One of the most riveting stories to emerge from the Boston Marathon bombing coverage was the Boston Globe piece, by Eric Moskowitz, about “Danny,” the young Chinese entrepreneur who spent more than an hour with the bombers in his carjacked Mercedes, trying to figure out how to escape. The story was relatively short, at 2,183 [...]
Category Archives: why’s this so good?
“Why’s this so good?” No. 76: William Nack and “Pure Heart”
by Don Van Natta Jr. |
April 23, 2013
I still remember where I was—sitting in a dive bar in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., trying to tune out the noise from the beach bums and a jukebox blaring Madonna and the Bangles—when I read these words: Just before noon the horse was led haltingly into a van next to the stallion barn, and there a [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 75: Dan P. Lee and the father who lost everything
by Joe Keohane |
April 9, 2013
My estimable friend and former colleague Paul Kix recently wrote a column in this space on John Jeremiah Sullivan. In it he cited an essay Sullivan wrote about the art of writing: A fundamental law of storytelling is: withhold information. As the writer Paul Metcalf put it, “The only real work in creative endeavor is [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 74: Charlie Pierce and Tiger Woods
by Jason Schwartz |
March 26, 2013
I think it’s fair to say that most of America was shocked when news of Tiger Woods’ sex scandal broke in late 2009. I’m also pretty sure that anyone who had read “The Man. Amen.” by Charles P. Pierce, in Esquire, from 12 years earlier, just nodded and said, “Yup, sounds about right.” Pierce’s piece [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 73: Carol Smith and the cipher in Room 214
by Alan Huffman |
March 12, 2013
In all likelihood, “The Cipher in Room 214” began with a fairly empty notebook. Most stories do, but in this case it probably looked like it was going to stay that way. The quotes that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer‘s Carol Smith got from available sources, about a body discovered at an upscale hotel, were clearly thin. There [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 71: John Jeremiah Sullivan and “Upon This Rock”
by Paul Kix |
February 12, 2013
Last summer, John Jeremiah Sullivan wrote an essay about Faulkner’s Absalom! Absalom!, and amid his deft and borderline genius thoughts on the novel – “It…dramatize[s] historical consciousness itself, not just human lives but the forest of time in which the whole notion of human life must find its only meaning” – Sullivan said something telling [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 70: David Ramsey and Lil Wayne
by Margaret Ho |
January 29, 2013
Like the hook of a catchy song, David Ramsey’s “I Will Forever Remain Faithful,” from the Fall 2008 issue of The Oxford American, lures you in with a promise: 1. Complex magazine: What do you listen to these days? Lil Wayne: Me! All day, all me. As a pick-up line, it works. People uninitiated to Lil [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 69: William Hazlitt and Liber Amoris
by Jack El-Hai |
January 15, 2013
Another writer introduced me to William Hazlitt’s Liber Amoris as if he were passing along a tip to eat in a restaurant with great food but clumsy waiters. “It’s not for everybody,” he said. “But you definitely won’t get bored reading it.” I had never heard of Liber Amoris and knew Hazlitt only as a [...]
“Why’s this so good?” No. 68: Jonathan Lethem and the godfather of soul
by Eva Holland |
December 11, 2012
Sometime in my last year of college, James Brown played a show in the small East Coast city where I lived. I had all sorts of reasons not to go: I had a midterm the next morning, for which I was woefully unprepared; tickets were $50, equivalent to 25 happy-hour pints at the pub where [...]
