Customer Reviews

Entirely Personal

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With a Pulitzer Prize under his belt and more than 35 years of writing experience, journalist/editor Paul Greenberg is one of America's finest. He has the ability to write in a candid, yet respectful manner and his style is engaging and entertaining. This book, published in 1992, reveals some of Greenberg's influential roots, explaining how he got where he is and the people and events that have shaped his writing and his life.

Greenberg touches on many important influences in this book. In particular, he makes mention of his family and how his parents helped to instill certain values within him as a young man growing up in Louisiana and then Arkansas. Greenberg also points out his Jewish religious upbringing and his small town roots in the South as major contributors to his life and, hence, to his views and writing.

Some of Greenberg's opinions presented in the journalistic pieces included in this book will not sit well with certain readers. Greenberg's views are mostly, but not entirely, conservative in nature. But they deviate from this course on many occasions, which is part of the reason why Greenberg often refers to himself as an "ideologically unreliable conservative". You cannot really place a label on Greenberg's political ideology, since many of his opinions are compatible with different political philosophies.

Since this book is comprised of a collection of previous writings, it doesn't have the smoothness that some readers expect and demand. Instead, it changes direction from time to time, with articles included from many decades of writing, sorted into seven broad categories: family, religion, writing, small towns, the South, the American nation, and baseball. Greenberg selected the articles for this book, based on how closely they fit into these categories and how significant they were to his life and his profession.

This is a very intriguing read from an intriguing man. Even though I don't always see eye to eye with Greenberg, I still enjoy his writing. If nothing else, I can always count on Greenberg to remain civil and respectful when he writes and to hold my attention for the duration of the article. And this book is no exception. It presents some of Greenberg's most powerful influences on his life, showing what factors, great and small, helped to form the opinions of this award- winning journalist.

Pine Bluff Arkansas is the background for fifty four of Paul Greenberg's most personal pieces. These are the experiences that shaped Greenberg's life including family, religion and baseball. "Entirely Personal" is a collection of short pieces that help the reader to understand what has shaped Greenberg's editorials. This is an appraisal of how his enviroment set the scene for his writing.