Into the Story: A Writer's Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

David Maraniss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 2010

These works singularly and together describe the education of David Maraniss as an author and the discipline and commitment required of deep reporting and fine writing, which are inseparable in the nonfiction narrative form..

The character studies here range from politicians (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore) to great sports figures (Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente, Wilma Rudolph, Muhammad Ali, Larry Doby). Maraniss also explores what happens when ordinary life is shattered by violence and loss, from the personal loss of a beloved sister to the communal losses of September 11, Virginia Tech, and the horrors of an ambush in Vietnam. .

“The world of nonfiction writing is a continual graduate school,” Maraniss concludes. “But only if you avoid the easier path, the lure of assumption and attitude, and open yourself to what can be an educational and fulfilling lifelong journey.” .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of previously published articles and excerpts from his books, Pulitzer Prize–winner Maraniss (Clemente) ranges over topics from the death of his sister and the deaths of strangers on September 11 to the political fortunes of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore and the timeless contributions to sports of legendary figures like Vince Lombardi, Muhammad Ali, and Roberto Clemente. With his characteristic elegance, Maraniss explores in these sketches just how ordinary life is until it is not. Thus, he gathers memories from survivors that seem trivial—such as the student walking into his German class at Virginia Tech joking with his professor—but that provide a reflection of the universal in the particular. He also examines in these essays the odd, chaotic mixture of banality and horror in the tragic experience itself. Visiting Vietnam with American soldier Clark Welch, Maraniss witnesses Welch conversing with North Vietnamese villager Nguyen Van Lam—two sworn enemies over 30 years ago—and marvels at the connections of history and individual lives and the intentions that rip people apart and sew them back together. Maraniss wonders how Vince Lombardi might have reacted to the shift of power between players and coaches in today's professional football world. Behind all his quaint notions of spartan discipline, team love, and obedience to the leader, Lombardi above all was adaptable, reacting to conditions quickly enough to bend things his way. Maraniss's lively sketches illuminate the lives of significant cultural and political figures and intimately capture various moments that define modern American cultural history. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Maraniss, a multiple Pulitzer Prize winner, is a veteran newspaper journalist and the author of biographies of Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi, as well as a book about the politically charged 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. This collection of previously published pieces demonstrates his ability to capture, with a few well-chosen words, people and events with photographic clarity. The book’s profiles focus on the author’s two loves, politics and sports (Clinton, Obama, Gore; Lombardi, Ali, Clemente), but Maraniss also writes about universal themes: the death of a sister; the events of 9/11; the Vietnam War. He approaches all of his subjects from an objective journalist’s point of view: there is no hero worship in his profiles of admirable people, and no air of judgment in his portrayals of scoundrels (such as Edwin Edwards, the former Louisiana governor convicted on racketeering charges). The book is like a Maraniss sampler: read it, and then seek out the books from which some of its essays were drawn. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (January 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439160023
• ISBN-13: 978-1439160022
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,118,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post. He is the winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting and has been a Pulitzer finalist two other times for his journalism and again for They Marched Into Sunlight, a book about Vietnam and the sixties. The author also of bestselling works on Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, and Roberto Clemente, Maraniss is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. He and his wife, Linda, live in Washington, DC, and Madison, Wisconsin.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful, February 15, 2010

By 

K. Klavon "Magic33Bus" (Metuchen, N.J. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Into the Story: A Writer's Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss (Hardcover)

As a fellow journalist, I read David Maraniss' latest work with fascination. He writes with such elegance; he makes it look effortless.

In the preface of 'Into The Story,' Maraniss examines his journalistic philosophy, how he approaches a story and how many 'reporters/writers' of the day seemingly miss the point of objectivity; they try to insert themselves into the story instead of getting out of the way. Search for the truth and report the story accurately. In addition, observation and awareness of the subject cannot be overstated enough. It's a poignant moment. More than that, Maraniss doesn't high brow it, or come across as self-righteous, when he could. He's earned the right.

In the first few essays, Maraniss examines the accidental death of his baby sister and the brilliance of his older brother, who is able to juggle academia and minutiae outside of his field. Maraniss writes with glowing admiration, seeded in his love for his siblings. Reporting on the death of his sister, Wendy, he wrote, "Wendy died immediately of a ruptured aorta; literally, a broken heart." Wonderful writing, as painful as that had to be.

He touches on writings from previous books and delves into past essays from the Washington Post, as well as other publications. The tireless research, coupled with an uncanny grasp of language, is the reason why he can effectively cover such diverse genres - from politics to social mores to sportswriting.

All in all, one of the best reads in a long time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Talented, but Uneven, June 26, 2010

By 

OlingerStories - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Into the Story: A Writer's Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss (Hardcover)

David Mariniss is a great writer. He has a gift for narrative and almost always tugs on the heartstrings. Somehow, despite Mariniss's immense talent, INTO THE STORY, doesn't quite work. It is hard to explain, but in reading the pieces straight through, they don't hold up as well as they do individually. The best are taken from his great books on Clinton and Lombardi. When reading them, you want to pick up those books again. The others read like "bonus" pieces that on their own satisfy, but in an anthology come back to the same punch line once too often. Perhaps that is what becomes apparent, that he has one tale, a great one, but read so many times in a row it loses its spark.

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book., April 9, 2011

By 

W. D. Cannon "D. Cannon, pioneer" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Into the Story: A Writer's Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss (Hardcover)

David Maraniss is one of my favorite authors. I have read all his books, except the one on Al Gore, which I have no interest in. This book is sort of a "Reader's Digest" version of some of his other books. One of my favorite books of all time,