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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 071.3
EAN: 9780802776754
ISBN: 0802776752
Label: Walker & Company
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: October 01, 2003
Publisher: Walker & Company
Sales Rank: 76955
Studio: Walker & Company
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Product Description:
As a young reporter for the New York Times, in 1961 Gay Talese published his first book, New York-A Serendipiter's Journey, a series of vignettes and essays that began, 'New York is a city of things unnoticed. It is a city with cats sleeping under parked cars, two stone armadillos crawling up St. Patrick's Cathedral, and thousands of ants creeping on top of the Empire State Building.'
Attention to detail and observation of the unnoticed is the hallmark of Gay Talese's writing, and The Gay Talese Reader brings together the best of his essays and classic profiles. This collection opens with 'New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed,' and includes 'Silent Season of a Hero' (about Joe DiMaggio), 'Ali in Havana,' and 'Looking for Hemingway' as well as several other favorite pieces. It also features a previously unpublished article on the infamous case of Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt, and concludes with the autobiographical pieces that are among Talese's finest writings. These works give insight into the progression of a writer at the pinnacle of his craft.
Whether he is detailing the unseen and sometimes quirky world of New York City or profiling Ol' Blue Eyes in 'Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,' Talese captures his subjects-be they famous, infamous, or merely unusual-in his own inimitable, elegant fashion. The essays and profiles collected in The Gay Talese Reader are works of art, each carefully crafted to create a portrait of an unforgettable individual, place or moment.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - One helluva writer
This book was recommended reading for the Magazine Writing course I recently completed. It's by far the best set of written-for-magazine articles I've seen. In a world saturated by smarmy, self-important Rolling Stone articles, it's refreshing (stunningly so) to read what used to grace the pages of prestigious magazines. To read Talese's account of Frank Sinatra is a treat, most definitely. His use of detail and respect for his subject is astounding. Talese's own account of his life as as a shy tailor's son is meticulously written as well. This book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to see how compelling prose should be written.
Rating: - Great light reading. Interesting, poignant and cool....
For a sweetly essential read this is a must. Profiling people like Muhammed Ali, Floyd Patterson, Joe DiMaggio, Peter O'Toole, Sinatra and his own grandfather, Talese unites the journalistic style he even writes about, with an attractive fiction-like narrative. I looked forward to reading this each time, and was captivated by the non-sequitor poetics of Mr. Talese. Highly recommended for being simple, active and care-full about it's subjects.
Rating: - Intelligent curiosity and great writing
"Intensely curious" is how Gay Talese describes himself on his arrival in New York City as a young man in the mid-1950s, a provincial from a community of immigrants in New Jersey. " But until I got a job in journalism I knew of no way to indulge my peculiar interest in the natural and unnatural order of city life."
Talese's interest in the lifestyle of alley cats, the inside knowledge of doormen and charwomen and taxi drivers, and the various overlooked architectural marvels throughout the city was underappreciated by his bosses at "The New York Times." As punishment for his lackluster efforts on the Albany political beat, Talese was shunted to the obituaries desk. But to him it was an opportunity to write about the personal accomplishments of interesting people. "I was never happier," he says.
Each of the superb pieces in this collection of writing from the 1960s to the 1990s exemplifies his elevation of curiosity to an art form. The opening piece, "New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed," his first article for "Esquire," in 1960, (and the opening of his first book, "New York: A Serendipiter's Journey") combines elements from a number of stories he had written for the "Times." Talese portrays the city's vastness and variety in a catalog of wonders and personal vignettes and portraits, from the gallons of soap used on a big day at Yankee Stadium to the doorman with parts of three bullets in his head, to a snapshot of the city during its quietest hour (5 a.m.).
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Rating: - Wish I could copy and paste this book on my walls
That is how much I loved this book. Mr. Talese eliminates all fluff and nonsense generally written about celebrity and New York City, decisively zooming in on the truth of both, giftedly selecting details that stir, exciting our interest, and thereby awarding his readers an intimate and delightful read.
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