The Gay Talese Reader: Portraits and
Encounters by Gay Talese
Great Stories By A Great Writer
As a young reporter for the New York Times, in 1961 Gay Talese
published his first book, New York-A Serendipiters Journey, a series of
vignettes and essays that began, New York is a city of things unnoticed. It
is a city with cats sleeping under parked cars, two stone armadillos
crawling up St. Patricks Cathedral, and thousands of ants creeping on top
of the Empire State Building. Attention to detail and observation of the
unnoticed is the hallmark of Gay Taleses writing, and The Gay Talese
Reader brings together the best of his essays and classic profiles. This
collection opens with New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed, and includes
Silent Season of a Hero (about Joe DiMaggio), Ali in Havana, and Looking
for Hemingway as well as several other favorite pieces. It also features a
previously unpublished article on the infamous case of Lorena and John
Wayne Bobbitt, and concludes with the autobiographical pieces that are
among Taleses finest writings. These works give insight into the
progression of a writer at the pinnacle of his craft. Whether he is detailing

the unseen and sometimes quirky world of New York City or profiling Ol
Blue Eyes in Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, Talese captures his subjects-be
they famous, infamous, or merely unusual-in his own inimitable, elegant
fashion. The essays and profiles collected in The Gay Talese Reader are
works of art, each carefully crafted to create a portrait of an unforgettable
individual, place or moment.
Personal Review: The Gay Talese Reader: Portraits and
Encounters by Gay Talese
"Intensely curious" is how Gay Talese describes himself on his arrival in
New York City as a young man in the mid-1950s, a provincial from a
community of immigrants in New Jersey. " But until I got a job in journalism
I knew of no way to indulge my peculiar interest in the natural and
unnatural order of city life."Talese's interest in the lifestyle of alley cats, the
inside knowledge of doormen and charwomen and taxi drivers, and the
various overlooked architectural marvels throughout the city was
underappreciated by his bosses at "The New York Times." As punishment
for his lackluster efforts on the Albany political beat, Talese was shunted to
the obituaries desk. But to him it was an opportunity to write about the
personal accomplishments of interesting people. "I was never happier," he
says.Each of the superb pieces in this collection of writing from the 1960s
to the 1990s exemplifies his elevation of curiosity to an art form. The
opening piece, "New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed," his first article for
"Esquire," in 1960, (and the opening of his first book, "New York: A
Serendipiter's Journey") combines elements from a number of stories he
had written for the "Times." Talese portrays the city's vastness and variety
in a catalog of wonders and personal vignettes and portraits, from the
gallons of soap used on a big day at Yankee Stadium to the doorman with
parts of three bullets in his head, to a snapshot of the city during its
quietest hour (5 a.m.).Many of these pieces are classic profiles of famous
people. "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," is a riveting portrait of a complex man
at the center of his universe, not always comfortable, but always in
command. For this piece - one of his most famous - Talese never spoke to
the man, using only his considerable powers of observation and fleshing it
out with brief interviews with family, friends, employees and fans.There are
several profiles of prize fighters, including a particularly poignant one of
Floyd Patterson after his loss to Sonny Liston, in which Patterson
describes himself as a coward: "He stopped. He stood very still in the
middle of the room, thinking about what he had just said, probably
wondering whether he should have said it." Talese pursues the subject and
Patterson explains, "It's in defeat that a man reveals himself. In defeat I
can't face people. I haven't the strength to say to people, `I did my best, I'm
sorry, and whatnot.' " Over his career Talese has written 38 articles on
Patterson, which may help explain why the fighter is so forthcoming. "Joe
Louis: The King as a Middle-Aged Man," and "Ali in Havana" also portray
the fighters after their heyday. These portraits are affectionate, admiring.
Though virtually crippled by Parkinson's disease, Ali signs his full name for
autographs, though it takes him 30 seconds for each one. "He does not
settle for a time saving `Ali' or his mere initials. He has never shortchanged

his audience."As for Louis, his reputation for naivety and, well, dimness, is
legendary. "And so it was with some unexpected elation that I found Joe
Louis to be an astute businessman in New York, a shrewd bargainer, and
a man with a sense of humor often quite subtle." A profile of the "New York
Times" obituary writer, Alden Whitman, "Mr. Bad News" is a gem of
appreciation, humor and personality as well as an inside look at the job
where Talese honed his own profiling skills.Two pieces show another side
of Talese - rapier-sharp, satirical wit, made all the sharper for flashes of
admiration. "Looking for Hemingway," portrays George Plimpton's "Paris
Review" crowd as a group of dilettantish (but talented) poseurs, and
"Vogueland," is a hilarious view of "Vogue" magazine's muscular
snobbery.Talese, all but invisible in his profiles, reflects on his own life and
work in several later pieces; two on writing, "Origins of a Non-Fiction
Writer," and "When I Was Twenty-Five," and one on the resurgence of
Puritanism in New York, "Walking My Cigar." "The Brave Tailors of Maida"
is taken from "Unto the Sons," his book about his Italian father.Each of
these wonderful pieces attests to Talese's talent as a close observer and a
careful listener, skills honed from his childhood eavesdropping on
customers at his parents' shop. Author of the bestsellers "The Kingdom
and the Power" (about "The New York Times") his mafia profile, "Honor
They Father" and his expose of sexual mores "Thy Neighbors Wife," as
well as a previous collection, "Fame & Obscurity," Talese is a writer to
savor.
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