Most of us know him as divorce attorney to the stars, but Raoul Felder says, “I always intended to be a writer.” Indeed, he recently came out with a memoir, “Reflections in a Mirror of Love, Loss, Death, and Divorce.” In it, the emphasis is less on divorce — and the juicy ins and outs of repping Rudy Giuliani, Robin Givens (Mike Tyson’s ex) and the husband of Jocelyn “Bride of Wildenstein” Wildenstein — than on love, and what it was like growing up in Brooklyn with his older brother, Doc Pomus, the future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame songwriter. “Last week a guy stopped me on the street and said he had ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’ as his ringtone,” Felder says proudly. Here’s what’s in this lawyer’s library.
Savage Continent
by Keith Lowe
The title caught my eye. I thought it was about Africa or Asia, but it refers to Europe in the immediate aftermath of WWII. It was a ripped and raw landscape without electricity, food, police or housing, and yet Europe made it through. It’s a frightening book because it reveals the desperation of humanity.
Manhattan ’45
by Jan Morris
The title sounds like a wine, but this book was written in the ’80s by a great travel writer, and it’s the best book ever written about New York. It gets the spirit, the rhythm and depicts parts of it that people take for granted: the Staten Island Ferry, the Waldorf. In my generation, there was a grandeur about New York, but that’s less so today.
To Have and Have Not
by Ernest Hemingway
This is among his least noted and least favorably reviewed novels. I think critics felt it was too left-leaning: Hemingway had just come back from the Spanish Civil War. It’s a great story about a man who smuggles human beings from Cuba to Florida. Hemingway was a great storyteller.
The Big Sleep
by Raymond Chandler
Chandler’s a great writer. Like J.K. Rowling, he makes his own universe. This was made into a movie. William Faulkner was one of the writers and Howard Hawks directed. They called Chandler and asked him what it was about and he said he didn’t know, either — the story just tumbled out of him. He was a much better writer than Dashiell Hammett.