FAME AND OBSCURITY

by Gay Talese ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 1970

This is a collection of Gay Talese's pieces featuring the ""new journalism""--i.e, mobile, imaginative and very live with on-the-spot exchanges. Let it be noted however that while some of them are recent (via Esquire or other publications) others, in the closing sections, include an inset on the building of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge which appeared as a book--The Overreachers. (1965) and still others incorporate New York--A Serendipiter's Journey, (1961) in which you can pick up all kinds of odd facts and incidental characters. There's a great profile--""Frank Sinatra Has A Cold-Picasso without Paint""--in which he appears with his mother, wives and all those other people he needs around him; of smashingly destructive Peter O'Toole; of VOGUEland (""the noses of Vogue heroines are usually long and thin"" as are those of the editors--); and even if it's the second time around, on Josh Logan and on a George Plimpton party where you may ""briefly escape the inevitability of being thirty-six."" Mr. Talese is an entertaining observer with electric-eye perceptions and represents a reportorial best in the genre.

Pub Date: April 30, 1970

ISBN: 034546723X

Page Count: -

Publisher: World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION