If there is one fault in this wonderful and long overdue collection of nonfiction master Talese's magazine writings, it's that there is simply not enough. While this reader does not include selections from such bestselling books as The Kingdom and the Power
(a look at the New York Times
, where he was a reporter for 10 years), Honor Thy Father
(his behind-the-scenes look at the Bonanno crime organization) or Thy Neighbor's Wife
(his examination in the shift of sexual mores in the decades before AIDS), it does highlight writing from his 1993 bestselling book, Unto the Sons
, which deals with his Italian-born father's journey to America. However, all of the essays collected here are priceless gems, including his classic profiles of 20th-century icons such as Joe DiMaggio ("The Silent Season of the Hero"); the recently departed George Plimpton and his Paris Review
cohorts ("Looking for Hemingway"); and Frank Sinatra ("Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"), which was recently selected by Esquire
as the greatest article in the magazine's 70-year history. While his previous anthology of essays, Fame & Obscurity
, included his classic mid-1960s profile of legendary mobster Frank Costello, this one offers two beautiful essays on the writer's life: "When I Was Twenty-Five" and "Origins of a Nonfiction Writer." The stories here are shining examples of a time in publishing history when magazine writing was an art form and Talese its Michelangelo. This reader is a book to come back to again and again. (Nov.)
