Literary Nonfiction. A remorseless chronicler of the absurd, the troubled, and the deformed, Ivan Solotaroff has an uncanny ability to find his way into the private lives of public figures at their moments of greatest epiphany, abasement, and deluded grandeur. With none of the judgment, artifice, or tropes of literary journalism, the eleven essays of NO SUCCESS LIKE FAILURE present a vision of the American ego at its most fragile. Among them: "Sympathy for the Devil" on the life, times, and burgeoning environmental awareness of Charles Manson; "In the Land of the Fischer King," an account of Bobby Fischer's public reappearance in war-ravaged Serbia-Montenegro; "Once a Man, Twice a Child," which covers the criminal trials of soul-star James Brown; "Superhuman, All Too Superhuman," on the pugilistic career and vagina dentata of Mark Gastineau; and "King of the Park," on the rise and fall of the street comic Charlie Barnett.

"This is a brilliantly humane and hypnotic exercise in deep-digging journalism of the very highest order. Such important details and sidebars! Such reportorial richness and efficiency! I am absolutely crazy about this book..."—Kurt Vonnegut