare. The prose ain't superb; one is never lost in the author's writing style. Honestly, this would work better as a graphic novel.Why did I finish this book? Desperate hope that it would get better. My mistake.

I think nearly every thoughtful reviewer has touched on this, but, wow, what a great premise. I can't say a bad thing about historical accuracy or the idea behind a book where Nixon and McCarthy-era/Cold War politics were a struggle between ancient forces/the un-dead/magic.But man, oh man, this book completely dropped the ball in execution. While some books have a slow build, Crooked stayed lukewarm and occasionally glances at a simmer. I'm all for horrific manifestations a la Lovecraft that are more cerebral than the author physically fleshing everything out, but even on that level, Crooked is a bummer. I would have given it 1-star just for the writing itself, but I still can't stop myself for rewarding the author for the premise.

The first half of Crooked is wonderful, unfolding with a gradual, mysterious foreboding. It brought to mind the style of H.P. Lovecraft's storytelling, but with an engaging voice unique to author Austin Grossman. He writes Nixon in an immersive way without trying to erase the felonious "Tricky Dick" image, which Nixon himself fully admits to in the novel.Yet the novel never quite follows through on its own promise. Supernatural elements--and Nixon actually exploring them or dealing with them--often remain too far in the margins for my taste. The narrative moves a little too quickly from one moment in time to another, sometimes jumping a few months ahead when I would've liked a little more time to explore the supernatural elements lurking there. While it can be detrimental in this type of story to pull back the curtain entirely from mysterious forces of darkness, I would have liked more of a peek than is given. Perhaps an over-zealous editor?Nixon himself also lacks much agency after the earlier parts of the novel. He hears of things, is acted on by other people, and doesn't seem to do much but react. Certain important events Nixon only hears about, and a confrontation with a major antagonist toward the end is over so quickly that I had reread a couple of sentences to realize what happened.Bottom line: I did enjoy a fair bit of the novel, but found the overall experience not quite as satisfying as I would have liked.

"Crooked" has a novel and refreshing conceit. What if Nixon, instead of being the shame of the American presidency, was instead the secret savior of the nation, who sacrificed his reputation to preserve us from the great Lovecraftian horror of the Cold War? The execution, unfortunately, was not sufficient to elevate the book from the gee-whiz factor of its premise into the ranks of the great works of alternative history.Grossman's work suffers from an odd front-loading. The bulk of the book takes place during his early political career, as a Congressman, Senator, and Vice President in the Eisenhower White House. Though relevant, and full of the sort of creepy rising action that you might expect from a book that dips into the Lovecraftian mythos, these sections feel like a delay of the payoff we were promised from the excellent opening chapters.When that payoff arrives, however, it is rushed. I had been hoping to see Nixon as the inheritor of the magic inherent in the American executive branch. He is, though not in the way a reader might have expected after the first chapter. I was hoping for occult adventures, after the style of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Instead, we orbit on the fringes of an interesting story without ever landing.By the end, I felt more frustrated than entertained. I was frustrated not at the book but at Grossman, who obviously has the writing chops to tell an engaging story, but chose to overload the appetizers and skimp on the main course. As I turned the last page, I was left with the distinct impression of having read the outline of an excellent book.That's not to say that I found nothing to enjoy. Grossman succeeds extremely well at the atmospherics, painting a picture of existential dread mixed with a subtext of horror. And yet, he brought humor into the story in just the right places. His characterization is superb. We get to know Nixon extremely well, and witness his marital struggles with Pat. His relationship with Arkady and Tatiana is central to the book - perhaps too central? - but we are left with a feeling of them as real characters doing their best in an unreal world.At the end of the day, "Crooked" is a taste of alternate history, a book that requires that much of the depth be supplied by the reader. Its strength is the ability to hint at a much larger and more encompassing story than what is told; its weakness is the inability to tell enough of that story to satisfy.

Ths a secret history novel concerning Richard Nixon getting entangled in the occult underbelly of the Cold War during his political career. It was brilliant -- almost as good as Tim Powers's "Declare," which is the best secret history book I've read. Austin Grossman does a great job of filling in the gaps of history with occult underpinnings and providing supernatural backstories for historical oddities. So many nice little asides about historical figures and minor events.I would not lightly compare a book to Declare, but Crooked totally lives up to the comparison. Highest possible recommendation.