At the October 6 meeting we'll discuss a nonfiction book, Charlatan by Pope Brock. This fascinating social history set in the first half of the 20th century describes the career and downfall of John R. Brinkley, who at the peak of his career was the richest and most famous surgeon in the United States. Beyond medicine, his innovative influence was felt from modern political campaigning to the rise of country music. The jacket flap describes the book as a portrait of a "boundlessly audacious rogue on the loose in an America that was ripe for the bamboozling."
