Books in Brief: Crazy Rhythm

Crazy Rhythm: My Journey from Brooklyn, Jazz, and Wall Street to Nixon’s White House, Watergate, and Beyond . . . , by Leonard Garment (Times, 394 pp., $27.50)

THE most revealing comment in this wonderfully frank and engaging memoir comes on its first page, where Mr. Garment, President Nixon’s counsel during Watergate, writes that “everything” in this story of an exceptionally rich and varied life and career “is shadowed by Richard Nixon, even my memories of what occurred before we met.” Nixon seems to have had that kind of effect on people, and not the least of the many virtues of Garment’s book is that it brings us closer to an understanding of that ironic charisma than anything else which has yet found its way into print. Few of those who knew and worked with Nixon are in a better position to understand what Mr. Garment calls “the mystery of his deep penetration of the American psyche.” Along the way there are wit and good stories, of both the jazz and the political worlds (somehow Wall Street doesn’t generate so many), and essential information for anyone who wants to understand America’s recent past.

About the Author

James Bowman

Featured Tags

Crazy Rhythm: My Journey from Brooklyn, Jazz, and Wall Street to Nixon’s White House, Watergate, and Beyond . . . , by Leonard Garment (Times, 394 pp., $27.50)

THE most revealing comment in this wonderfully frank and engaging memoir comes on its first page, where Mr. Garment, President Nixon’s counsel during Watergate, writes that “everything” in this story of an exceptionally rich and varied life and career “is shadowed by Richard Nixon, even my memories of what occurred before we met.” Nixon seems to have had that kind of effect on people, and not the least of the many virtues of Garment’s book is that it brings us closer to an understanding of that ironic charisma than anything else which has yet found its way into print. Few of those who knew and worked with Nixon are in a better position to understand what Mr. Garment calls “the mystery of his deep penetration of the American psyche.” Along the way there are wit and good stories, of both the jazz and the political worlds (somehow Wall Street doesn’t generate so many), and essential information for anyone who wants to understand America’s recent past.