Nobody Better Better Than Nobody [Paperback]

Ian Frazier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1997

Nobody Better, Better Than Nobody is a collection of five extended essays that appeared in The New Yorker from 1978 to 1986. In the tradition of A. J. Liebling and Joseph Mitchell, Frazier raises journalism to high literary art. His vivid stories showcase a strange and wonderful parade of American life, from portraits of Heloise, the syndicated household-hints columnist, and Jim Deren, the urban fly-fisher’s guru, to small-town residents in western Kansas preparing to celebrate a historic, mutual massacre, to which they invite the Cheyenne Indians’ descendants with the promise of free bowling.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"The work of a true listener and observer . . . Americana at its idiosyncratic best," PW wrote of these five New Yorker pieces. Frazier (Dating Your Mom) blends detailed reportage and subtle humor in essays on a household-hints columnist, Montana's bears, fishing and a Kansas town's anniversary celebration with Cheyenne Indians whose ancestors raided the village a century earlier.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Frazier is a reporter's reporter who makes you wish you'd said that in this collection of five articles published in the New Yorker since 1979. In "Bear News" he wants to know what bears smell like so he follows tracks backward to find a den "so I could stick my nose inside." In the title piece, he buys socks and saves the hanger because "it looked somehow special to me." He shows it to Heloise of "Household Hints" fame, and "she reacted like an Audubon Society member spotting an indigo bunting at her bird feeder. " His writing is clever, subtle, and caring, and his essays belong in any literature collection. In "An Angler at Heart," he notes that "fishing is worth any amount of expense to people who love it, because in the end you get such a large number of dreams per fish." Wish I'd said that. Jo Cates, Poynter Institute for Media Studies Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (August 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558215980
• ISBN-13: 978-1558215986
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,977,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ian Frazier is the author of Great Plains, The Fish's Eye, On the Rez, and Family, as well as Coyote v. Acme and Dating Your Mom, all published by FSG. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Always the charmer!, July 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Nobody Better Better Than Nobody (Paperback)

This collection of essays from Frazier's work at the New Yorker is pure delight. First published in 1979, the material dances on the edge of "dated" without ever falling in. The content of his essays range from a trip to Oberlin, KS to an interview with rather eccentric Russian artists in New York. Frazier has a gift for making the mundane somehow sublime, a gift for picking up the previously unnoticed detail, turning it over in his hand, showing the facets to the reader. If you have enjoyed Frazier's work before, this selection will not disappoint.