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Product Description
Forty years after Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, and Gay Talese launched the New Journalism movement, Robert S. Boynton sits down with nineteen practitioners of what he calls the New New Journalism to discuss their methods, writings and careers.
The New New Journalists are first and foremost brilliant reporters who immerse themselves completely in their subjects. Jon Krakauer accompanies a mountaineering expedition to Everest. Ted Conover works for nearly a year as a prison guard. Susan Orlean follows orchid fanciers to reveal an obsessive subculture few knew existed. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc spends nearly a decade reporting on a family in the South Bronx. And like their muckraking early twentieth-century precursors, they are drawn to the most pressing issues of the day: Alex Kotlowitz, Leon Dash, and William Finnegan to race and class; Ron Rosenbaum to the problem of evil; Michael Lewis to boom-and-bust economies; Richard Ben Cramer to the nitty gritty of politics. How do they do it? In these interviews, they reveal the techniques and inspirations behind their acclaimed works, from their felt-tip pens, tape recorders, long car rides, and assumed identities; to their intimate understanding of the way a truly great story unfolds.
Interviews with:
Gay Talese
Jane Kramer*
Calvin Trillin
Richard Ben Cramer*
Ted Conover*
Alex Kotlowitz*
Richard Preston*
William Langewiesche*
Eric Schlosser
Leon Dash
William Finnegan
Jonathan Harr*
Jon Krakauer*
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Michael Lewis*
Susan Orlean
Ron Rosenbaum
Lawrence Weschler*
Lawrence Wright*
* Search our online catalog to find other titles by these Vintage and Anchor Books authors.
The New New Journalists are first and foremost brilliant reporters who immerse themselves completely in their subjects. Jon Krakauer accompanies a mountaineering expedition to Everest. Ted Conover works for nearly a year as a prison guard. Susan Orlean follows orchid fanciers to reveal an obsessive subculture few knew existed. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc spends nearly a decade reporting on a family in the South Bronx. And like their muckraking early twentieth-century precursors, they are drawn to the most pressing issues of the day: Alex Kotlowitz, Leon Dash, and William Finnegan to race and class; Ron Rosenbaum to the problem of evil; Michael Lewis to boom-and-bust economies; Richard Ben Cramer to the nitty gritty of politics. How do they do it? In these interviews, they reveal the techniques and inspirations behind their acclaimed works, from their felt-tip pens, tape recorders, long car rides, and assumed identities; to their intimate understanding of the way a truly great story unfolds.
Interviews with:
Gay Talese
Jane Kramer*
Calvin Trillin
Richard Ben Cramer*
Ted Conover*
Alex Kotlowitz*
Richard Preston*
William Langewiesche*
Eric Schlosser
Leon Dash
William Finnegan
Jonathan Harr*
Jon Krakauer*
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Michael Lewis*
Susan Orlean
Ron Rosenbaum
Lawrence Weschler*
Lawrence Wright*
* Search our online catalog to find other titles by these Vintage and Anchor Books authors.
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First Sentence
The first time Ted Conover was asked if he was a tramp he wasn't sure how to respond. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
The first time Ted Conover was asked if he was a tramp he wasn't sure how to respond. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
In 1973 Tom Wolfe announced that non-fiction had become "literature's main event", and a bunch of America's best-known writers were loosely gathered up, often unwillingly, under New Journalism's umbrella. Fiction writers such as Truman Capote and Norman Mailer tested the waters with their "non-fiction novels", Hunter S Thompson was going gonzo, and publications like Esquire, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone encouraged these experiments in journalism.
Whilst New Journalism tested the boundary of non-fiction/fiction, and its stylistic qualities, New New Journalism has taken accuracy as a core value, and instead "experiments more with the way one gets the story." New New Journalism is "the literature of the everyday", and as such is characterised by "rigorous reporting ... on the minutiae of the ordinary": many of the writers featured have spent months or years getting to know their subjects, and their worlds, on an intimate level, plumbing new depths (and dangers) in immersive reporting.
Boynton's superb introduction traces the history and ideas behind New Journalism and puts its latest incarnation, New New Journalism, in a literary context. It is a form that has been fostered in America - thanks in part to dedicated outlets, but also to something greater hinted at here in the interviews; a desire for understanding, a quest for the key to 21st century life in the US. If "Reality TV" is the popular manifestation of this driving force, then New New Journalism is its literary component.
This book comes from Boynton's practice of inviting writers to speak at the journalism classes he teaches at New York University. He has succeeded, I think, in his mission to "re-create the spontaneity and excitement of those classroom encounters" and brings us a series of 19 interviews with New New Journalism's finest practitioners that follow a "hypothetical work from conception to publication." His questions range from "Do you make outlines?" to "What kind of authorial presence do you strive for?" from "What does a typical writing day look like?" to "Do you think that journalistic inquiry can yield truth?" He covers the nuts and bolts of reporting, as well as probing abstract issues of meaning, and ethics.
In their replies, each writer comes across as a personality, and it makes for hugely entertaining reading. Even though there are continual divergences in approach, and method, there is confluence in a shared desire to give the reader what Leon Dash might call "not "absolute truth"", but some kind of authentic experience; what Richard Preston speaks of as "human truth", or Ted Conover as "literal truth". How each writer goes about getting at this "truth" is what this book really uncovers.
As an interested reader, I found this book revealing in a unique behind-the-scenes sort of way; imagine being able to sit down and ask your favourite writers how they go about their craft? Boynton does this brilliantly, asks all the right questions, and the writers are surprisingly forthcoming in their answers. Students of journalism, as well as anyone interested in writing as a process, or non-fiction as an entity, must surely find these conversations insightful. Boynton provides a detailed bibliography of sources, and useful lists of each writer's books, most of which sound fascinating. These references in themselves are valuable as a reading framework for anyone interested in getting to the heart of this genre.
Whilst New Journalism tested the boundary of non-fiction/fiction, and its stylistic qualities, New New Journalism has taken accuracy as a core value, and instead "experiments more with the way one gets the story." New New Journalism is "the literature of the everyday", and as such is characterised by "rigorous reporting ... on the minutiae of the ordinary": many of the writers featured have spent months or years getting to know their subjects, and their worlds, on an intimate level, plumbing new depths (and dangers) in immersive reporting.
Boynton's superb introduction traces the history and ideas behind New Journalism and puts its latest incarnation, New New Journalism, in a literary context. It is a form that has been fostered in America - thanks in part to dedicated outlets, but also to something greater hinted at here in the interviews; a desire for understanding, a quest for the key to 21st century life in the US. If "Reality TV" is the popular manifestation of this driving force, then New New Journalism is its literary component.
This book comes from Boynton's practice of inviting writers to speak at the journalism classes he teaches at New York University. He has succeeded, I think, in his mission to "re-create the spontaneity and excitement of those classroom encounters" and brings us a series of 19 interviews with New New Journalism's finest practitioners that follow a "hypothetical work from conception to publication." His questions range from "Do you make outlines?" to "What kind of authorial presence do you strive for?" from "What does a typical writing day look like?" to "Do you think that journalistic inquiry can yield truth?" He covers the nuts and bolts of reporting, as well as probing abstract issues of meaning, and ethics.
In their replies, each writer comes across as a personality, and it makes for hugely entertaining reading. Even though there are continual divergences in approach, and method, there is confluence in a shared desire to give the reader what Leon Dash might call "not "absolute truth"", but some kind of authentic experience; what Richard Preston speaks of as "human truth", or Ted Conover as "literal truth". How each writer goes about getting at this "truth" is what this book really uncovers.
As an interested reader, I found this book revealing in a unique behind-the-scenes sort of way; imagine being able to sit down and ask your favourite writers how they go about their craft? Boynton does this brilliantly, asks all the right questions, and the writers are surprisingly forthcoming in their answers. Students of journalism, as well as anyone interested in writing as a process, or non-fiction as an entity, must surely find these conversations insightful. Boynton provides a detailed bibliography of sources, and useful lists of each writer's books, most of which sound fascinating. These references in themselves are valuable as a reading framework for anyone interested in getting to the heart of this genre.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Insightful interviews make for a great read
13 Aug 2005
Format:Paperback
For any inspiring journalists or writers, avid readers, and followers of media trends in this country, this book is a great look into how journalists and writers do what they do.
The book is organized as a series of interview transcripts, asking each reporter how they do what they do. From "What is your daily routine?" to "How do you come up with ideas?" and "How do you decide who to interview?", the questions are very nicely worded to offer the reader the right information.
What emerges through the unique voices of each writer is a picture of creative non-fiction, a genre combining old-school reporting methods and forward-looking creative thinking and ways of presenting information.
This book is hard to read in one sitting, since the questions in each interview are pretty much the same and can get repetitive. However, it is a great book to pick up from time to time and read bits of and I certainly have loved working through it.
The book is organized as a series of interview transcripts, asking each reporter how they do what they do. From "What is your daily routine?" to "How do you come up with ideas?" and "How do you decide who to interview?", the questions are very nicely worded to offer the reader the right information.
What emerges through the unique voices of each writer is a picture of creative non-fiction, a genre combining old-school reporting methods and forward-looking creative thinking and ways of presenting information.
This book is hard to read in one sitting, since the questions in each interview are pretty much the same and can get repetitive. However, it is a great book to pick up from time to time and read bits of and I certainly have loved working through it.
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
a look inside . . .
13 Jun 2005
Format:Paperback
If you want to know how those stylish writers at the New Yorker pull off those long, fascinating "fact" pieces, this is the book for you. The author has interviewed over a dozen of what he calls the "new new" journalists, and the interviews reveal some of their tricks of the trade, working methods, approach, attitude, etc. I think those who aspire to write in this way will get the most out of this book, because reading it is like sitting down with these top-flight journalists and picking their brains.
I give it 3 stars because it's not a work of art or anything . . . I mean, the same questions, more or less, are repeated in each interview, and the intro to each chapter distills information and quotes that follow in the chapter, so I don't see this book as being a grand literary achievement per se. But it's useful, and I came away from it with an increased appreciation of how hard these journalists work--sometimes staying with the same story for months or years, and putting hundreds or thousands of hours into one long article. (Of course, when they expand the article into a book, the time they invested continues to produce returns.) Anyway, if you are a journalist or are someone interested in the way high-level literary journalism is currently being carried out, you'll find what you're looking for in this paperback original.
I give it 3 stars because it's not a work of art or anything . . . I mean, the same questions, more or less, are repeated in each interview, and the intro to each chapter distills information and quotes that follow in the chapter, so I don't see this book as being a grand literary achievement per se. But it's useful, and I came away from it with an increased appreciation of how hard these journalists work--sometimes staying with the same story for months or years, and putting hundreds or thousands of hours into one long article. (Of course, when they expand the article into a book, the time they invested continues to produce returns.) Anyway, if you are a journalist or are someone interested in the way high-level literary journalism is currently being carried out, you'll find what you're looking for in this paperback original.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
The New-News Off Old Time Razmatazz
11 Jun 2005
Format:Paperback
Literary nonfiction, once considered the asinine sidecar to the novel's Harley Davidson, made extensive gains in the 1960's with the emergence of such charismatic storytellers as Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote. Christening themselves the New Journalists, these writers were prone to extended sprees of rock stardom with a notepad, often at the expense of factual sincerity. Such landmark texts as Wolfe's The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test or Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas made reporting secondary to entertainment value.
The New New Journalism by Robert S. Boynton bawls a hefty yawp in announcing, "The days in which nonfiction writers test the limits of language and form have largely passed." To prove it, Boynton, the director of New York University's graduate magazine journalism program, has compiled nineteen of his interviews with contemporary journalists who bear more resemblance to the muckrakers of the 19th Century than to the famously dubbed New Journalists of the 20th. We find that the biting sizzle of a Hunter S. Thompson has been swapped for the incessant inquiry and cataloguing of the New News.
But even if such glory mongering has been overthrown by a militia of Joe Fridays who want "just the facts," readers of today's non-fiction are not complaining thanks to the sheer depth of revelation sustained by what Rolling Nowhere author Ted Conover considers "participant observer" journalism. It is an arena where relentless scrutinizers of fact avoid leaping into the fracas themselves, offering instead a detached play-by-play of the weighty social, political, and cultural racket that surrounds them. At times they must become what Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, calls "the worm in the apple."
If nothing else, this book is a handy crash course for aspiring writers, and it leaves readers speculating about future styles of non-fiction. Perhaps "New New New" Journalism will preserve honest reporting without dumping the literary aspirations of Wolfe's era. In the meantime, Boynton's text holds that reportorial intensity must eclipse artistic razzmatazz.
The New New Journalism by Robert S. Boynton bawls a hefty yawp in announcing, "The days in which nonfiction writers test the limits of language and form have largely passed." To prove it, Boynton, the director of New York University's graduate magazine journalism program, has compiled nineteen of his interviews with contemporary journalists who bear more resemblance to the muckrakers of the 19th Century than to the famously dubbed New Journalists of the 20th. We find that the biting sizzle of a Hunter S. Thompson has been swapped for the incessant inquiry and cataloguing of the New News.
But even if such glory mongering has been overthrown by a militia of Joe Fridays who want "just the facts," readers of today's non-fiction are not complaining thanks to the sheer depth of revelation sustained by what Rolling Nowhere author Ted Conover considers "participant observer" journalism. It is an arena where relentless scrutinizers of fact avoid leaping into the fracas themselves, offering instead a detached play-by-play of the weighty social, political, and cultural racket that surrounds them. At times they must become what Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, calls "the worm in the apple."
If nothing else, this book is a handy crash course for aspiring writers, and it leaves readers speculating about future styles of non-fiction. Perhaps "New New New" Journalism will preserve honest reporting without dumping the literary aspirations of Wolfe's era. In the meantime, Boynton's text holds that reportorial intensity must eclipse artistic razzmatazz.
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