“The world of nonfiction writing is a continual graduate school. 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.”
Into the Story
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.
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Into the Story – A Writer’s Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss
“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.”
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Into the Story – A Writer’s Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss
“Maraniss’s lively sketches illuminate the lives of significant cultural and political figures and intimately capture various moments that define modern American cultural history.”
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Into the Story – A Writer’s Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss
“Just read Into the Story. Great collection. Personal stories really touched me as both a Madison & Detroit guy. Well done.”
A Bus Named Desire
New Orleans
It mattered not at all that is was a monstrous city bus with green plastic seats shaped to the contours of fat people, or that it was belching dark smoke, or that the electronic marquee above the bubble-glass windshield displayed destinations in dot-matrix letters that flashed by like time and temperature readings at a suburban bank. All that mattered was the destination of this bus approaching the curb near the corner of Canal and Royal, at the border of a skyscraper and French Quarter, reality and fantasy. It was a bus named Desire.
It was not a streetcar: The only one still operating is named St. Charles. It probably was not coming from the railroad station, and it certainly was not carrying any broken Mississippi belles like Blanche DuBois, with dainty beauty that must avoid strong light. Still, when a bus named Desire pulls over and opens its doors, the temptation is to pay the sixty cents and ride.
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Into the Story – A Writer’s Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss
“Throughout this collection, Maraniss proves himself to be a relentless reporter and a solid writer… these are journalistic journeys well worth taking.”
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Into the Story – A Writer’s Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss
“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.”
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Into the Story – A Writer’s Journey through Life, Politics, Sports and Loss
“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.”