And by that, we mean: what’s your favorite true-crime material with “American” in the title? Yes, we will accept “America”; “U.S.”; true crime starring America Ferrera; you get the idea. Eve’s going with American Hustle; I’m torn amongst American Vandal, American Animals, and Best American Crime Writing.
A quick peek at Exhibit B.’s shelves turned up like a bazillion titles with “American” in the subtitle; those count too! (And so do least favorites/”don’t bother” recs.) — SDB
A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town by Barry Siegel was very interesting. It got the rare 5-star true crime book rating from me! I also liked a "ripped from the headlines" novel by Joyce Carol Oates called A Book of American Martyrs, about an evangelical man who kills an abortion provider.
Geez, there really are so many of these! A few favorites that come to mind: American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse (she's a columnist for my paper and I just love the way she writes), American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century by Paula Uruburu (there are so many books on this case that it's almost gotten to a saturation point, but I'm a sucker for a Gilded Age true crime story and this one remains really compelling), and American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer (more investigative journalism, but definitely true crime adjacent).
I’m a big anti-MLM person so I’m going with American Murder: The Family Next Door, about Chris and Shanann Watts. It just goes to show you what can be accomplished when police believe and act on a missing person’s report within 24 hours. (Granted, that everybody involved was white probably had something to do with it, sadly).
Although it’s more the case than the quality of the doc for me, probably. There’s been a lot of discussion as to whether the Le-Vel Thrive caffeine patches played any role in Chris’s choice to murder his family.
Well, this is a bit of a gem of a topic. The very first thing I thought of was The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. I found this one so harrowing that I had to FF in places. Definitely a tip of the cap to OJ: Made in America, which was equally shocking, especially after all we’d heard/seen about this case. Stretching the theme a little bit, I would also throw out Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist.
I just remembered that at the time, I really liked American Me, the dramatic adaptation of Mexican mob boss Rodolfo Cadena‘s story. Its star is Edward James Olmos, who is beyond problematic (see https://apnews.com/article/3e4368753220aebd546d6bcee5a5c849 and this engrossing long read https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/1983/) so that’s not great, and who knows, I saw it when I was a 21-year-old ding dong. Maybe with contemporary eyes it’s not so great? - EB
It’s basically cheating, but I’m going with the Library of America’s “True Crime: An American Anthology.” In 900 pages, it has everything from Cotton Mather to Ann Rule, with Calvin Trillin and Dominick Dunne for flavor.
A few standouts I hadn’t read before include Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Trial of Ruby McCollum,” James Thurber’s “A Sort of Genius” and Don Moser’s “The Pied Piper of Tucson.” And there’s about 40 more mostly New Yorker length pieces in there. About as close to a course in true crime as you can get in one volume.
Okay. America's Next Top Model. Not quite the adjective you wanted, but I stand by this. Also, you cannot be 'an instant classic.' That is an oxymoron. Classics stand the test of time, which is why they are classic. The end.
A Death in White Bear Lake: The True Chronicle of an All-American Town by Barry Siegel was very interesting. It got the rare 5-star true crime book rating from me! I also liked a "ripped from the headlines" novel by Joyce Carol Oates called A Book of American Martyrs, about an evangelical man who kills an abortion provider.
‘OJ: Made in America’ is unshakable and gets my official vote. But seriously, ‘American Vandal’. What a delight! Second place.
Geez, there really are so many of these! A few favorites that come to mind: American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse (she's a columnist for my paper and I just love the way she writes), American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the "It" Girl and the Crime of the Century by Paula Uruburu (there are so many books on this case that it's almost gotten to a saturation point, but I'm a sucker for a Gilded Age true crime story and this one remains really compelling), and American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer (more investigative journalism, but definitely true crime adjacent).
I’m a big anti-MLM person so I’m going with American Murder: The Family Next Door, about Chris and Shanann Watts. It just goes to show you what can be accomplished when police believe and act on a missing person’s report within 24 hours. (Granted, that everybody involved was white probably had something to do with it, sadly).
Although it’s more the case than the quality of the doc for me, probably. There’s been a lot of discussion as to whether the Le-Vel Thrive caffeine patches played any role in Chris’s choice to murder his family.
Well, this is a bit of a gem of a topic. The very first thing I thought of was The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. I found this one so harrowing that I had to FF in places. Definitely a tip of the cap to OJ: Made in America, which was equally shocking, especially after all we’d heard/seen about this case. Stretching the theme a little bit, I would also throw out Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist.
I just remembered that at the time, I really liked American Me, the dramatic adaptation of Mexican mob boss Rodolfo Cadena‘s story. Its star is Edward James Olmos, who is beyond problematic (see https://apnews.com/article/3e4368753220aebd546d6bcee5a5c849 and this engrossing long read https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/1983/) so that’s not great, and who knows, I saw it when I was a 21-year-old ding dong. Maybe with contemporary eyes it’s not so great? - EB
It’s basically cheating, but I’m going with the Library of America’s “True Crime: An American Anthology.” In 900 pages, it has everything from Cotton Mather to Ann Rule, with Calvin Trillin and Dominick Dunne for flavor.
A few standouts I hadn’t read before include Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Trial of Ruby McCollum,” James Thurber’s “A Sort of Genius” and Don Moser’s “The Pied Piper of Tucson.” And there’s about 40 more mostly New Yorker length pieces in there. About as close to a course in true crime as you can get in one volume.
I thought American Crime Story was pretty good, despite being by Ryan Murphy.
Okay. America's Next Top Model. Not quite the adjective you wanted, but I stand by this. Also, you cannot be 'an instant classic.' That is an oxymoron. Classics stand the test of time, which is why they are classic. The end.