Mention Based On Books The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution

Title	:	The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution
Author	:	Marc Weingarten
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 336 pages
Published	:	December 12th 2006 by Three Rivers Press (first published 2005)
Categories	:	Nonfiction. Writing. Journalism. History. Language. Biography

The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution Paperback | Pages: 336 pages

Commentary Toward Books The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution

This is an incredibly interesting book, especially the beginning, which explains how writers such as Jonathan Swift and Charles Dickens were precursors to the "new journalists" who came of age in the 1960s. I would highly recommend this book, even though I had many issues with it. The first is that it summarizes (for the most part) rather than explores the evolution of new journalism. I would have liked more insights into the implications and ethics of this movement. For example, regarding the latter, numerous ethically dubious situations are described, such as the reportage of a Hell's Angel's gang rape; this scene was given a great deal of attention in this book, but nothing was said about the reporter's responsibility, and the irresponsibility of participatory reporting (and the overall irresponsibility of new journalism compared to its many merits). I was also disappointed that Joan Didion's name appears in the subtitle, but she was given only 9 cursory pages, and these completely out of context with the rest of the book. The story mainly focuses on Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe and Thompson, all of whom I admire for various reasons, but who wrote from their own great hubris first (in my opinion, though not as much in Wolfe's case), and then from a sense of justice (or whatever each chose to call it). All of this said, I learned a great deal from this book, and I feel satisfied by what I learned about the development of 20th century reporting/non-fiction. It definitely served as a springboard for me to delve deeper into the works of numerous journalists I was not familiar with.

Be Specific About Books In Pursuance Of The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution

Original Title:	The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution
ISBN:	1400049830 (ISBN13: 9781400049837)
Edition Language:	English

Rating Based On Books The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution

Ratings: 3.87 From 274 Users | 30 Reviews

Criticize Based On Books The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution

overall pretty good. does the book mention the title is taken from a breslin book? i just learned that searching for it.

A light look at the impact of the New Journalism school, from Mailer, Capote and Didion to Breslin, Wolfe and Thompson. It's mostly a series of chapter-length biographies, alive with envy of stylistic panache and of the times in which these pioneers of the pen found popularity. Weingarten, unlike his subjects, is no wunderkind, but the eccentric upstarts he writes about are great company.

Great overall history of New Journalism. Well-written, not dry and academic. Lots of research and interviews went into this. I liked all of it, but if your not a huge fan of the subject, you might some parts to be dull, because it tells you absolutely everything. It's extremely detailed. I was really interested so this wasn't a problem for me.

A brilliant book capturing a fantastic time featuring the likes of Didion, Capote, Thompson, Wolfe and the New Yorker.

Interesting book about the New Journalism, and those who wrote it. The author lost me at the end when going into great detail about the fight between Clay Felker and Rupert Murdoch over ownership of New York magazine.But I was fascinated for most of the book, though I'm not so sure I agree that "New Journalism" is dead now. interesting book for those interest in writing and journalism.

Marc Weingarten is an author, journalist, editor and filmmaker. He lives in Los Angeles.

Truly a pleasure to read, as the many adventures in the writing trenches of war correspondence and American turmoil at home give birth to a lot of information. Regardless of one's attitude toward New Journalism, author Weingarten details his contrasting histories with lots of writing samples. We get the personalized, independent nonfiction from the 50s through the ground-breaking voices of the Vietnam era, authors who made their coverage and style as provocative as rock n' roll. Free of a lot of