Martin, Al. The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider. 2001.

Not the book, this is the book about the book that Al Martin would write about Iran-Contra, if it were possible to write a book that large, or if it were possible for Al Martin to organize his material.

Because Al Martin is an encylopedia of liability, corruption. This book about the book is a book written in fits and jerks, starts and stops, going back and forth between topics trying to enumerate some of the basic axes of a network of corruption and fraud too large to be understood. Al Martin writes about how he wants himself to be an interesting character and yet never manages to reveal the first detail about himself, he is unpicturable. Constant allusions to what he knows, very little of which gets revealed. He claims to have file cabinets full of information he doesn't tell us, and says that the big picture is too terrible to look at. The audience of this book seems to be Iran-Contra investigators who have been studying the issues assiduously and who need just a few pieces of the puzzle.

Martin wants his book to be exciting, too, he adds, filled with sex and violence and murder and intrigue. I hope he gets around to writing this book. The book he wrote instead is frustrating, repetitive, filled with false starts and no conclusion. Its poor organization verges on art: it is rare for an author to interrupt himself in order to muse on how difficult it is to explain what he is trying to explain. If this were a work of fiction it would be fascinating, like David Markson with the Reagan administration instead of Western Civilization.

What Al Martin has decided to be concerned with, regarding Iran-Contra, is not arms and narcotic trafficking, which is just sizzle, but fraudulent business practices that ended up costing the taxpayer, which is, he claims, meat.

If you are concerned that the current Bush administration isn't handling everything as well as it could—domestic policy, rebuilding Afghanistan, capturing Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein—then you have confused Bush and Cheney with politicians and statesmen and responsible people, when in fact they are little more than part of an organized crime syndicate. This book will give you some sense of that, if that is what you are ready to believe, but it will not convince you, if you don't want to be convinced, because this book has not one footnote, fails to explain its claims in any way that can be understood by a beginner, and offers no evidence beyond the author's word that he has filing cabinets filled with evidence.

Al Martin, I agree that you have a book in you. When you write your book, you will need to work with an editor. Keep Spineless Books in mind.