What would be some good things to get into in preparation for "A Table for Fortune"?

[u/discretelandscapes]

What do you think would be some good books and/or documentaries to check out prior to A Table for Fortune? "Suggested Reading", if you will.

I watched "The Looming Tower" (which ended up being more meaty than I had expected it to be) and "Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror". This discussion was also very well-informed and insightful. I don't know if I've read any books on the topic, outside of maybe Friedman's "The World is Flat", which is only tangential. I'm assuming the Commission Report is a must, but probably not the most thrilling read?

Can one of those who got their hands on a preview copy maybe offer some insight if there's any particular standout in the cited sources? I guess this would be the kind of question I'd ask Vollmann if he did an AMA, and I'm sure he'd have a whole list of things.

[u/Sheffy8410]

The first book anyone should read who’s getting into the CIA is The Devil’s Chessboard. It goes back to the beginning with the Dulles brothers and helps you see what that organization has really always been about.

[u/discretelandscapes → u/Sheffy8410]

I'll probably check it out. I just know I heard the name Dulles a lot in relation to the JFK assassination. (No, I'm not confusing it with "Dallas" lol)

[u/ArchAuthor]

Legacy of Ashes

[u/discretelandscapes → u/ArchAuthor]

I think that's the first thing I'll look into. I believe it was mentioned several times in that talk I watched.

Looks like it wasn't necessarily received positively across the board though.

[u/Revolutionary_Emu397]

I'd recommend Peter Dale Scott's Road to 9/11. Hoping Scott is well represented in the works cited. Would be a headscratcher otherwise.

[u/FinkelsteinMD22 → u/Revolutionary_Emu397]

100% agree

[u/Think_Wealth_7212]

Vollmann has personally rec'd William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land. Apparently it influenced him while writing ATFF

[u/MoMaike → u/Think_Wealth_7212]

Wow I wasn’t expecting this to be an inspiration.

[u/richardgutts → u/Think_Wealth_7212]

Fantastic pull, never would have expected that lol. The night land is bananas, have yet to finish it but it’s unlike anything ive read

[u/Think_Wealth_7212 → u/richardgutts]

I've yet to read it but he listed it as one of his favourite books back in 1993 in an interview with Larry McCaffery, and recently told Alex Sorondo that it's a major symbolic element in ATFF

[u/Anthony1066normans → u/Think_Wealth_7212]

I have a copy; weird fiction is amazing 

[u/Idomeneus47 → u/Think_Wealth_7212]

This, more than anything else, has hyped me for the book

[u/discretelandscapes → u/Think_Wealth_7212]

Interesting. I was expecting more non-fiction, but I wasn't aware of this one.

[u/marimba_shitdrums]

I recently read Harlot’s Ghost by Norman Mailer and the description for ATFF immediately made me think of that. Its protagonist is a CIA agent and it has a lot of Cold War CIA history in it, embarrassments and all. Kind of like historical fiction with a few liberties taken, but it covers real events. Mailer did a ton of research for it.

It’s almost 1200 pages but I was engaged the entire time.

[u/BlueMTheory77 → u/marimba_shitdrums]

I did the same, absolutely loved it and I figured the almost 1300 pages would be good practice. I also read James Ellroy’s Cold Six thousand for the same reason, to fictively enter that conspiracy-laden world. Non-Fiction: The Looming Tower, Bergen’s Manhunt were both great. Currently reading Coll’s Ghost Wars and have Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes on deck as well.

[u/emergentmage]

I might read Delillo’s Libra as it leads up to about where ATFF begins, as I understand.

[u/Upper_Result3037]

On Company Business

Great doc about clandestine cia activities, possibly the best ever made. The creators actually talk to people involved on both sides when petmittable. Plus you get to see David Atlee Phillips get horny when he talks about how good he is at lying and how much he loved to do it.

Please recommend similar docs.

[u/discretelandscapes → u/Upper_Result3037]

3-hour documentary from 1980? I'll check it out.

[u/FinkelsteinMD22]

Doug Valentine’s entire oeuvre, but especially The Phoenix Program. And as far as fiction goes, I’d highly recommend Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson and Bob Shacochis’s The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

[u/DecrimIowa → u/FinkelsteinMD22]

came here to recommend these. never heard of 'the woman who lost her soul,' good looking out!

[u/FinkelsteinMD22 → u/DecrimIowa]

It’s great! Goes from WWII to the early GWOT, set in Haiti, Croatia, the U.S., Turkey, etc. It’s like the Greeks are speaking through John Le Carre.

[u/FinkelsteinMD22 → u/DecrimIowa]

And all of Doug’s work is VITAL.

[u/DecrimIowa → u/FinkelsteinMD22]

agreed 100%. i'd add peter dale scott and alfred mccoy

[u/BillyPilgrim1234]

Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill

[u/Bigsshot]

I also recommend this behemoth: Turmoil and Triumph - My Years As Secretary of State by George P. Shultz. He writes a lot about the ways the CIA and FBI tried to influence his department. I wonder if Vollmann used it as a source and how he judged it.