Customer Reviews

Royko: A Life in Print

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You should read this book until a better one comes along.

Very few writers have ever personified their time and place like Mike Royko did Chicago. I guess the best thing about this book is that it reminds us of what we are missing. It also gave me a bit of detail in the life of a man that I had only known through his columns.

Like most of us, Mike had some serious shortcomings (what appears to have been a serious alcohol problem stands out as number one). He also had a heart and drive for perfection that made his column so great, and (probably) his private life so sad. The `daily demon,' and the inability to settle for less made him the best columnist of his generation.

This book was obviously written by an admirer. Perhaps someday there will be a more objective biography. For today if you want to understand Chicago in the last half of the twentieth century this book and a collection of Mike Royko's columns is a good place to start.

"Royko: A Life in Print" is a good book for fans who, like me, may not have been aware of many aspects of his personal history. As such, the book delivers the goods and is a fairly straightforward retelling of the life of "The Best Columnist of His Generation." That said, if you're not a fan, there isn't much here that would compell you to read this book. The author interviewed a lot of Royko's friends and associates, and the portrayal that comes across is one of a hardworking, fair-minded, alcoholic columnist from the old school of two-fisted journalism who had an uncanny ability to find the right tone in the over 8,000 columns that he wrote.

Unfortunately, the book doesn't really manage to get inside Royko's head, other than to show the obvious. He was a product of his relatively poor, urban ethnic upbringing, and he had insecurities that continued to plague him despite his massive success. He loathed racism in the 1960s, but also came to loathe political correctness in the 1990s. He blasted the senior Mayor Daley at every turn, but came to support his son despite having compared him to one of the three stooges. All of this Ciccone dutifully recounts, as well as Royko's troubled private life and prickly relationship with his professional colleagues.

Overall, this book benefits from having Mike Royko as its subject, but ultimately it does not transcend him.

I'd strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand Royko, Chicago politics, Chicago journalism, or just wants a good biography to read. Ciccone does an excellent job not merely describing Royko's roots, but showing how that affected the person he became.

Despite his brilliant writing, incisive political insights, and empathy for the ordinary Joe, Royko was a deeply troubled man. He was a severe alcoholic (as was his father before him), a workaholic who loved his family but was hardly ever around, a famous and successful columnist who was jealous of others and could hold a grudge like you wouldn't believe. When he remarried and started a second family (by adoption) after his first beloved wife's death, he spent more time on family things and tried to stop his self-destructive behavior, with limited success.

Ciccone does not hide Royko's warts (and they were many), although he does become a bit of an apologist about his later, nastier side.

Filled with anecdotes about Chicago's newspaper wars, sports teams (such as they are), its famous, infamous and not-famous-at-all, this will go on the shelf with all my other Chicagoana.

One irritant, though. Ciccone is a newsman. He was managing editor for the Chicago Tribune and teaches journalism. Did he not read the proofs? Did his editor not read the proofs? Aside from such annoyances as the constant use of the word "anabuse" when he means "Antabuse", and calling Mike and his wife "the Royko's", Ciccone occasionally, gets repetitious, telling stories more than once in a way that makes it clear that he thinks he's saying it for the first time.

But that's a minor quibble about an otherwise fine book.

Like everything else in life, Mike Royko would have loved and hated this book. I do not dispute that Mike Royko was one of the greatest columnist of this century. I was in one of those god-forsaken journalism schools Royko despised when he passed away, and I was truly saddened his column would never appear again.

But I would have to wonder how Royko might respond to Ciccone's tribute, which is what this book was more than a biography. Like another reviewer, I was taken back by all the editing errors, particularly the many left out words. I believe Royko, a stickler for the small details, would have ranted.

This is a tribute more than a biography because the author isn't the least bit objective. I don't know how many times he lauds Royko for being the greatest and for his longevity (33 years and more than 8,000 columns).

Yet for all the slobbering, Ciccone paints an honest portrait of a gruff, hard drinking and harder working ethnic who made a mark despite a tough beginning.

I enjoyed Royko's story not because I am a journalist but becasue I am an American and nostalgic for stories that exemplify the American boots-straps mentality. But more than that, Royko became so popular because he was so human. He had his share of triumphs along with his share of problems, most notably drinking. He was the conscience of a city when it did not want to recognize its racist problems, and he eventually became the nation's straight-talking uncle who told it like it was.

Royko is a clearly a love-him-or-hate-him figure and so is this book. If you were a fan, it gives you an insight behind the byline. If not, it gives you more ammunition.

Something tells me Royko would feel both ways.

No question, Mike Royko was one of the twentieth century's great columnists. Ironically, his obvious insecurities and constant need to be the center of attention, even to the detriment of his family and friends, are part of what made him such a fantastic, influential writer. This emotionally unpredictable and puerile, chain-smoking alcoholic lived and breathed for his column. Mr. Ciccone has written a frequently funny, crisp biography of an old-school journalist and how the changing nature of news content made him a target of the brainless politically-correct ethos. Sadly, no one who saw me reading this book knew who Mike Royko was. (Talk about the fleeting nature of fame!) Do yourself a favor. Read this biography then pick up some of his old columns and behold a true artist.

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This is a very long but well researched and well rounded biography of Royko. It shows his good and bad sides in an evenhanded fashion.
I've been a longtime Royko admirer and reader. He is the inspiration for the column that I write for the Richmond Daily Register. Having said that, I think this is one of best biographies ever written about Royko.
A complete and through study.

Don McNay
www.donmcnay.com

Although it's long, I flew through this book while on a trip to the caribbean. I've always been a fan of Mike Royko and simply had to buy it.

Don't be turned off by the size, it is a quick read, without skimping on detail. Mike Royko's career ran for decades so there was a lot to cover. Although it touches on his early life, this book deals primarily with his writing career. Lots of coverage is given to his dislike of the Late Mayor Daley, love of softball, as well as a few embarrassing drunken escapades. All in all, it gives you a complete picture of Mr. Royko, warts and all. I recommend this book.

Here's the first look at the life of Mike Royko by someone who actually knew the man. The book captures all of Royko's troubles in a very candid manner, yet got the cooperation of his family which was esstential to telling a full version on the guy. The result is the reader get a great sampling of Royko's best and insights into what drove this very troubled, but very talented man. The perfect gift for journalism students and journalists everywhere.

When I found this biography of Mike Royko,a personal favorite, I thought I had discovered gold. I had never seen it reviewed anywhere and after reading about 70 pages it's easy to understand why. If the author is truly a journalism professor at Notre Dame I would advise his students to hit the door running.

This is one of the most poorly written,and edited messes I have ready in the past 30 years and one of only two books in approximately 1,000 that was discarded far from the end.

The book starts out promisingly but once Ciccone starts to write about the history of journalism in Chicago the book takes a decided turn for the worse. There are a long string of punctuation errors as if the editor took some time off and there are run on sentences and incomplete sentences galore.

Mike Royko fans should be warned not to buy this dreadful effort solely because of the subject matter. It would be like throwing [price] down the drain. The author and the publisher should both be ashamed of themselves.