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Editorial Reviews:

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.

Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Worth the time August 16, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a great idea, to present some of the best new, new journalism folks around. I did not read all 19 author interviews word for word (some I skimmed), but found all of them enlightening. It was interesting to see the different answers/passions expressed by the writers to standard questions such as do you prepare a list of questions, do you prefer face-to-face to phone or e-mail interviews, etc. Each writer proved why she or he does what they do so well. It is for folks who like getting more from what they read; it reads like a behind-the-scenes piece, or sounds one of those director's commentaries on a DVD. Easy to pick up, leave for a while and pick back up again.

5 out of 5 stars

Where (New) Journalism and Anthropology meet January 3, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

This is a great book, especially for nonfiction writers. It covers everything from the mechanics of writing (e.g., the best time of day to write, the number of words per writing session we promise ourselves) to the complexities of fieldwork and interviewing strategies, how to synthesize vast amounts of information, and how to stimulate the creative process. The fieldwork and interviewing strategies of these journalists very much resemble what I use as an applied anthropologist focusing on Africa, and poorer nations generally. In fact, some of these journalists either had anthropological training, or, like Leon Dash, they are good-naturedly referred to as "our staff anthropologist" by their colleagues.

The link between "new journalism" and anthropology is primarily the participant-observation fieldwork technique these journalists use, basically meaning that they live among and share the lives of those they write about. Total immersion. Of course, anthropologists traditionally did ethnographic fieldwork for least at least 1-2 years before writing about their adopted society, while journalists typically spend less time researching an article or book.

I found myself underlining this book on almost every other page. There are little gems strewn everywhere. Nineteen journalists were interviewed for this book and I did not encounter one that I found uninteresting or who did not teach me something valuable for the work and writing I do myself.

One recurring theme is that these writers often challenge and overturn conventional wisdom. For example, journalist William Finnegan (two of whose books I happen to have read) went to Somalia in 1995 expecting to find little more than anarchy, anomie and mayhem. Instead he found "wild, frontier capitalism," and vibrant, unrestrained entrepreneurship, made possible in part by "having no dictator around." I did a 2-week information-gathering assignment in Somali in 1984, and my colleagues will tell you that all I raved for weeks after this experience was the "vibrant unrestrained, entrepreneurship" I unexpectedly encountered. And there was still a dictator around then.

I was relatively young in my career then and I wondered at the time if my "quick and dirty" field methods might have been flawed. After all, no one I read or spoke to about Somalia ever mentioned entrepreneurship. (Hmmmm....I am wondering if Finnegan somehow stumbled upon my obscure 1984 Somalia report for USAID? But no, that building must have been burned down.)

I am happy to recommend Boynton`s book to anyone who does, or attempts to do, nonfiction writing, which means an audience that extends far beyond journalism.

5 out of 5 stars

Good disection on the present state of the matter. December 26, 2005
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

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.

3 out of 5 stars

needs revision October 2, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

Boynton's work is a unique idea and is somewhat of an education in itself: interviews with some of the best non-fiction writers around about craft and procedure. However, the problem lays not so much in the interviews with the authors but the way Boynton packages the information in his book. Almost all of the writers are asked the same questions and after several hundred pages, this wears thin. In all the book totals 430 pages. If he narrowed down the list of writers and added some diversity in his questions and presentation of their interviews, it would be a more enjoyable and even beneficial read.

4 out of 5 stars

Immersion Journalists August 30, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

The New New Journalism is a fascinating peek into the techniques, thoughts and attitudes of immersion journalists, who spend months or even years with their subjects. I loved it!