The Gay Talese Reader reviewed by jseger9000

Here's one I don't have a lot of confidence in. I loved The Gay Talese Reader, but I have trouble reviewing non-fiction. How did I do?
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A while ago Wikipedia had a front page article about Gay Talese’s Esquire article ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’, a landmark in New Journalism and (in their opinion) the best story Esquire ever published.

Having read it, it is a hell of a story. Talese's writing style is beautiful without ever drawing attention to itself. It was easily my favorite article in the book, though all of them were worth reading. Aside from ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ this book contains several other famous Talese articles, mainly from the sixties.

The first article: ‘New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed” is one of the weaker articles in the book, but it works well as an introduction to Talese's themes. It is an article that doesn’t follow a central protagonist. Instead it examines some of the quirky, out of the way places and people that go unnoticed in one of the most populous areas on the planet. It establishes a pattern that Talese follows repeatedly. The subjects of most of the articles in the book tend to be about the unnoticed little guy or someone past his prime.

Even ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ is famous (in part) because it is a portrait made up by observing many of the little fish around Frank. Talese says he mastered 'the fine art of hanging out', collecting info by observing, being unobtrusive, in the background. Doing this, he managed to write an in-depth about Frank Sinatra without ever having a direct interview with the man.

From there we read profiles of several retired heavy weight fighters, the man who writes obituaries for the New York Times, a retired Joe DiMaggio and the founders of The Paris Review plus others. All of these articles read like beautifully written, literate short stories rather than dry, just the facts ma'am reporting.

Even so, in the two essays where Talese talks about himself ('Origins of a Nonfiction Writer' and 'When I was Twenty-five''), he takes pains to point out that his writing is as thoroughly researched as his writing was when he worked for The Times. He never falsifies quotes or creates composite characters.

I think the final article, 'Walking My Cigar' was a weak finish to the book. As a solo article, it isn't bad. But there was a perceptible dip compared to the articles that came before it. The Gay Talese Reader is a strong collection of beautifully written New Journalism pieces book-ended by weaker articles.

‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ alone makes the book worth the purchase, but all of the articles were entertaining, insightful and extremely well-written.

Already made a few revisions.
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A while ago Wikipedia had a front page article about Gay Talese’s Esquire article ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’, a landmark in New Journalism and (in their own opinion) the best story Esquire ever published.

Having read it, it is a hell of a story. Talese's writing style is beautiful without ever drawing attention to itself. It was easily my favorite article in the book, though all of them were worth reading. Aside from ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ this book contains several other famous Talese articles, mainly from the sixties.

The first article: ‘New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed” is one of the weaker articles in the book. It is a very good article and I think reading through it would be enough to convince you whether the book is worth the purchase. I just don't think it was as strong an article as the ones that follow after.

But it works well as an introduction to Talese's themes. It is an article that doesn’t follow a central protagonist. Instead it examines some of the quirky, out of the way places and people that go unnoticed in one of the most populous areas on the planet. It establishes a pattern that Talese follows repeatedly. The subjects of most of the articles in the book tend to be about the unnoticed little guy or someone past his prime.

Even ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ is famous (in part) because it is a portrait made up by observing many of the little fish around Frank. Talese says he mastered 'the fine art of hanging out', collecting info by observing, being unobtrusive, in the background. Doing this, he managed to write an in-depth about Frank Sinatra without ever having a direct interview with the man.

From there we read profiles of several retired heavy weight fighters, the man who writes obituaries for the New York Times, a retired Joe DiMaggio and the founders of The Paris Review plus others. All of these articles read like beautifully written, literate short stories rather than dry, just the facts ma'am reporting.

Even so, in the two essays where Talese talks about himself ('Origins of a Nonfiction Writer' and 'When I was Twenty-five''), he takes pains to point out that his writing is as thoroughly researched as his writing was when he worked for The Times. He never falsifies quotes or creates composite characters.

I think the final article, 'Walking My Cigar' was a weak finish to the book. As a solo article, it isn't bad. But there was a perceptible dip compared to the articles that came before it. The Gay Talese Reader is a strong collection of beautifully written New Journalism pieces book-ended by weaker articles.

‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ alone makes the book worth the purchase, but all of the articles were entertaining, insightful and extremely well-written.

#3 - Thanks for the feedback. I figured I should have tried to explain that in the review.

New Journalism was a term that was popular in the Sixties and Seventies. There were a bunch of journalists at the time (Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer and Joan Didion were the biggies) that started using literary techniques to write non-fiction stories.

It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with profiles of famous people. That just happens to be what Gay Talese wrote about for Esquire.

In Cold Blood, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, Hells Angels and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas would be popular examples of it.

Now I just have to figure some way to whittle that down and plug it into the beginning sections of the review...

Okay, I split my original second paragraph in two and added a short little summation of New Journalism. How did I do?
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A while ago Wikipedia had a front page article about Gay Talese’s Esquire article ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’, a landmark in New Journalism and (in their own opinion) the best story Esquire ever published.

Having read it, it is a hell of a story. It is also a perfect example of New Journalism: pairing techniques from fiction writing (telling the story using scenes, adding in everyday details to color the narrative, using dialogue rather than quotations or statements) with the detailed research and strict adherence to factual accuracy of traditional reporting. These articles read like short stories, except every detail is true.

Talese's writing style is beautiful without ever drawing attention to itself. It was easily my favorite article in the book, though all of them were worth reading. Aside from ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ this book contains several other famous Talese articles, mainly from the sixties.

The first article: ‘New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed' is one of the weaker articles in the book. Don't get me wrong. It is a very good article and I think reading through it would be enough to convince you whether the book is worth the purchase. I just don't think it was as strong an article as the ones that follow after.

But it works well as an introduction to Talese's themes. It is an article that doesn’t follow a central protagonist. Instead it examines some of the quirky, out of the way places and people that go unnoticed in one of the most populous areas on the planet. It establishes a pattern that Talese follows repeatedly. The subjects of most of the articles in the book tend to be about the unnoticed little guy or someone past his prime.

Even ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ is famous (in part) because it is a portrait made up by observing many of the little fish around Frank. Talese says he mastered 'the fine art of hanging out', collecting info by observing, being unobtrusive, in the background. Doing this, he managed to write an in-depth portrait of Frank Sinatra without ever having a direct interview with the man.

From there we read profiles of several retired heavy weight fighters, the man who writes obituaries for the New York Times, a retired Joe DiMaggio and the founders of The Paris Review plus others. All of these articles read like beautifully written, literate short stories rather than dry, just the facts ma'am reporting.

Even so, in the two essays where Talese talks about himself ('Origins of a Nonfiction Writer' and 'When I was Twenty-five'), he takes pains to point out that his writing is as thoroughly researched as his writing was when he worked for The Times. He never falsifies quotes, changes names or creates composite characters.

I think the final article, 'Walking My Cigar' was a weak finish to the book. As a solo article, it isn't bad. But there was a perceptible dip compared to the articles that came before it. The Gay Talese Reader is a strong collection of beautifully written New Journalism pieces book-ended by weaker articles.

‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ alone makes the book worth the purchase, but all of the articles were entertaining, insightful and extremely well-written.

Oh, but now the third paragraph reads funny. I'll have to redo the first sentence...

I tinkered with a few other things as well. Reorganized a few sentences here and there.
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A while ago Wikipedia had a front page article about Gay Talese’s Esquire article ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’, a landmark in New Journalism and (in their own opinion) the best story Esquire ever published.

Having read it, it is a hell of a story. It is also a perfect example of New Journalism: pairing techniques from fiction writing (telling the story using scenes, adding in everyday details to color the narrative, using dialogue rather than quotations or statements) with the detailed research and strict adherence to factual accuracy of traditional reporting. These articles read like short stories, except every detail is true.

So ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ was easily my favorite article in the book, but all of them were worth reading. Aside from the Sinatra profile, the book contains several other famous Talese articles, mainly from the sixties though there were a couple of later ones.

The first article: ‘New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed' is one of the weaker ones in the book. Don't get me wrong. It is a very good article and I think reading through it would be enough to convince you whether the book is worth the purchase. I just don't think it was as strong an article as the ones that follow after.

But it works well as an introduction to Talese's themes. It is an article that doesn’t follow a central protagonist. Instead it examines some of the quirky, out of the way places and people that go unnoticed in one of the most populous areas on the planet. It establishes a pattern that Talese follows repeatedly. The subjects of most of the articles in the book tend to be about the unnoticed little guy or someone past his prime.

Even ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ is famous (in part) because he managed to write an in-depth, intimate portrait of Frank Sinatra, one of the most famous yet private men on the planet, without ever having a direct interview with the man. It is a portrait made up by observing many of the little fish around Frank, interviewing any that were willing to be interviewed. Talese says he mastered 'the fine art of hanging out', collecting info by observing, being unobtrusive, in the background.

From there we read profiles of several retired heavy weight fighters, the man who writes obituaries for the New York Times, a retired Joe DiMaggio and the founders of The Paris Review plus others. All of these articles read like beautifully written, literate short stories rather than dry, just the facts ma'am reporting.

Even so, in the two essays where Talese talks about himself ('Origins of a Nonfiction Writer' and 'When I was Twenty-five'), he takes pains to point out that his writing is as thoroughly researched as his writing was when he worked for The Times. He never falsifies quotes, changes names or creates composite characters.

I think the final article, 'Walking My Cigar' was a weak finish to the book. As a solo article, it isn't bad. But there was a perceptible dip compared to the articles that came before it. The Gay Talese Reader is a strong collection of beautifully written New Journalism pieces book-ended by weaker articles.

‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ alone makes the book worth the purchase, but all of the articles were entertaining, insightful and extremely well-written.

A couple of suggestions including some sentence rewrites:
Para #3
This book contains several famous Talese articles primarily from the 1960s although there are some later ones. Every article was worth reading, but ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” was my favourite.

Para #4
In a book made up of a collection of very good articles, the opener, ‘New York is a City of Things Unnoticed’, is one of the weaker ones. Don’t let this put you off reading the rest of the book: I just don’t think it was as strong as the articles which follow.

Para #5
It works well as an introduction to Talese’s themes and, instead of following a central protaganist, it examines some of the quirky, out of the way places and people that go unnoticed in one of the more populous areas on the planet.

Para #7
Add comma: From there,
Add quotation marks: “just the facts ma’am”

#8 and 9 - Thank you for the feed back.

I incorporated most of #9's suggestions, but reworded a bit here and there.

I also cut what was sixth paragraph, which eliminated one of the two uses of 'even' and also shortened a review that I was worried was too long.

I also shortened and combined what used to be paragraphs four and five.

Does it make any improvement to the review?
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A while ago Wikipedia had a front page article about Gay Talese’s Esquire article ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’, a landmark in New Journalism and (in their own opinion) the best story Esquire ever published.

Having read it, it is a hell of a story. It is also a perfect example of New Journalism: pairing techniques from fiction writing (telling the story using scenes, adding in everyday details to color the narrative, using dialogue rather than quotations or statements) with the detailed research and strict adherence to factual accuracy of traditional reporting. These articles read like short stories, except every detail is true.

This book contains several famous Talese articles primarily from the 1960s although there are some later ones. Every article was worth reading, but ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold' was my favourite.

In a book made up of a collection of very good articles, the opener, ‘New York is a City of Things Unnoticed’, is one of the weaker ones. It works well as an introduction to Talese’s themes and, instead of following a central protaganist, it examines some of the quirky, out of the way places and people that go unnoticed in one of the more populous areas on the planet. I think reading through it would give enough of a flavor to decide whether the book is worth the purchase, I just don’t think it is as strong as the articles which follow.

From there, we read profiles of several retired heavy weight fighters, the man who writes obituaries for the New York Times, a retired Joe DiMaggio and the founders of The Paris Review plus others. All of these articles read like beautifully written, literate short stories rather than dry, "just the facts ma'am" reporting.

Even so, in the two essays where Talese talks about himself ('Origins of a Nonfiction Writer' and 'When I was Twenty-five'), he takes pains to point out that his writing is as thoroughly researched as his writing was when he worked for The Times. He never falsifies quotes, changes names or creates composite characters.

I think the final article, 'Walking My Cigar' was a weak finish to the book. As a solo article, it isn't bad. But there was a perceptible dip compared to the articles that came before it. The Gay Talese Reader is a strong collection of beautifully written New Journalism pieces book-ended by weaker articles.

‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ alone makes the book worth the purchase, but all of the articles were entertaining, insightful and extremely well-written.

There is one small thing I’d suggest and that would be in your opening paragraph where you refer to Wikipedia: (in their own opinion). This could be changed to (in its opinion).

Thank you for the explanation about New Journalism; I hadn’t heard that expression before. And so, another addition to my wishlist...

Jenni, the 'their' in and (in their own opinion) was Esquire, not Wikipedia. I was worried that wasn't clear. Any suggestions on how to specify/clarify that?

Here's a link to the tag page for New Journalism: http://www.librarything.com/tag/new+journalism

How's this?
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A while ago Wikipedia had a front page article about Gay Talese’s Esquire article ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’, a landmark in New Journalism and (in Esquire's own opinion) the best story the magazine ever published.

Having read it, it is a hell of a story. It is also a perfect example of New Journalism: pairing techniques from fiction writing (telling the story using scenes, adding in everyday details to color the narrative, using dialogue rather than quotations or statements) with the detailed research and strict adherence to factual accuracy of traditional reporting. These articles read like short stories, except every detail is true.

This book contains several famous Talese articles primarily from the 1960s although there are some later ones. Every article was worth reading, but ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold' was my favourite.

In a book made up of a collection of very good articles, the opener, ‘New York is a City of Things Unnoticed’, is one of the weaker ones. It works well as an introduction to Talese’s themes and, instead of following a central protaganist, it examines some of the quirky, out of the way places and people that go unnoticed in one of the more populous areas on the planet. I think reading through it would give enough of a flavor to decide whether the book is worth the purchase, I just don’t think it is as strong as the articles which follow.

From there, we read profiles of several retired heavy weight fighters, the man who writes obituaries for the New York Times, a retired Joe DiMaggio and the founders of The Paris Review plus others. All of these articles read like beautifully written, literate short stories rather than dry, "just the facts ma'am" reporting.

Even so, in the two essays where Talese talks about himself ('Origins of a Nonfiction Writer' and 'When I was Twenty-five'), he takes pains to point out that his writing is as thoroughly researched as his writing was when he worked for The Times. He never falsifies quotes, changes names or creates composite characters.

I think the final article, 'Walking My Cigar' was a weak finish to the book. As a solo article, it isn't bad. But there was a perceptible dip compared to the articles that came before it. The Gay Talese Reader is a strong collection of beautifully written New Journalism pieces book-ended by weaker articles.

‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ alone makes the book worth the purchase, but all of the articles were entertaining, insightful and extremely well-written.

Sorry, work has been really cutting into my LT time ...

How about: "a landmark in New Journalism and, in Esquire's opinion, the best story it had ever published."

Thanks for the link to the New Journalism tagged books. Although the term “New Journalism” was new to me, I’ve read quite a few and have several in my TBR mountain.

#16 - I think New Journalism had a gigantic impact on non-fiction writing, but I think the term itself has fallen out of favor. For one thing, it's fifty years old and I think things like Stephen Glass and A Million Little Pieces have made non-fiction writers wary of promoting their use of techniques taken from fiction to tell their true stories even as they continue to do it.

I liked your suggestion better than mine. I think it reads better without the parenthesis. I won't post the whole review again, but here's how I worked it into the review:

A while ago Wikipedia had a front page article about Gay Talese’s Esquire article ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’, a landmark in New Journalism and, in Esquire's own opinion, the best story the magazine ever published.

"has fallen out of favor. For one thing, it's fifty years old"

I can relate :(