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Biography & Autobiography. Literary Criticism. Sports & Recreations. Nonfiction. HTML:Roger Angell, the acclaimed New Yorker writer and editor, returns with a selection of writings that celebrate a view from the tenth decade of an engaged, vibrant life. Long known for his range and supple prose (he is the only writer elected to membership in both the Baseball Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Arts and Letters), Angell won the 2015 American Society of Magazine Editors�?? Best Essay award for �??This Old Man,�?� which forms a centerpiece for this book. This deeply personal account is a survey of the limitations and discoveries of great age, with abundant life, poignant loss, jokes, retrieved moments, and fresh love, set down in an informal and moving fashion. A flood of readers from different generations have discovered and shared this classic piece. Angell�??s fluid prose and native curiosity make him an amiable and compelling companion on the page. The book gathers essays, letters, light verse, book reviews, Talk of the Town stories, farewells, haikus, Profiles, Christmas greetings, late thoughts on the costs of war. Whether it�??s a Fourth of July in rural Maine, a beloved British author at work, Derek Jeter�??s departure, the final game of the 2014 World Series, an all-dog opera, editorial exchanges with John Updike, or a letter to a son, what links the pieces is the author�??s perceptions and humor, his utter absence of self-pity, and his appreciation of friends and colleagues�??writers, ballplayers, editors, artists�??encountered over the course o… (more)
User reviews
Me, I love Angell because of the books, the writers, all the literary connections he's made and maintained throughout the years. Giants like John Updike. "Colleagues for more than half a century," Angell collaborated with Updike - by phone, courier and email - in editing the scores of Updike short stories that graced the pages of their magazine over the years. An Updike enthusiast since college, I relished this description of the shy, gentle man -
"Now and then he would turn up at the office, startling me once again with his height and his tweeds, that major nose, and his bright eyes and up-bent smile; he spoke in a light half-whisper and, near the end of each visit, somehow withdrew a little, growing more private and less visible even before he turned away. The fadeaway, as I came to think of it ..."
There are small, equally incisive portraits of other literary figures, some famous, some not - Bobbie Ann Mason, Philip Levine, Ann Beattie, Donald Barthelme, Nabokov, William Stieg, as well as his famous stepfather, E.B. "Andy" White.
And many farewell tributes to famous people, some he knew personally, others he did not, but admired from afar: Bob Feller, Duke Snider, Earl Weaver, Don Zimmer and other sports heroes; V.S. Pritchett, Harold Ross, Gardner Botsford, William Steig. There are even a few humorous haikus here, written at the suggestion of his current wife, Peggy, whose fifth graders were learning the haiku form.
There is not a bad piece in this whole book, when you come right down to it. Roger Angell writes in a way that makes you think, "Why I could have written that." That's how easy he makes it look, but he admits repeatedly that writing is hard. And he's right. If you make it look easy, that means you have worked and worked at it.
I have two favorite pieces here, and both of them are infused in equal parts with grief and humor, which is a pretty hard thing to pull off. But Angell does it, first in "Over the Wall," in which he writes about the death of Carol, his wife of forty-eight years and how he struggled to cope with it. And second, in the book's title piece, "This Old Man," all about the pains and problems of growing old, and remembering dear ones who are gone, but also about the occasional and unexpected joys that come along to surprise you.
I loved this book. And by the way, if you've not read Angell's memoir, LET ME FINISH, don't miss that one either. Roger Angell is an American treasure. My highest recommendation.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER