Customer Reviews

Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent

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Anyone who loves to read first-person accounts of current events will find this book exceptionally interesting. From its intriguing title, "Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions," to the text itself and the photographs included, the reader is presented with a tour of eleven locations around the world where veteran NPR journalist John F. Burnett found stories to report and personal experiences to describe. This book is one of the few nonfiction "page-turners" I have read in recent times. Once I started reading, it was difficult to put down. His writing is fluid and crisp and as impressive as his height (6' 7").

The book is divided into three sections: (1) Calamities; (2) Hacks and Fixers; and (3) Rogues and Heroes. Virtually everyone in my generation will recognize some of the main incidences and characters that Burnett chooses to write about within these categories.

He begins his narrative with a report on hurricane Katrina, the first of four calamities included. Unless one's been asleep for the past year, it's difficult to imagine how one could have missed the constant reporting about the "big one" by reporters from every major network. Burnett personally covered the catastrophe for National Public Radio, reporting from New Orleans in the very first days of the event. He describes what he saw, heard, felt, and even smelled as he roamed the environs of that devastated city. I found his comments about his observations to be objective and, yet, very personal, without over editorializing or playing the "blame game" which was difficult for many reporters to resist.

The next story in the calamity section deals with Iraq, primarily Burnett's experiences as an embedded reporter with, of all things, the First Marine Division Band! I'm not going to dwell on his story here except to quote a couple of sentences which I found interesting. The author points out that "Embedding was a tradeoff. Marines adopted us, protected us, and let us be eyewitnesses to the biggest story in the world. In return, we told their story as we saw it. Still, it was, for me, an awkward arrangement." As well it should have been, since the line between objective reporting and propaganda can be a thin one. "Nuff said about that.

The third news story under "Calamities" is the one that most caught my attention when I initially perused the Table of Contents. Titled "Showdown at Waco," I was anxious to read what Burnett had to say about that tragedy. He was in familiar territory covering this story as he had been a roving reporter for the "Waco Tribune-Herald" thirteen years before joining NPR. Burnett was an on-scene eyewitness to the terrible events that unfolded at the Branch Davidian compound in 1993, but I was also an eyewitness, albeit via live television, and glued to the screen for hours it seemed. So I was especially interested in reading his report about what happened during the Waco incident from his perspective. I wasn't disappointed and other readers won't be either.

The last story covered in the calamity section relates to the turmoil in Guatemala during the early 1980s. I was also in Guatemala for a moment at that time and experienced firsthand some of the fears felt by the people there. Readers unfamiliar with that time and place will find much to think about here.

The "Hacks and Fixers" section includes three chapters, each dealing with a story within an environment of war, terror, and persecution. The three countries covered are Kosovo, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the latter two, of course, very much still in the news these days. I suspect that many readers, recalling the brutality of the Kosovo affair, will find Burnett's experiences there and his comments to be of particular interest.

The last section, "Rogues and Heroes," includes four stories, all occurring within our own hemisphere. All of them are primarily what I would call "human interest" stories and include both negative and positive incidences regarding human actions. The last story in this section, about "The Leaf Player of Mexico City," was interesting to me because I'd never heard about Carlos Garcia and his unusual ability to play music using only the leaf of a plant. The middle two stories, "The Bull Killer" and "The Human Farmer," the latter about Don José Elias Sánchez and his farm, I found interesting but not all that exciting, although I'm sure those interested in bull fighting and green environmentalism will differ with me about that.

The first story, however, "The Death House Chaplain," is one I could really relate to. In 1994, Burnett was among the six media witnesses to the execution of Stephen Ray Nethery. Nethery was being executed by the state of Texas for killing a young Dallas policeman. Since I've been a strong opponent of the death penalty for many years, this story held much meaning for me. While Burnett discusses capital punishment in general, he focuses in on Rev. Carroll Pickett, the death house chaplain, and his experiences in counseling the men condemned to death in Texas. Burnett mentions "the unsettling experience of watching a healthy person be put to death" and that he "couldn't get to sleep" that night after the execution. What Rev. Pickett had to say about his role in this grisly business of "legalized homicide" after he retired as chaplain, I won't tell you. You'll have to read the book to find out.

Burnett has gone to many of the world's worst places to report newsworthy events. He has obviously covered these events as a professional journalist should. He is both a careful observer and a compelling communicator. In this very personal book, however, Burnett has shed some light on his own private experiences during his coverage of some of the major events of the past two decades and granted us a look into his own thoughts and feelings about them. I highly recommend this book to all readers who are "news junkies" or just plain interested in what's been happening around them.

Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent comes from a radio journalist who has witnessed and covered some of the most important news events of our times. Even if you've seen his reports, you'll find much news in Uncivilized Beasts: insights which due to time constraints could not be expanded upon, copy from notebooks which never saw publication, bizarre encounters, and more. While his is a personal account of encounters and travels, it also provides cultural and social reflections and important first-person observations. A top, recommended pick any library will find popular with patrons, whether they be public library patrons or high school or college students.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A consistently engaging set of accounts of major recent newsworthy events from the author's perspective. It's interesting to see the story behind the news headlines from such places as post-Katrina New Orleans, Waco, and post 9/11 Pakistan and Afghanistan, each told with wit and intelligence.

His account of Guatemala during the 1980s is a highlight. A great blending of the facts around what the government sponsored terrorism and the personal impact it had on people there, including eventually himself.

The stories on some of the "heroes" in the second half of the book seem a bit flat. And there's a question of how journalism maintains it's humanity in the midst of so much human horror which gets asked but not satisfyingly answered. But those are small nits for an otherwise great book.

He has some interesting stories to tell but is such a limousine liberal that he is very difficult to take; well-written and easy to read

This memoir is a collection of stories about the events and places the author covered as a correspondent for National Public Radio. It begins and ends with a searing account of the devastation of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The on-the-spot account of the death of that city provides insight into the catastrophic failure of the government to respond to this disaster, compounding its impact. In between, we visit war torn countries on three continents, get an insider's glimpse at the Texas death chamber and the Mexican bull ring. In each of these stories, Burnett's eye for detail transports the reader to the location and brings the people and events to life. This is a powerful examination of the role of the journalist in covering world events, and is honest about the ability of journalism to remain detached and neutral, to provide accurate and unbiased coverage. An interesting and informative book.

Burnett recounts his career as a journalist and, along the way, raises some important questions -- are we just reporters? do we shape the news we report? -- about his profession. He is both an entertaining writer and reflective beyond the press of the daily deadline. For anyone who has ever wondered where stories come from and how they get pitched in print or sound, check out his comments on "fixers." While he has been in many of the globe's most wrenching places, Burnett's best, I think, is in his story of his work in New Orleans on Katrina and in his character profiles, particularly in Mexico with a retired bullfighter and an elderly man who makes music with leaves in a crowded Mexico City train stattion.

I couldn't put John Burnett's book down. It gives you a behind the scenes, human look at recent events like Katrina, Iraq, Guatemala. His writing is smooth as silk.

A riveting first hand account of this NPR correspondent's experiences/observations at such events as Waco, Katrina, Kosovo,Iraq, Afghanistan, and more. Having heard John Burnett speak in person I was eager to read his accounts. I was not disappointed.

His voice is as familiar as his name but there are only so many words you can put on the air in regular broadcast. These stories tell how he got the stories you heard. Part of John's challenge is simply blending in. A reporter tries hard to be invisible, to not become a part of the story, to fit into the story environment and simply report what he sees. At 6'7", that's a tall order. Invisibility is especially important when they locals are shooting as outsiders and many of John's stories had that danger.

Well-told, these stories need to be heard.

I can't remember when I first started paying attention to Burnett's NPR reporting, but I always listen when I hear his byline on the radio. Perhaps as a fellow native Texan and having grown up on the Texas/Mexico border, I am especially keen on his insights. This book covers his experiences in Latin America and Texas as well as other memorable hotspots in the world with sympathy and intensity. The best stories are focused on individuals but the entire book is a very enjoyable, engaging read.