Tabloid City Reviews |
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| New York Times May 20, 2011 by John Darnton Granted, as silver linings go this may be scant consolation, but the decline and demise of newspapers seems to be ushering in a raft of good novels by journalists who miss the old ink and newsprint. Reporters harking back to footloose times are not new (think of Evelyn Waugh’s “When the Going Was Good”), but now that end days may actually be upon us, we may be facing a complete subgenre: Où sont les news d’antan? We’ve already had Tom Rachman’s book “The Imperfectionists.” Now comes Pete Hamill’s “Tabloid City,” which sets a high bar for those that follow. MORE |
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| Los Angeles Times May 08, 2011 by Susan Salter Reynolds A veteran reporter decides to quit when his newspaper converts to a Web-only publication. But he still has stories to chase. There's murder and mayhem in Pete Hamill's latest novel, "Tabloid City," but the real victim in his book is the print journalism that Hamill knows and loves so well. This ticking time bomb of a novel is about the end of a form of daily storytelling in which America's big cities are like small towns — their recognizable casts of characters, dramas and moral struggles playing out on a slightly bigger, more complex stage. |
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| Bookreporter.com May 08, 2011 by Tom Callahan Once in a while, a book comes along that not only defines its time but also transcends it. That is the best way to describe TABLOID CITY by Pete Hamill, the best book of 2011 thus far. Over the last decade, in books like FOREVER, NORTH RIVER and now TABLOID CITY, Hamill has proven that he is one of America's greatest novelists --- indeed, one of the greatest writers America has ever produced. And in all three titles, the central character is, ultimately, the greatest city in the world, New York. No writer is more identified with a city than Hamill is with his native New York. A legendary newspaperman and journalist, he is the only person to have edited both New York tabloids --- the New York Daily News and the New York Post. (And the definition of tabloid here is not to be confused with the celebrity junk found in your supermarket. Big-city tabloids were a noble addition to the mosaic of big-city newspapers.) MORE |
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| NPR May 5, 2011 Veteran journalist and writer Pete Hamill fondly remembers the nearly 40 years he spent working in the newsrooms at the New York Post and the New York Daily News. "[At the Post,] We had Murray Kempton [on staff,] who wrote like an 18th century restoration dramatist. We had Nora Ephron, who was a brilliant writer when she was a kid, walking into the city room. We had William F. Buckley in the paper," he tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. "These were not people who thought the audience was stupid. They thought the audience was smart and they wrote up to the audience instead of down. I think that's the kind of paper that's rapidly fading." MORE |
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| New York Daily News May 01, 2011 by Sherryl Connelly It's twilight in New York, or at least Sam Briscoe's New York. Briscoe, who must alternately be described as a hard-charging or grizzled tabloid newspaper editor - because that's the way these things are done - is closing what will be the final edition of his beloved New York World, though his publisher has yet to reveal that grim fact. Yes, his World is ending but Sam doesn't know it. Meanwhile, in Patchin Place, that lovely dead-end street of such esteemed literary heritage in the West Village, a dinner party is taking place. The evening will come to a tragic end that will radiate through out "Tabloid City." MORE |
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