Studs Terkel: A Life in Words

It seems only fitting that the great interviewer and oral chronicler, a Chicago landmark for 40 years for his radio show and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Division Street; Working; Race), should be the subject of his own methods. Parker, a kind of British Terkel, here puts together a portrait of the sprightly octogenarian by interviewing friends, colleagues and the old character himself. Despite his best efforts, Parker was unable to find anyone who had an unkind word to say about Terkel; the biography, as he admits, is therefore somewhat idealizing. But because Terkel has always talked about himself sparingly, there is fresh material here: his uneasy feelings about his difficult mother, for instance, his regrets about the distance between him and his son (who has changed his name to maintain that distance), the humorous warmth of his relationship with his wife, Ida, who offers a rare interview in these pages. Terkel is brilliant on the art of the interview, particularly on the skill with which he maintains his ineptitude with tape recorders. His own self-doubts, when they surface--Is he really a writer, or just a vehicle through which others express themselves? And is his whole persona a kind of act, however delightful, compassionate and kindly it may be?--hardly seem justified. This is a warmhearted picture of a man in a million. (Nov.)