Official Review: The Godfathers of Sex Abuse, Book I: Jef...

[Leecedar]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Godfathers of Sex Abuse, Book I: Jeffrey Epstein" by Deana Pollard Sacks.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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When I read the teaser for The Godfathers of Sex Abuse: Book I: Jeffrey Epstein, by Deana Pollard Sacks, I loved the idea of delving further into the fascinating story of Jeffrey Epstein. I have seen several shows about his life and death, and he is a fantastic case study into the debauchery enabled by massive wealth and power. The teaser promised a few things I eagerly anticipated. It promised to be a summary of “news stories, court cases, and interviews—along with her keen observations—to give the reader a full picture of the life and crimes of this twisted sexual pervert.” That's a high bar for an author to set, and unfortunately, Professor Sacks didn't completely clear it in this book. She wrote a fine book, but it wasn't up to the billing.

Professor Sacks starts with an introduction to sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and sex abuse. I found her description to be a bit stereotypical, relating sexual criminality and misbehavior only to heterosexual men against women and members of the LGBT community. She seems to overlook that since the feminist movement took hold, many women feel just as entitled to lie and cheat in order to achieve sexual conquest as misogynistic men.
However, laying that stereotype aside, she does a very good job of explaining the subject.

In going through Epstein's life and crimes, she explains the events of his life well. His history involves going from college dropout to teacher, to Wall Street mogul, and to the life of being obscenely rich, leaving many in his wake, including his mentor and partner. Somehow, he always managed to escape the claws of justice unscathed. Her research is extensive, and she manages to put together the various aspects of his life, including his depravity, his criminal trials, and his death. His story continues even now with theories regarding whether his death was suicide or murder, and if he is truly dead.

There were some places where I found Professor Sacks' book lacking. I was expecting original interviews that would give me a deeper understanding of Epstein's story. Instead, she relied on interviews that have already been done by others and are in the public domain. There are many other people that could have been interviewed in order to give an enriched understanding of the effects that this man had on others. She could have interviewed law enforcement personnel involved in his “work-release” program. The program was extraordinarily lenient in Epstein's case, and the interviews could have included the sheriff. Sacks could have interviewed family members of some victims. That way, she could have avoided further traumatizing the victims while still getting to know how this horrible affected their lives. However, Sacks didn't interview anybody on her own. She merely watched other interviews or used transcripts from them.

The next place I feel the book comes up short is that Sacks tends to lean a bit toward conspiracy theories in terms of Epstein's story. For example, she asks, “Who told Acosta (the US prosecutor) to stand down? Clinton? George W. Bush, the president at the time? The FBI? Someone on Epstein's defense team? For what intelligence agency was Epstein an asset or agent? The FBI? The CIA? Mossad? The public should demand answers to these questions.” It seems to me that if there are so many possibilities, people should lean toward the answer where the preponderance of the evidence lies. Prior to posing those questions, she had already written a chapter about the brutal methods of Epstein's defense team and how they would personally attack members of the prosecution. Why bring all the other governmental agencies and authorities, for which there is no evidence, into the discussion? She assumes that all the major media are in some kind of cahoots in order to bury the Epstein story. While there may have been problems getting the initial stories released, like all news, it eventually finds its way into the spotlight.

The nature of Epstein's crimes is described in some detail here, and there's a bit of profanity. By its very nature, the story is of an adult nature, so I would not recommend it to teens or below. However, for those interested in the #MeToo movement and true crime stories, I would recommend this book highly. For the quality of the research and the telling of the tale, I give it high marks. However, because of the lack of original interviews and the author's slants against men and toward conspiracies, I can only give it three out of four stars.

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The Godfathers of Sex Abuse, Book I: Jeffrey Epstein
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[Chigo Nwagboso]

Thanks for an insightful review. The title of the book is quite catchy and I hope it delivered.

[Jennifer Aldo]

I'm not stereotypical, but from the title it's quite obvious where the focus on major perpetrators of sex abuse and harassment would lay. I love your review. Nice work.