Synopses & Reviews
Into the Story is the first collection of the work of David Maraniss, one of the most honored and versatile writers of his generation. The thirty-two stories here cover a rich array of topics, ranging from seminal moments in modern history to intimate personal reflections, each piece illuminated by the author's deep reporting and singular sensibility.
Maraniss is known for character studies that explain why people act as they do. Here he reveals Bill Clinton through his childhood not in Hope but in Hot Springs. Al Gore is examined through his years as an investigative reporter. Jesse Jackson is considered through his uneasy relationship with Martin Luther King, Jr. Barack Obama is viewed anew through the dreams from his mother, not his father. Vince Lombardi is portrayed during his most trying football game, the Ice Bowl. The essence of Muhammad Ali is discovered long after his golden days in the ring. And the meaning of Roberto Clemente is found in his death.
As a master of nonfiction narrative, Maraniss follows these simple rules: Go there, wherever there is. Be flexible. Avoid assumption and attitude. Fit yourself to the story, not the other way around. And look for the universal in the particular, searching for details that will bring a story alive and connect the event to the readers. He has brought those skills to each story in this collection, but most heart-wrenchingly to the accounts of loss -- his narratives of the tragedies of September 11 and Virginia Tech, as well as the accidental death of his little sister.
The worlds of newspapers and books are changing at dizzying speed. But what Maraniss holds most important, he writes, is the interplay of two eternal ideas. The first is that the sifting of fact and truth from the chaff of unprocessed information or misinformation will always be essential. The second is that humans will always have a need to explain themselves through story. It is that combination that makes up what I do as a nonfiction narrative writer.
Review
“Maraniss’s lively sketches illuminate the lives of significant cultural and political figures and intimately capture various moments that define modern American cultural history.”
- Publishers Weekly
Review
“In piece after piece, Maraniss searches for the humanity, not the myths or cliches, in famous figures, from Barack Obama and Bill Clinton to Vince Lombardi and Muhammad Ali.” -Providence Journal
Review
“Elegant and elegiac. . . He has a gift for finding the small details of our daily routine that can ‘suddenly take on deep visual and metaphorical meaning’ -and remind us that life is ordinary until it isn’t.” -The Boston Globe
Review
“Throughout this collection, Maraniss proves himself to be a relentless reporter and a solid writer. . . these are journalistic journeys well worth taking.”
--Christian Science Monitor
Review
“Once in a while, an anthology clicks. A few even become journalistic classics…we can add another title to this honor roll: David Maraniss’s Inside the Story… He makes complex individuals come alive on a printed page about as well as any journalist I have encountered.” -Columbia Journalism Review
Synopsis
One of the most successful and honored reporter-writers of his day selects pieces that illustrate his own education as a writer.
Synopsis
David Maraniss is an associate editor at The Washington Post. He is the winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting and has been a Pulitzer finalist two other times for his journalism and again for They Marched Into Sunlight, a book about Vietnam and the sixties. The author also of bestselling works on Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, and Roberto Clemente, Maraniss is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. He and his wife, Linda, live in Washington, DC, and Madison, Wisconsin. Visit the author at www.davidmaraniss.com.
Synopsis
These works singularly and together describe the education of David Maraniss as an author and the discipline and commitment required of deep reporting and fine writing, which are inseparable in the nonfiction narrative form..
The character studies here range from politicians (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore) to great sports figures (Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente, Wilma Rudolph, Muhammad Ali, Larry Doby). Maraniss also explores what happens when ordinary life is shattered by violence and loss, from the personal loss of a beloved sister to the communal losses of September 11, Virginia Tech, and the horrors of an ambush in Vietnam. .
“The world of nonfiction writing is a continual graduate school,” Maraniss concludes. “But only if you avoid the easier path, the lure of assumption and attitude, and open yourself to what can be an educational and fulfilling lifelong journey.” .
About the Author
David Maraniss, an associate editor at The Washington Post, is the author of critically acclaimed best-selling books on Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, Vietnam and the sixties, Roberto Clemente, and the 1960 Rome Olympics. He won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Clinton, was part of a Post team that won the 2007 Pulitzer for coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy, and has been a Pulitzer finalist three other times, including in the nonfiction history category for They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967. Maraniss is a fellow of the Society of American Historians and a member of Biographers International Organization. He lives in Washington, D.C. and Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife, Linda. They have two grown children and three granddaughters.