The Gay Talese Reader: Portraits and Encounters
By Gay Talese
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About this ebook
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 It also features a previously unpublished article on the infamous case of Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt, and concludes with the autobiographical pieces that are among Talese's finest writings.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.
Gay Talese
GAY TALESE was credited by Tom Wolfe with the creation of an inventive form of nonfiction writing called “The New Journalism.” He spent his early career at the New York Times, then moved to Esquire, where he produced some of the most celebrated magazine pieces ever written, including “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which Vanity Fair has called “the greatest literary-nonfiction story of the twentieth century.” His books include The Kingdom and the Power, Honor Thy Father, Thy Neighbor’s Wife, Unto the Sons, and The Voyeur’s Motel. Born in Ocean City, New Jersey, in 1932, Talese lives with his wife, Nan, in New York City. They have two daughters, Pamela and Catherine.
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Reviews for The Gay Talese Reader
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A 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.This book contains ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ and 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. It is an article that doesn’t follow a central protagonist. Instead it examines some of the quirky, out of the way places 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 little guy or a champ past his prime.Even ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ is famous (in part) because it is an article Talese wrote about Frank Sinatra without ever having a direct interview with the man. It is a portrait made up by observing many of Frank’s friends, followers and hanger’s-on.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.‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’ alone makes the book worth the purchase, but all of the articles were entertaining, insightful and extremely well-written.