Killers of the Flower Moon

OK, so I had to laugh. This is totally an aside, but I read several reviews and a lot of people complained that this book didn't have enough action and that it wasn't about the FBI. Yeah, it's a fuckin' non-fiction book. Do you think the author should've thrown in a car chase shootout or something? And it says “birth of the FBI,” which was touched upon. It isn't a Blue Lives Matter history of the FBI shooting bad guys. Sheesh.

Anyhow, I really loved this book. I wasn't too into the idea of watching a dramatized version, but the movie's existence did put this story on my radar. I'm glad I read it. In the US, we tend to stray away from stories that make us look unfavorable. It's hard to convince the world that everyone who isn't a WASP is a savage when those are the ones doing the most heinous shit imaginable. Rather than some shitty allegory about race, the author gives an actual account of capitalism at its worst. Native Americans are told to leave their land, their new land contains oil, the ones that get rich start disappearing. So fucked up. This is the sort of thing that needs to be taught in school.

If I had to make a few complaints, I'd start by saying that because of the subject matter, the writing did feel a little clinical at times. Obviously, it'd be fiction to spruce up the story, but the writing could've been punched up a bit. Another thing that sort of got me was that the story of the creation of the FBI made Hoover sound a little too sympathetic. I feel like there were more politics at play than J Edgar actually caring much about Native Americans. Maybe that's a story for another time and another place.