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Editorial Reviews
"She couldn't have done it and she must have done it." This is the enigma at the heart of Janet Malcolm's riveting new book about a murder trial in the insular Bukharan-Jewish community of Forest Hills, Queens, that captured national attention. The d
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Interesting...Informative...Yet unsettlingly sympathetic...
Janet Malcolm's personal account of the trial provided an interesting albeit somewhat biased journalistic view of the trial. I found her views of convicted murderer Mazoltuv Borukhova to be quite less than dispassionate and more so sympathetic of some perceived systemic wrongdoing that Borukhova clearly hadn't encountered throughout the saga. She did provide great insight into the lives and backgrounds of the participants of this story as well as some interersting information regarding the Bukharan Community.
I bought this book after reading a favorable review and pre-viewing the first chapter on my Kindle. The book was totally disjointed. The story jumped around and had no theme. I am still waiting for the author to get to the meat of the story.
The only conclusive verdict I found was "guilty." Guilty of theft of money and time.
The only conclusive verdict I found was "guilty." Guilty of theft of money and time.
I was initially disoriented by Ms. Malcolm's account, expecting the "anatomy" promised by the subtitle. The word suggested to me an ordered analysis of a system, in this case the justice system. What the reader gets, though, is a deeply felt meditation on the impossibility of objectivity, the very limited "truth" allowed through the strictures of the legal system, the bewildering treatment of children by legal and social service agencies,the petty tyranny of judges, and our indeterminate sense of equality. Incidents and personalities appear, fade, and reappear, eschewing a temporal, linear flow; This is by no means a straight, suspense-filled true crime account. Rather it is a thoughtful (and appropriately disordered) reflection on why no system that involves humans can ever make complete sense or produce fair, coherent results. Malcolm is a clear thinker and an able guide through this dark territory. Scenes from this case will stay with you a long time. Terrific read.
Another well done novel by Janet Malcolm
I enjoyed Malcolm's book, Iphigenia in Forest Hills, though it was a bit scant on the detail that usually accompanies "a novel" at only 168 pages. I didn't expect that having failed to check the book length, I still would have purchased the book. I like Janet Malcolm's works. This true crime novel was meant to be complete with a short treatment of the crime, then the courtroom drama. If there was a failure in the book it was in her treatment of those involved a members of of an extremely close knit, small, and ritualized Bukharan-Jewish community concentrated there in Forest Hills, New York and as I see it the likelihood of the group's influence in the case and outcome.
Malcolm tells the story of a mother-doctor, Mazoltuv Borukhova, is accused of hiring her cousin who basically laid in wait to assassinate her orthodontist husband and father of her young daughter a day or two before their divorce and custody trial. Mon's total disagreement that not only will the father share time with the child but may gain custody due to Iphigenia's own acts and omissions relating to same. No doubt the mother comes off as a power and control freak using the child as a pawn. The cousin who was caught with the gun was not close to the mom until the days leading up to the deed. The crux of the case lies in phone records between cousins. You need to read the book for the courtroom accounting which is the majority of the story.
Either way my complaint was in the length as there was so much more that I would have liked to know and learn about the parties and the group; though it was actually longer than her previous work, Journalist and the Murderer which I really liked and resisted finishing.
I'd recommend reading both books.
Malcolm tells the story of a mother-doctor, Mazoltuv Borukhova, is accused of hiring her cousin who basically laid in wait to assassinate her orthodontist husband and father of her young daughter a day or two before their divorce and custody trial. Mon's total disagreement that not only will the father share time with the child but may gain custody due to Iphigenia's own acts and omissions relating to same. No doubt the mother comes off as a power and control freak using the child as a pawn. The cousin who was caught with the gun was not close to the mom until the days leading up to the deed. The crux of the case lies in phone records between cousins. You need to read the book for the courtroom accounting which is the majority of the story.
Either way my complaint was in the length as there was so much more that I would have liked to know and learn about the parties and the group; though it was actually longer than her previous work, Journalist and the Murderer which I really liked and resisted finishing.
I'd recommend reading both books.
In "Iphigenia in Forest Hills", journalist Janet Malcolm has recounted the story of a murder trial in a completely dispassionate voice. That the writing could be taken almost entirely from a court reporter's records was done on purpose, I suppose, to give the reader a completely objective view of the case. However, it also places the reader at too much of a "remove" from the case or characters.
In 2007, a Bukharan-Jewish orthodontist, Daniel Malakov, was gunned down in a park, in front of his estranged wife and their 4 year old daughter. The daughter was the subject of a bitter custody case, and the wife, Marina Borukhova, was immediately the chief suspect in the murder. A relative-by-marriage to Borukhova, was tracked down by police and the two were charged with homicide and murder-for-hire. After a three week trial, both were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The daughter went to live with her father's brother and his family.
Okay, most true-crime books are written with a lot of heated rhetoric. The victims - usually women - are always described as "beautiful", even if they're not, because "beautiful" victims are worth more press. In Malcolm's book, the convicted murderer is described as "beautiful", though "plain-at-best" seems to be more the truth. That one example of heated rhetoric is about the only one I could find in the book, and I suppose the book's publisher's sales team had the word put in there to "goose" the sales.
By reading Malcolm's book, I learned about the closely-knit Bukharan-Jewish community in New York, made up of Russian emigrants who arrived here in the 1980's and 1990's and settled in the Forest Hills area of Queens. Both the victim and his wife - who was an internist - chose the wrong partner-in-life and divorce was the answer to their problems. Their daughter was caught in the middle, custody given to the father in an inexplicable court rendering shortly before the murder.On a sunny day, the father was gunned down. Lots of fighting between the two families and the whole business told in a reporter's tone.
Now, I really don't know if writing a true-crime book in a dispassionate voice IS a bad thing. I certainly am glad I read Malcolm's book and it is well-written, in a technical sense. And there was a little, enough actually, spark to her writing that I sensed a slight favoritism towards the convicted wife and her troubles. But, I could have learned as much by reading the accounts from the New York Times articles about the murder and trial.
I will be interested to see other readers' takes on Malcolm's book. I can recommend it but I just wish I felt more connected to the characters and the case.
In 2007, a Bukharan-Jewish orthodontist, Daniel Malakov, was gunned down in a park, in front of his estranged wife and their 4 year old daughter. The daughter was the subject of a bitter custody case, and the wife, Marina Borukhova, was immediately the chief suspect in the murder. A relative-by-marriage to Borukhova, was tracked down by police and the two were charged with homicide and murder-for-hire. After a three week trial, both were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The daughter went to live with her father's brother and his family.
Okay, most true-crime books are written with a lot of heated rhetoric. The victims - usually women - are always described as "beautiful", even if they're not, because "beautiful" victims are worth more press. In Malcolm's book, the convicted murderer is described as "beautiful", though "plain-at-best" seems to be more the truth. That one example of heated rhetoric is about the only one I could find in the book, and I suppose the book's publisher's sales team had the word put in there to "goose" the sales.
By reading Malcolm's book, I learned about the closely-knit Bukharan-Jewish community in New York, made up of Russian emigrants who arrived here in the 1980's and 1990's and settled in the Forest Hills area of Queens. Both the victim and his wife - who was an internist - chose the wrong partner-in-life and divorce was the answer to their problems. Their daughter was caught in the middle, custody given to the father in an inexplicable court rendering shortly before the murder.On a sunny day, the father was gunned down. Lots of fighting between the two families and the whole business told in a reporter's tone.
Now, I really don't know if writing a true-crime book in a dispassionate voice IS a bad thing. I certainly am glad I read Malcolm's book and it is well-written, in a technical sense. And there was a little, enough actually, spark to her writing that I sensed a slight favoritism towards the convicted wife and her troubles. But, I could have learned as much by reading the accounts from the New York Times articles about the murder and trial.
I will be interested to see other readers' takes on Malcolm's book. I can recommend it but I just wish I felt more connected to the characters and the case.
Poorly Written/Researched/Thoughtout
I guess Ms. Malcolm's publisher figured they would pull in some sales from her past renown because any editor worth her salt would have deep-sixed this manuscript. This is a poorly written book with a dearth of research (would love to know more about the Bhukaran community) and which has no rational basis for the author's conclusions (of course she did it - look at the list of all the terrible things she had done to get her way - e.g. having people sign false affidavits of sexual abuse against the father which were later recanted in court). The custody decision comes in for Malcolm's criticism yet wasn't the judge right on point in taking the child from the mother? Look what she would do to get her way. Please do not waste your money by buying this book - wait till someone else covers this story properly, because a compelling story it is. Unfortuneatly, this book completely drops the ball on every level.
Sorry previous reviewers but I found this book extremely irritating and lamely written. The authors claim to critique bias in the courtroom was totally undermined by her own bias, prejudices, and stereotyping of every single actor in this rather terrible crime. And what happened at the end? It just stops almost mid-sentence. Two dimensional drivel at its worst. Thumbs down.
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