A chance to win a copy of Gay Talese’s new book!

Terry Freedman had a cold

“Obviously, I’m going to be proved wrong at some point. Either an AI program will be trained to make stuff up and somehow sound exactly like a well-known writer, or the bean counters at publications will decide that ‘good enough’ rather than ‘excellent’ will have to do. But even so, I still believe that there will always be a demand for great writing.”

Isn’t getting a cold a right pain? The cold that a generous person gave me some weeks ago now kept reinventing itself. Anyway, I thought perhaps I should explain my absence recently, so here is the situation:

I caught a cold and had a bad cough. Maybe it was Covid, who knows? Could have been, because I’m one of those people who almost never get ill, but when I do it’s like being hit by a truck.
That left me feeling really tired. I’ve spoken to other people who’ve had this and they report similar symptoms.
Because of the tiredness plus other pressures, such as getting reviews written for Teach Secondary magazine, other things built up, which sees me in a rather furious phase of catching up.
Catching up meant not attending the London Book Fair, meaning that my lovely media pass lies on my desk looking at me accusingly, and me not writing very much.

But enough of this persiflage! I really wanted to tell y’all about the new Gay Talese book that’s been published. The publisher (Harper Collins) very kindly sent me a PDF, and then sent me a hard copy. As I suspected, it’s quite brilliant. More below, along with information about how to try and win a copy.

Anyone who is familiar with Talese’s work will know that he has an eye for detail, and an ear for dialogue. The very first essay in this book is called New York Is A City of Things Unnoticed, and it exemplifies both of these characteristics.

Click the image to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)

For example, Talese makes a point of speaking to the concierges outside hotels, because they see and hear everything, and are, at the same time, almost invisible. The concierge outside a hotel down the street from a theatre hears people talking about the play as they walk past. He says he can tell whether a production will be a flop or a success withon ten minutes of the curtain call.

In a section where he is discussing the statue of liberty, Talese writes:

But most neighborhood folks pay no attention to the statue. The gypsy fortune-tellers who work to the left of it do not; the habitués of Mrs. Stern’s tavern below it do not; the soup slurpers in Bickford’s restaurant across the street do not. A New York cabby, David Zickerman (Cab No. 2865), has whizzed by the statue hundreds of times and never knew it existed. “Who the hell looks up in this town?” he asks.

The devil is in the detail, and reading that passage is almost as good as being there! (Well, it isn’t, but you know what I mean!)

There are several other articles, some of which haven’t seen the light of day for ages, and a delightful article about the feral cats in New York3. Also included is the essay that Talese regards as his finest, Mr Bad News, which is about the then obituary writer for the New York Times:

“Furthermore, he admits that, after having written a fine advance obituary, his pride of authorship is such that he can barely wait for that person to drop dead so that he may see his masterpiece in print.”

I’d better not say any more because I have been asked to write a review of the book for Teach Secondary magazine. Except that, as I’ve said before, if you’re a good writer I don’t think you have anything to fear from AI.

Obviously, I’m going to be proved wrong at some point. Either an AI program will be trained to make stuff up and somehow sound exactly like a well-known writer, or the bean counters at publications will decide that ‘good enough’ rather than ‘excellent’ will have to do. But even so, I still believe that there will always be a demand for great writing.

And to paraphrase what Arthur C Clarke said about teachers, any writer that can be replaced by a computer probably should be.

Now the part you’ve been waiting for. The kind PR person at Harper Collins has agreed to offer a copy as a prize. To be in the running, you have to do four things:

Identify what the subtitle of this issue of the newsletter alludes to.
Live in the UK.
Subscribe to Eclecticism.
Fill the form in and submit it by midnight British Summer Time on 26th March 2025. You will find a link to the form in this article: Start the Week #91.