Book

*Art by Peter Landau

He invented rocket fuel. He defended Charles Manson.
He lost everything.

Hearsay is a work of narrative nonfiction that reexamines Irving Kanarek—rocket scientist, First Amendment defender, and Manson’s infamous attorney—as both maddening and brilliant, an iconoclast whose refusal to bow to power reshaped American justice and destroyed him in equal measure. A counter-narrative to Helter Skelter, it wrestles with what it costs to be ungovernable, eccentric, and mentally unwell in America

Author Irvina Kanarek—his daughter—writes with rare access to her father’s unpublished legal briefs, personal writings, and hours of recorded conversations.

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Writing

Irvina writes at the intersection of outsider identity, mental health, and self-advocacy. Her work blends memoir, journalism, and cultural criticism, often focusing on the lives and stories society tends to overlook.

Selected Writing