Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project (Penguin Books for English: Developmental) [Paperback]

Dave Isay (Editor, Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: October 28, 2008 | Series: Penguin Books for English: Developmental

As heard on NPR?a wondrous nationwide celebration of our shared humanity

StoryCorps founder and legendary radio producer Dave Isay selects the most memorable stories from StoryCorps? collection, creating a moving portrait of American life.

The voices here connect us to real people and their lives?to their experiences of profound joy, sadness, courage, and despair, to good times and hard times, to good deeds and misdeeds. To read this book is to be reminded of how rich and varied the American storybook truly is, how resistant to easy categorization or stereotype. We are our history, individually and collectively, and Listening Is an Act of Love touchingly reminds us of this powerful truth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Four years ago. StoryCorps set out to record an oral history of America with the voices of everyday people. This book is a collection of the most compelling excerpts from more than 10,000 interviews recorded, compiled by StoryCorps founder Isay (Flophouse), a radio documentary producer and MacArthur fellow. And they are compelling. Each one captures a moment in time—historical, emotional or personal—that make us who we are. As simple stories of humanity, each one has its own potency, with themes of family, love, dedication and struggle. In one of the most emotionally wrought stories, a father sits down with his daughter and remembers her late mother and older brother, who both died of cancer within months of each other. To gather the stories, StoryCorps provides a facility, recording equipment and a facilitator, then waits for people to invite loved ones, friends, grandparents to sit down for a 40-minute session. A copy of the tape is filed in the Library of Congress, and parts have aired on NPR. As Isay says, I realized how many people among us feel completely invisible, believe their lives don't matter, and fear they'll someday be forgotten. Photos. (Nov. 13)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Each interview is a revelation.”—USA Today

“ As heartwarming as a holiday pumpkin pie and every bit as homey . . . what emerges in these compelling pages is hard-won wisdom and boundless humanity.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143114344
• ISBN-13: 978-0143114345
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Customs & Traditions
  • #88 in Books > History > Historical Study & Educational Resources > Social History

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 111 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars as good as it gets November 12, 2007

By Richard Cumming

Format:Hardcover

This book was published to mark the recent recording of the ten thousandth interview by the StoryCorps Project. Perhaps you have heard excerpts from some of these interviews on National Public Radio?

David Isay had the idea that he wanted to record the stories of regular folks-like you an I. He set up the first recording booth in Grand Central Station. For ten dollars you can record a 40 minute interview. Family members and friends interview each other. A facilitator is there to help out and sometimes to conduct the interview. Recordings are given to the respondents and also put in the Library of Congress with the permission of those who told their stories.

Some incredible stories are being told in the StoryCorps booths that now travel America inside Airstream trailers. Storycorps is preserving our oral history.

This book contains excerpts from interviews with senior citizens who remember the way it was in the olden days. There's a story from a bounty hunter. Another from a woman who survived a jet airliner crash in Iowa. There are the stories of people battling addictions and diseases like AIDS, cancer, and alcoholism.

There are tales of love lost and love found. A child re-unites with his birth mother. A grandchild interviews
the grandmother who took him in from his abusive parents.

Most dramatic of all is the story of a man who escaped from the 105th floor of the World Trade Center after the first tower was hit. He was in the second tower. This story will make your heart race and your tears flow. It's incredible!

What a wonderful book! Studs Terkel, our greatest oral historian loves this book. It reminded this reviewer of that classic book by Studs Terkel; HARD TIMES.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wonderful Work of David Isay November 11, 2007

By FirstNorn

Format:Hardcover

"Listening Is an Act of Love" is truly a book for everyone; I believe it is central to understanding what compassion is all about. By extension, it is clear to me that it is not just about American family and love relationships, but also about the entire human family.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Stories of Unsung Heroes December 10, 2007

By H. F. Corbin TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Listeners to National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" on Fridays are familiar with interviews from Dave Isay's StoryCorps project. Here in written form is a collection of some of those essays, along with a photograph of the person being interviewed and usually the interviewer as well. The essays are grouped in "Home and Family," "Work and Dedication," "Journeys," "History and Struggle" and finally "Fire and Water," recollections of survivors of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, certainly some of the most moving interviews in the entire book.

How refreshing in a world gone mad with non-news of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton-- I do not believe I have ever heard either of these women's names mentioned or either public radio or public television-- to listen to and read of ordinary people whose lives are interesting, who have done often noble, unselfish deeds with no pomp and circumstance.

While some of these stories are more engaging than others, to a person each one interviewed here has something to say that touches the reader. There is an interview of a woman reunited with her son whom she gave up for adoption: "Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't do it again" [let her son be adopted]. An eighty-seven-year-old World War II veteran still sees in his dreams the blond, blue-eyed teenaged member of the Hitler Youth he had to kill to save his own life. A forty-nine-year-old prisoner in the Oregon State Penitentiary hopeful of his eventual freedom died from a drug overdose shortly after his interview. A Memphis sanitation worker recalls the death of Martin Luther King.... A World War 11 veteran, when asked by the interviewer, his twelve-year-old grandson, one of the standard StoryCorps questions, what was the saddest moment of his life, remembers that while stationed in the Navy in Norfolk, he was refused admission to a movie in D. C. because he was black: "I just walked the streets crying all night, betrayed that my country could force me to fight a war but say, 'You're not a good enough citizen to come to a movie.'" Finally, one of the saddest interviews for me is that of the man who was so lonely that he got a haircut once a week just to have someone touch him.

These are Ken Burns, Charles Bukowski and Studs Terkel (who wrote a blurb for the book) people. Many of these stories rise to the level of poetry. Reading these interviews, at least some of them, reminded me of the time I saw the AIDS Memorial Quilt, another tribute to ordinary Americans, unfurled for the first time in Washington in 1987, the raw emotion, the great pain of loss but also the overwhelming sense of love and connectedness that we all felt on that cold October morning.

These unsentimental stories will warm the cockles of your heart. Read more ›

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A WOW December 5, 2007

By Robert Busko TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Compiled by Dave Isay, Listening Is an Act of Love is perhaps one of the most profoundly touching books I've read in many years. As I read the stories I kept having to remind myself that these are true stories told by real people.

The most touching was the 911 story in the Trade Tower. Gripping and moving at the same time.

If you enjoy living history then Listening Is an Act of Love is the book for you.

Peace my friends.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Listening is an Act of Love November 21, 2007

By Elizabeth A. Verhoeven

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Read this, and then make an appointment to submit an interview to StoryCorps. I interviewed my dad today, and it was a very moving experience. What a great concept!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Works as a book! January 2, 2008

By Kristen Smith

Format:Hardcover

I put this book on my wish list during the holidays because I wanted to support the StoryCorps Project, but I worried that the stories might seem flat on the page. Instead, they work beautifully on the page, and it's nice to be able to re-read a line or a story. Reading the book has been an amazing, even a transformative, experience. Another nice thing about these stories in book form is that after each story there is a small snapshot of the participants. This is a wonderful book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful January 4, 2008

By Erin

Format:Hardcover

I love listening to Story Corps every Friday morning, so was very excited to see this book. Every story is so valuable and unique. It really reminds us how special and valuable every person is, and that we all have a story to tell.