To do great writing, read great writing. Here’s some great writing I’ve been reading during the week of Feb. 15-19, 2010:
Chris Jones’ profile of Roger Ebert in Esquire – Beyond the shockingly candid photographs of Ebert, who lost his lower jaw battling cancer, Roger Ebert: The Essential Man, is a touching portrait of a guy who lives to write, now more than ever. Of his relationship with Gene Siskel, his movie-reviewing partner from 1986 to 1999, Ebert says: “…we were born to be Siskel and Ebert.”
Susan Orlean’s part historical, part whimsical look at pack mules – Stubborn, yes, but sturdy too, which is why the U.S. military is using them in the war in Afghanistan, according to Orlean’s piece, in the Feb. 15-22 double issue of The New Yorker (subscribers can read it online; non-subscribers can read an abstract). This follow up to her witty piece on backyard chickens makes Orlean the magazine’s de facto livestock reporter.
Awake – A humor piece on insomnia by Jenny Allen, from The New Yorker, June 2, 2008. When a friend said she was starting a blog to chronicle her battle with sleep, or lack thereof, it reminded me of this stream-of-consciousness piece, and how perfectly it captures the experiences of menopausal women everywhere who spend their nights trying to fall back asleep. Not that I’d know anything about that.
John Canzano’s columns from the Winter Games in Vancouver – Canzano is an award-winning sports columnist for The Oregonian here in Portland who people either love or hate. I happen to love his particular brand of passion, outrage and everyman charm. So far, his Olympics coverage has been classic Canzano. He’s taken NBC to task for its commercial-laden, tape-delayed coverage (even here on the West Coast where we’re in the same time zone), called out Olympic organizers for multiple failures that led to the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili and decried the dearth of young skiers vying to be the next Bode Miller, a consequence of snowboarding’s growing popularity. By far Canzano’s most touching Olympics column was the one he did before the games even started, a visit with 1984 alpine skiing gold medalist Bill Johnson, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2002 and now lives alone in a trailer park in the foothills of Mt. Hood.