Legally Dead by Edna Buchanan
This book is another one of the books recommended by the College Media Advisers listserv members as it falls under the category any book by Edna Buchanan.
I must admit that I was a huge fan of Edna Buchanan the crime reporter. I've used parts of her stories in my classes as examples of thorough reporting. I've used her philosophy as what makes a great journalist, but I don't think I'd use her crime novels as an example of either one of those things or as an example of a great crime novel.
In particular, Legally Dead has an interesting premise and some good writing, but it seems to have an ending that doesn't really fit with the intricate plot line. There's a great buildup of tension then a very unlikely bad guy with an even more fantastical reason as to why the bad guy is doing what he's doing. I just don't buy it.
None of that means that my opinion has changed about Edna Buchanan the journalist. She's one of the best and likely the best crime reporter. Some journalists are just better with the literal, and in the case, I would say Legally Dead could benefit from a dose of reality.
See also The Corpse Had a Familiar Face, Never Let Them See You Cry and Nobody Lives Forever also by Edna Buchanan.
Look for an upcoming review of The Corpse Had a Familiar Face.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Books Journalists Should Read, Maybe But Probably Not
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
Last semester, a wonderful listserv that I'm on through College Media Advisers, was abuzz with the books that you must have read if you're a journalist. It wasn't just the books, it was authors as well. So being the dutiful student of journalism that I am, I undertook some of this list.
Here are some of my comments on some of these books and authors. I'll be posting the list as well, just in case you want to become a dutiful student of journalism too.
I finally finished reading The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer. I started this before Christmas, but had to take a break, since the book was hurting my hands it's so weighty. I went back to it after the first of the year, and finally finished it in February. Whew...
What can I say about this book: Plodding...In need of editing.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and major motion picture aside--the microscopic look at the execution of Gary Gilmore, the state of Utah and the Mormon Church were just as weighty as the book that left me pushing to stay involved. Not that I don't like weighty material...I do. However, there are some portions of this book that just need to be tightened.
The beginning is where I'd start the whittling. Take out some of the interminable description of Gilmore and his family. One or two anecdotes could really tell the tale. The number of anecdotes and details left me not even liking these people much less wanting to go on reading the book.
The ending did whiz by a bit better, but still, I could find some room to edit here as well.
While Mailer's writing is strong, he needed a more critical editor. Good writers really need good editors so they can continue to be good writers.
That may sound a bit confusing, but writers love their writing so much, it's often difficult to kill a single word, much less thousands of words.
While my CMA colleagues might differ with me on this--some may even call for my ban from the listserv for saying this, I'd say this book isn't a must-read book for aspiring journalists.
It does give great examples of exhaustive research, but what it doesn't do is show aspiring journalists, especially young ones, the importance of picking and choosing really stirring information that tells your story. This story seems to air it all. Not my idea of well-written and well-edited journalism. But then again, I'm an editor at heart.
Up next: a quick veer from the CMA list of books journalists should read: A review of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Last semester, a wonderful listserv that I'm on through College Media Advisers, was abuzz with the books that you must have read if you're a journalist. It wasn't just the books, it was authors as well. So being the dutiful student of journalism that I am, I undertook some of this list.
Here are some of my comments on some of these books and authors. I'll be posting the list as well, just in case you want to become a dutiful student of journalism too.
I finally finished reading The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer. I started this before Christmas, but had to take a break, since the book was hurting my hands it's so weighty. I went back to it after the first of the year, and finally finished it in February. Whew...
What can I say about this book: Plodding...In need of editing.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and major motion picture aside--the microscopic look at the execution of Gary Gilmore, the state of Utah and the Mormon Church were just as weighty as the book that left me pushing to stay involved. Not that I don't like weighty material...I do. However, there are some portions of this book that just need to be tightened.
The beginning is where I'd start the whittling. Take out some of the interminable description of Gilmore and his family. One or two anecdotes could really tell the tale. The number of anecdotes and details left me not even liking these people much less wanting to go on reading the book.
The ending did whiz by a bit better, but still, I could find some room to edit here as well.
While Mailer's writing is strong, he needed a more critical editor. Good writers really need good editors so they can continue to be good writers.
That may sound a bit confusing, but writers love their writing so much, it's often difficult to kill a single word, much less thousands of words.
While my CMA colleagues might differ with me on this--some may even call for my ban from the listserv for saying this, I'd say this book isn't a must-read book for aspiring journalists.
It does give great examples of exhaustive research, but what it doesn't do is show aspiring journalists, especially young ones, the importance of picking and choosing really stirring information that tells your story. This story seems to air it all. Not my idea of well-written and well-edited journalism. But then again, I'm an editor at heart.
Up next: a quick veer from the CMA list of books journalists should read: A review of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Books Journalists Should Read, Maybe
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad follows a similar story-line as Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Instead of someone going to kill Kurtz, as is the case in Apocalypse, the company has sent a steamboat to retrieve Kurtz in Heart of Darkness.
Conrad's Heart of Darkness is at the same time the jungle that surrounds the river and the person that Kurtz has become in the wilds of Africa, miles from civilization. Africa itself becomes a verifiable character in the book, closing in on the crew, killing those with a weak resistance and coming alive with sound, light, darkness and deadly natives hidden in its depths.
While Marlon Brando's hoarse mumblings of the phrase, "The horror. The horror;" make for a much quoted part from the movie Apocalypse Now, the setup or interpretation of that famous quote comes later than when the quote is uttered in the book.
Kurtz has just died, and the narrator Marlowe is commenting on life:
"Droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself --that comes too late-- a crop of inextinguishable regrets. I wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be."
Marlowe contends that he was within the last breath of life and realized that he would have nothing to say, which is why he admired Kurtz, who uttered the famous line before dying. When Marlowe visits Kurtz's intended, he lies and tells her that Kurtz's last words were her name. In this exchange, we see that Marlowe has escaped the heart of darkness, taking into account another person's feelings instead of the dark truth, providing Kurtz's intended with the humanity with which Marlowe protected Kurtz's image.
In the end, is the heart of darkness within the geographical heart of Africa, or is it within each of us? Conrad seems to say that the latter is the case,but each of us also has the capacity to spread light, much like Marlowe did in the conclusion of the book, sparing Kurtz's intended's feelings and preserving Kurtz's image.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad follows a similar story-line as Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Instead of someone going to kill Kurtz, as is the case in Apocalypse, the company has sent a steamboat to retrieve Kurtz in Heart of Darkness.
Conrad's Heart of Darkness is at the same time the jungle that surrounds the river and the person that Kurtz has become in the wilds of Africa, miles from civilization. Africa itself becomes a verifiable character in the book, closing in on the crew, killing those with a weak resistance and coming alive with sound, light, darkness and deadly natives hidden in its depths.
While Marlon Brando's hoarse mumblings of the phrase, "The horror. The horror;" make for a much quoted part from the movie Apocalypse Now, the setup or interpretation of that famous quote comes later than when the quote is uttered in the book.
Kurtz has just died, and the narrator Marlowe is commenting on life:
"Droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself --that comes too late-- a crop of inextinguishable regrets. I wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be."
Marlowe contends that he was within the last breath of life and realized that he would have nothing to say, which is why he admired Kurtz, who uttered the famous line before dying. When Marlowe visits Kurtz's intended, he lies and tells her that Kurtz's last words were her name. In this exchange, we see that Marlowe has escaped the heart of darkness, taking into account another person's feelings instead of the dark truth, providing Kurtz's intended with the humanity with which Marlowe protected Kurtz's image.
In the end, is the heart of darkness within the geographical heart of Africa, or is it within each of us? Conrad seems to say that the latter is the case,but each of us also has the capacity to spread light, much like Marlowe did in the conclusion of the book, sparing Kurtz's intended's feelings and preserving Kurtz's image.
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