In fascinating detail, Ivan Solotaroff introduces us to men who carry out executions. Although the emphasis is on the personal lives of these men and of those they have to put to death, The Last Face You'll Ever See also addresses some of the deeper issues of the death penalty and connects the veiled, elusive figure of the executioner to the vast majority of Americans who have claimed to support executions since 1977. Why do we do it? Or, more exactly, why do we want to? The Last Face You'll Ever See is not about the polarizing issues of the death penalty -- it is a firsthand report about the culture of executions: the executioners, the death-row inmates, and everyone involved in the act. An engrossing, unsettling, and provocative book, this work will forever affect anyone who reads it.

The Last Face You'll Ever See: The Private Life of the American Death Penalty

Biographies & Memoirs

Solotaroff, Ivan

Leaders & Notable People

Harper

In fascinating detail, Ivan Solotaroff introduces us to the men who carry out executions. Although the emphasis is on the personal lives of these men and of those they have to put to death, The Last Face You'll Ever See also addresses some of the deeper issues of the death penalty and connects the veiled, elusive figure of the executioner to the vast majority of Americans who, since 1977, have claimed to support executions. Why do we do it? Or, more exactly, why do we want to? The Last Face You'll Ever See is not about the polarizing issues of the death penalty - it is a firsthand report about the culture of executions: the executioners, the death-row inmates, and everyone involved in the act. An engrossing, unsettling, and provocative book, this work will forever affect anyone who reads it.

The Last Face You'll Ever See: The Culture of Death Row

Historical

Harper-perennial

"Looking for America?" asks Sam Toperoff, "Ivan Solotaroff has drawn the map, and it takes you down, down, down, to the junkyard of the Dream Machine. He tells us exactly what happens when the Devil comes to collect and tells it brilliantly. Ivan Solotaroff never blinks. Never." A remorselessly dispassionate chronicler of the absurd, the troubled, and the deformed, Ivan Solotaroff has an uncanny ability to find his way into the private lives of public figures at their moments of greatest epiphany, abasement, and deluded grandeur. With none of the judgement, artifice, or tropes of literary journalism, the eleven essays of No Success Like Failure present a vision of the American ego at its most fragile. Among them: "Sympathy for the Devil" on the life, times, and burgeoning environmental awareness of Charles Manson; "In the Land of the Fischer King," an account of Bobby Fischer's public reappearance in war-ravaged Serbia-Montenegro; "Once a Man, Twice a Child," which covers the criminal trials of soul-star James Brown; "Superhuman, All Too Superhuman," on the pugilistic career and vagina dentata of Mark Gastineau; "King of the Park," on the rise and fall of the street comic Charlie Barnett. In these tales of unknowns, household names, and has-beens Solotaroff shows us what it is like to be trapped in the harsh spotlight of American popular culture, revealing in unflinching detail the hysteria and pathos of our national delusions.

No Success Like Failure: The American Love of Self-Destruction, Self-Aggrandizement, and Breaking Even

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Sheep Meadow Pr

No Success Like Failure: The American Love of Self-Destruction, Self-Aggrandizement and Breaking Even

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

The Dreamer Deceiver: A True Story About the Trial of Judas Priest for Deadly Subliminal Messaging (The Stacks Reader Series)

Arts & Photography

Music

The Sager Group LLC/NeoText

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Books by Solotaroff, Ivan