"The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum" by Margalit Fox

I cannot say that I do not like history books. I’m the highschooler who went to a history summer camp. I loved it. But I am not like my dad in that I collected all sorts of books and documentaries simply because I love history and want to know everything there is to know. I have my special interests. For him it was the Civil War and World War II (we all have these old men in our lives I think). For me it’s whatever random thing I was either given or ran across on my own. And in the case of “The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum,” it was the former.

Here is where my review begins to fall apart: This book is unreal. It is impossible to believe and yet entirely true. It reads like it must be fiction. Everything takes place during a time when it was relatively easy to get away with crimes and even easier to make a name for yourself by doing small crimes to make yourself look good. There are characters in this story who are caricatures of themselves, whether it be corrupt lawyers or the father of private investigators. There are characters who are the highly romanticized victims of a crime boss’s greed. Then of course there is the singular character, the woman seated at the center of the astounding picture, Mrs. Mandelbaum herself. Fox does incredible work leading you along the journey of Mandelbaum’s rise to fame and fortune. Her writing style is captivating and vivid. As she presents all of her research she addresses and readily answers the questions that pop into your head almost immediately. But the most important question she leaves for the Epilogue:

“What had let Mrs. Mandelbaum assume that generalship in the first place? The times, of course were on her side: She made her underworld ascent in a congenial climate of mass production, middleclass desire, rampant political graft, endemic police corruption, ubiquitous banks, and portable paper money. But those things augured success for every would-be crime baron, the overwhelming majority of them men. What was it that allowed a woman – this woman – to attain the summit of a profession famously inhospitable to her sex? -Margalit Fox