Miami Babylon

作者:Posner, Gerald

页数:464

出版时间:2009-10

价格:214.00元

isbn号码:9781416576563

具体描述

Here, in all its neon-colored, cocaine-fueled glory, is the never-before-told story of the making of Miami Beach. Gerald Posner, author of the groundbreaking investigations Case Closed and Why America Slept , has uncovered the hair-raising political-financial-criminal history of the Beach and reveals a tale that, in the words of one character, "makes Scarface look like a documentary." From its beginnings in the 1890s, the Beach has been a place made by visionaries and hustlers. During Prohibition, Al Capone had to muscle into its bootlegging and gambling businesses. After December 1941, when the Beach was the training ground for half a million army recruits, even the war couldn't stop the party. After a short postwar boom, the city's luck gave out. The big hotels went bankrupt, the crime rate rose, and the tourists moved on to Disney World and the Caribbean. Even after the Beach hosted both national political conventions in 1972, nobody would have imagined that this sandy backwater of run-down hotels and high crime would soon become one of the country's most important cultural centers. But in 1981, 125,000 Cubans arrived by the boatload. The empty streets of South Beach, lined with dilapidated Art Deco hotels, were about to be changed irrevocably by the culture of money that moved in behind cocaine and crime. Posner takes us inside the intertwined lives of politicians, financiers, nightclub owners, and real estate developers who have fed the Beach's unquenchable desire for wealth, flash, and hype: the German playboy who bought the entire tip of South Beach with $100 million of questionable money; the mayoral candidate who said, "If you can't take their money, drink their liquor, mess with their women, and then vote against them, you aren't cut out for politics"; the Staten Island thug who became king of the South Beach nightclubs only to have his empire unravel and saved himself by testifying against the mob; the campaign manager who calls himself the "Prince of Darkness" and got immunity from prosecution in a fraud case by cooperating with the FBI against his colleagues; and the former Washington, D.C., developer who played hardball with city hall and became the Beach's first black hotel owner. From the mid-level coke dealers and their suitcases of cash to the questionable billions that financed the ocean-view condo towers, the Beach has seen it all. Posner's singular report tells the real story of how this small urban beach community was transformed into a world-class headquarters for American culture within a generation. It is a story built by dreamers and schemers. And a steroid-injected cautionary tale.

用户评价

这本作品的氛围营造能力简直达到了出神入化的地步。从字里行间散发出的那种湿热、慵懒而又暗流涌动的气息，让你仿佛真的能闻到海风带来的咸味和酒精的刺激感。作者对感官的调动非常到位，无论是味觉、嗅觉还是触觉，都得到了极大的满足。阅读过程中，我时常感到一种挥之不去的压抑感，那是对快速发展背后代价的无声控诉。更令人称奇的是，即便是在描写最黑暗、最不堪的场景时，作者的笔触依然保持着一种冷静的、近乎科学的克制，这种反差更增添了作品的力量。它没有提供廉价的希望或简单的救赎，而是将人物赤裸裸地抛在时代的洪流之中，让他们自生自灭，让读者去思考，在极端环境下，人性的底线究竟在哪里。这是一种深刻的、令人不安但又无比真实的艺术表达。

初翻此书，我以为它会是一部快餐式的都市传说集锦，结果却发现自己踏入了一个精心设计的文学迷宫。作者展现了惊人的百科全书式的知识储备，无论是关于建筑风格的演变、特定历史事件的侧写，还是亚文化群体的生态描摹，都显得考究而精准。最让我印象深刻的是其语言的韵律感，那些长句的排比和短句的戛然而止，构建出一种独特的节奏感，读起来犹如听一曲复杂的爵士乐，充满了即兴的变奏和精确的和声。它不迎合大众口味，反而用一种近乎偏执的姿态，去探究一个特定环境如何塑造了那些在边缘游走的灵魂。每次合上书本，我都会忍不住去查找书中所提及的某些历史背景和地理位置，这说明作者成功地在虚构与现实之间搭建起了一座坚实的桥梁，让阅读的体验超越了单纯的故事消费，变成了一次求知和反思的过程。

老实说，一开始我有些抗拒这种略带颓废和批判色彩的笔调，但很快，我就被文字的力量所征服。这不仅仅是一部小说，它更像是一份用文字精心绘制的城市病理报告。作者的语言风格极为独特，充满了大胆的隐喻和辛辣的讽刺，仿佛每一次下笔都在挖掘着文明外壳下的腐朽与挣扎。人物塑造极为立体，没有绝对的好人或坏人，每个人物都有其复杂且矛盾的动机，他们的选择和命运交织在一起，构成了一张密不透风的命运之网。我尤其欣赏作者处理冲突的方式，它们并非简单的正邪较量，而是源于根深蒂固的社会结构和历史遗留问题，显得格外真实和沉重。读到后半部分，我感觉自己已经完全融入了那个世界，甚至能听到霓虹灯闪烁时发出的微弱嗡鸣，以及远处传来的警笛声。这是一种沉浸式的体验，让人在阅读结束后，需要很长一段时间才能真正抽离出来，重新审视我们所处的现实世界。

这本书的结构安排堪称教科书级别的典范。它巧妙地运用了多重叙事视角，每一次切换都带来了新的信息和不同的解读角度，极大地丰富了故事的层次感。初读时，可能会因为信息量的庞大和人物关系的复杂而感到一丝迷惘，但这正是作者的高明之处——他强迫读者去主动构建理解，而不是被动接受。那些看似不经意的对话，往往蕴含着推动情节发展的关键线索；那些不被注意的环境描写，实则预示着即将到来的转折。我花了整整一周的时间才啃完，期间做了大量的笔记，试图梳理出人物关系图谱，这本身就证明了作品的深度和密度。它挑战了读者对传统叙事模式的期待，提供了一种更加碎片化、更贴近真实生活混乱感的阅读体验。对于喜欢深度挖掘和结构分析的读者来说，这无疑是一场智力上的盛宴。

翻开这本厚重的历史卷轴，我仿佛被一股无形的力量牵引着，瞬间穿越回了那个充满迷幻与罪恶的年代。作者对细节的捕捉简直令人叹为观止，那些街道的喧嚣、空气中弥漫的湿热与香料气息，乃至人物眼中闪烁的贪婪与绝望，都跃然纸上。书中对社会阶层的刻画入木三分，上流社会的纸醉金迷与底层人民的挣扎求生形成了鲜明的对比，每一次阅读都像是在进行一次深入的社会解剖。叙事节奏的把握极为精妙，时而如平静的河流般娓娓道来，细数着时代的变迁；时而又陡然加速，如同突发的飓风，将读者卷入一场无法预料的风暴之中。特别是那些精心编织的支线情节，看似松散，实则暗藏玄机，最终汇集成一幅宏大而复杂的人性图景。阅读过程中，我多次停下来，合上书本，细细品味那些富含哲理的段落，它们如同黑暗中的微光，引导着人去思考秩序与混乱的边界，以及个体在巨大社会机器下所能扮演的角色。这本书不只是在讲述一个城市的故事，更是在探讨人性深处那些永恒的命题。