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The New New Journalism: Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft (Vintage Original)
Books: Text Books: Journalism: Item 6
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The New New Journalism: Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft (Vintage Original)by Robert Boynton
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful: Good disection on the present state of the matter., December 26, 2005 Reviewer:Mar Calpena (Barcelona, Spain) - First of all, I'd like to say I disagree with previous reviews than mention the repetition of question between the book's interviewees as a flaw. Robert Boynton is trying to offer us a complete radiography of the working processes of current literary journalists, and he interviews a great number of today's best known names. Each time you read one of the interviews you may discover a very different approach towards the methods of the other writers. I consider one of the books strengths' that I can see some authors work from a complete, detailed outline, whereas other work from organic writing. Besides, there is some personalization in every single one of the interviews, expanding on certain aspects of each of the writer's careers. Mr. Boynton does distill the quotes of the interviews, but he also offers something quite unique in this type of books, which is both the positive and negative reviews the various journalists works here listed have received. One of the great things about this title is not only its instructional value, but the ideas about the current state of affairs that emerge upon reading it. For example, the current trend of non fiction being more and more in the realm of books, not of magazines, or the fact it is almost entirely limited to the United States and UK (tell me about it! I live in Spain, and whereas there used to be a sound tradition of literary journalists in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the panorama is fairly bleak nowadays). Overall, this is a very interesting volume, not to be read in one sitting, which would make a good base for a creative nonfiction course. By the way, if you get it, I recommend you buy "The complete New Yorker" along with it, as most writers in the book have published for this magazine. I sometimes check what they are stating in their interviews towards their articles from the New Yorker, and this gives my reading experience some further depth.
From Publishers Weekly
Boynton uses the clunky moniker "new new journalism" to describe a group of reporters today who write article- and book-length examinations of their subjects, often pioneering new reporting techniques (such as Adrian Nicole Leblanc's trick of leaving her tape recorder with her subjects when she went home as a way of getting them to open up without her around--a method that worked to wonderful effect in her Random Family). Yet, Boynton points out, these writers also stay true to strict journalistic standards, unlike Tom Wolfe and the New Journalists, whose creative narrative methods broke all the rules. Many of the reporters Boynton highlights are also motivated by an activist impulse that informs but never overpowers their work. Boynton, the director of New York University's magazine journalism program, offers a nuts-and-bolts approach to understanding the way these reporters write, interviewing them on the smallest of details, such as how they organize their notes, what color pens they use and how they set ground rules with sources who aren't media savvy. Featuring lengthy discussions with star scribes such as William Langewiesche (American Ground) and Michael Lewis (Moneyball), this batch of discussions is a gold mine of technique, approach and philosophy for journalists, writers and close readers alike. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Building on the tradition of literary journalism--from nineteenth-century writers Lincoln Steffens and Stephen Crane through Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer--the latest practitioners continue to apply keen skills of social observation and to enjoy public acclaim that promises continued support for this predominantly American craft. Boynton offers interviews with 19 writers who detail how and why they produce their work: Alex Kotlowitz tends to stumble onto his subjects, Jon Krakauer hates interviewing people in restaurants, Leon Dash refuses to become emotionally involved with his subjects, Jane Kramer appreciates the stylistic prose of literary nonfiction writers, Richard Preston is mechanically inept and prefers to take notes rather than use a tape recorder, and Ron Rosenbaum prefers the typewriter to the computer. Interviewees also include Gay Talese, William Finnegan, Susan Orlean, and Lawrence Weschler. Boynton asks the writers how they get their ideas, conduct their research and interviews, and begin the writing process as well as their takes on the future prospects for literary journalism. A fascinating book that makes the reader want to go out and get every book the writers have written as well as those mentioned as sources of inspiration. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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