Thomas Hauser

Excellent piece of journalism documenting the disappearance of American Charles Horman in Chile in 1973, just after the military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende’s government. The author lays out the timeline of events, what may have led to his arrest, and the ways in which US officials’ actions may have contributed to his death. In a parallel narrative, the author follows Horman’s wife and father as they attempt to find out what happened, running into a bureaucratic nightmare. The term “non-fiction that reads like fiction” applies to this book.

Horman disappeared at the beginning of Augusto Pinochet’s Reign of Terror. This book was published in 1977. Subsequent events, investigations, and releases of previously confidential information support Hauser’s conclusions. As I read, I found myself hoping for a different outcome.

I found this book at a local used bookstore. A news article was folded within its pages, about Joyce Horman and her search for truth, published in February 2000. I then researched the latest status on the internet, so I was able to trace this history of this tragic event over four-plus decades.… (mehr)

Thomas Hauser is one of the most perceptive writers to deal with sport of boxing, and everyone should read his books on the topic. This collection deals with the collision of the American Boxing establishment and a Cardiff wales, boxer named Joe Calzaghe. Of Italian-welsh ancestry in a Welsh Coal mining town Calzaghe became a very skilled fighter indeed. Open to the charge that his undefeated record of 44-0 was the result of local favouritism, this super middleweight managed to get Bernard Hopkins to fight him, and in Nevada. Calzaghe, though knocked down in the first round, went on to land twice as many punches as Hopkins. Hopkins held constantly, and every time Hopkins popped out of his very defensive shell, Calzaghe hammered him back into it. Advantage Wales! Two judges gave the fight to Calzaghe by wide margins, one to Hopkins by one point. Advantage to the British boxer!
There was no one left to fight but Roy Jones Junior, and the fight was set in Madison Square Garden, the temple of Boxing in America. And when Calzaghe hit the Canvas in the first round, (Tape later revealed that Jones had used his Forearm on the Welshman.) America settled down to watch the Welshman get schooled by the classic American Boxer. It was a beautiful boxing match between dedicated professionals! Calzaghe just kept beating Jones to the punch, and opened a cut on Roy that gave him serious trouble for the rest of the fight. All three judges gave the fight to Joe Calzaghe, 118-109. And Joe had a wonderful time for the last four rounds...and then Calzaghe took the championship and went home to Wales, retiring undefeated after 46 fights!… (mehr)

Ruby Spriggs lives a precarious life in Dicken’s London with her uncle, Christopher until they encounter Antonio, a baker and Octavius Joy, a man of considerable wealth and even more considerable heart. Octavius had helped Antonio open the bakery and now Antonio finds Christopher a job at another bakery run by Marie Wells who recently lost her son. Eventually, Ruby meets Edwin Chatfield and the two fall hopelessly in love. Unfortunately, Edwin’s employer Alexander Murd and his snobbish and cruel daughter, Isabella have other plans for Edwin and hatch a plan to break the two up.

If Thomas Hauser didn’t say that he based his novel The Baker’s Tale on a comment by Charles Dickens, his admiration for the great writer would still shine through in this, his latest novel. He does a marvelous job of recreating not only Dicken’s style of writing but his use of caricature and subject matter. Like in any good Dickens novel, Ruby Spriggs is a beautiful and innocent orphan, Edwin Chatfield is handsome, kind, and good, Octavius has a heart of gold and Murd et fille are unrelentingly and wonderfully smarmy and underhanded. And, of course, there are the same unlikely coincidences and lucky happenstances that fill Dickens’ pages and which will eventually lead to the undoing of the evildoers after much suffering from our hero and heroine.

The one thing, though, that is missing is the humour and endearing eccentricities that marked Dickens’ books and helped to make his criticisms of 19th c. society less biting and, thus, more easily acceptable to the upper classes while satisfying his huge audience among the working class. Fortunately, The Baker’s Tale also lacks Dickens’ verbosity so that this lack didn’t interfere too much with my enjoyment of the novel. This is a fun story, well-written and with interesting characters. If you are a fan of Charles Dickens, this one’s definitely for you.… (mehr)