Mike Royko
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By: University Of Chicago Press
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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
With the incisive pen of a newspaperman and the compassionate soul of a poet, Mike Royko was a Chicago institution who became, in Jimmy Breslin's words, "the best journalist of his time." Royko wrote a daily column for nearly thirty-five years--at first for the Chicago Daily News, then the Sun-Times, and finally the Tribune--and his Pulitzer Prize-winning commentary was syndicated in more than 600 newspapers nationwide. Pretension and hypocrisy were his targets, and his well-aimed salvos, delivered with blunt honesty and penetrating wit, won him fans and foes alike. One More Time collects the best of Royko's columns from his long, celebrated career. Culled from 7,500 columns and spanning four decades, from his early days to his last dispatch, the writings in this collection reflect a radically changing America as seen by a man whose keen sense of justice and humor never faltered. From the Cold War to the Persian Gulf War, from Richard J. Daley to Richard M. Daley, Royko trained his eye on it all. This volume includes those columns he loved best as well as those loved by his readers: stories of his childhood as recollected by himself and his pal, "Slats" Grobnik; his modern-day Christmas parable of Mary and Joseph looking for a room in Chicago; "A Faceless Man's Plea," the tale of woe that in one day had Richard Nixon publicly reversing the Veterans Administration; his account of Frank Sinatra's threat to punch him in the eye; the hilarious column he wrote about how his feet had always disappointed him; his moving pieces on racism and his scathingly funny attacks on political correctness. Putting each decade into perspective are illuminating introductions by Lois Wille, Royko's friend and colleague at all three Chicago dailies.
These essays will appeal to you like an old friend--a gruff, opinionated one, perhaps, but a friend nonetheless, one who can still make you see the world a bit differently. Faithful readers will find not only their old favorites but plenty of new ones as well, while the uninitiated will have the enviable good fortune of experiencing this true American voice for the first time.
"Reading a collection of Royko's columns is even more of a pleasure than encountering them one by one, and that is a large remark for he rarely wrote a piece that failed to wake you up with his hard-earned moral wit. Three cheers for Royko!"--Norman Mailer
"Mike's pieces seemed to flow so naturally, to read so free and easy. You'd think it was a snap, his daily chore. The laughter it evoked, or the indignation, or the catch in the throat, you must understand, did not come about by happenstance. He worked like a dog, obstinately gnawing away at the bone of truth. So it was with nailing that right word, that telling phrase. After all, they were as much tools of his trade as the gimlet eye was to the jeweler."--from Studs Terkel's Foreword
