|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Thanks for the Memoirs By Alison Andrews July 23, 2007
Behavior Reflects Personality As a former psychology major, I’m more than a little interested in what makes people act the way they do. So is former FBI unit chief John Douglas, one of the pioneers in the field of criminal profiling. His book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, which he coauthored with Mark Olshaker, offers a penetrating look inside the world of the men and women who profile serial criminals. Criminal profiling (also called “offender profiling” or “psychological profiling”) is “a method of identifying the perpetrator of a crime based on an analysis of the nature of the offence and the manner in which it was committed. Various aspects of the criminal's personality makeup are determined from his or her choices before, during, and after the crime” (Wikipedia.org). When Douglas began his career, profiling was in its infancy; the agents who developed it had to prove that their method could help solve cases. Not just anyone—not even just anyone in law enforcement—has what it takes to deal with these types of cases. The mental strength of the men and women who carry around the details of horrific murders in their minds is amazing. Douglas states at the beginning of his story that his ability to catch a killer depends on seeing through the killer’s eyes—trying to feel what it was like to be him. It’s the only way to answer the age-old question, “What kind of person could have done such a thing?” The fundamental theme of his work, Douglas tells us, is “Behavior reflects personality.” With that kind of insight, it’s not surprising that Douglas and his coauthor have crafted such a gripping read: the better a writer understands that behavior, more than anything else, defines a person, the more true-to-life his or her books will be. An Accurate Profile Douglas’s book is more than a rehash of famous serial killer cases. Instead, it is a memoir of his own life as well, in order to reveal how hisMindhunter seamlessly integrates elements of Douglas’s life with the cases he encountered along the way; however, he has been careful to reveal truths that don’t violate his family’s privacy. The book is written in a professional tone that makes it easier for the layperson to read about these crimes, to focus on the efforts to understand and ultimately stop these killers, rather than to dwell on the grisly details. It’s also surprising how accurate a good profile can be. We can be thankful for those who are willing to put themselves into the minds of evildoers in order that justice can be done. personality influenced his behavior. Before his retirement, Douglas was so obsessed with catching monsters that he almost lost his own life when his body was too debilitated by stress to fight off viral encephalitis.
Family Food As compelling as Mindhunter is, its subject matter makes it a grim read. Patricia Volk’s Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family is the perfect antidote. Volk’s enchanting book is the memoir of her entire family, from Sussman Volk, who introduced pastrami to America in 1888, until her father closed the last Morgen’s restaurant in 1988. Although food is important to the story, the book is less about the actual food than about the infuriating, lovable, eccentric Jewish family who inhabits these pages. (Although I am going to try to make their housekeeper Mattie’s Chocolate Cake, on pages 80-81). For Volk, family is “your very own living microcosm of humanity, with its heroes and victims and martyrs and failures, beauties and gamblers, hawks and lovers, cowards and fakes, dreamers, its steamrollers, and the people who quietly get the job done."
Extraordinary People Some memoirists try to make a mountain out of a molehill—“how my life was ruined because Daddy failed to praise me.” They don’t have much interesting material, in other words. Such is not the case here. Volk tells a series of vignettes that perfectly capture the fascinating characters in her family: her father’s father, Jacob Volk, who invented the wrecking ball; her mother’s father, Herman Morgen, who opened a sandwich shop on Broadway and eventually owned 14 restaurants in New York City; Aunt Ruthie, who was taken hostage by an ex-paratrooper who broke into her apartment. While he held her at gunpoint for seven hours, she gave him a meal and a lecture. My favorite may have been Aunt Lil, who embroidered a pillow with the motto “I’ve Never Forgotten a Rotten Thing Anyone Has Done to Me.” A writer can’t make that up. That’s pure gold.
In a restaurant family, Volk tells us, “you’re never full, you’re stuffed.” And “you weren’t considered fed unless you were in pain. The more someone loved you, the more they wanted you to eat.” A writer who can feed her readers so well that they simultaneously feel stuffed and hungry for more is a gift indeed.
ninetyandnine.com
© 2007, Alison Andrews
------- Alison Andrews lives near Ft. Worth, Texas, with her husband and two young children. She needs a nap right now.
|
|
|
