Bartleby and Me: Reflections of an Old Scrivener

(Author)
Available
4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
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Product Details
Price
$28.99  $26.96
Publisher
Mariner Books
Publish Date
Pages
320
Dimensions
5.7 X 8.68 X 1.15 inches | 0.85 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780358455479

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About the Author

Gay Talese is known for his daring pursuit of "unreportable" stories, for his exhaustive research, and for his formally elegant style. These qualities, arguably, are the touchstones of the finest literary journalism. Talese is often cited as one of the founders of the 1960s new journalism, but he has always politely demurred from this label, insisting that his "stories with real names" represent no reformist crusade, but rather his own highly personal response to the world as an Italian American "outsider."

Reviews

"Talese has been acclaimed as a virtuoso of the novelistic New Journalism. Now 91, he has published a short and charming second memoir. ... meticulously reported. ... fascinating. ...Talese has lost none of his artistry." -- Wall Street Journal

"Talese's conversational style --openhanded, easygoing, characterized by fact-rich yet perfectly balanced sentences -- invites the reader to sit back and relax. His book proved just the right tonic for my downcast spirits." -- Washington Post

"A smooth and enchanting wordsmith, Talese delivers a lovely testament to the 'unobtrusive if not kindred Bartleby personalities' of New York City. It's a delight." -- Publishers Weekly

"New readers will discover an astute observer. . . . Candid testimony from a new-journalism icon." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Bartleby and Me is an ambler, in which [Talese] appears to give his finger to the form by filigreeing a couple of his ironclad hits and then tacking on a new gargoyle of a tale....It's a plot for the ages." -- New York Times Book Review

"Sixty years ago, Talese wrote in Esquire that 'New York is a city of things unnoticed.' He spent the next six decades doing quite a bit of noticing, chronicling the people (and places and moments) that make the city what it is. In his latest, he remembers the 'nobodies' that he's profiled over the course of his career, the cast of characters perhaps who are not as recognizable as, say, Sinatra or Ali, but nevertheless essential threads in our cultural fabric." -- The Millions

"[An] incomparable memoir." -- Air Mail

"All three pieces are written with painterly precision." -- Shelf Awareness (starred review)