High Notes: Reportagen

by Gay Talese

Neben Taleses berühmtester Reportage Frank Sinatra ist erkältet, die der Esquire einst zur »besten Geschichte aller Zeiten« wählte, versammelt dieser Band auch einen von Talese verfassten Artikel über deren Entstehung, außerdem zahlreiche bisher noch nie in deutscher Sprache erschienene Reportagen, die allesamt den literarischen Journalismus prägten wie kaum etwas anderes. Ein Standardwerk des New Journalism.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Writing, Journalism, Anthologies

368 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Gay Talese is an American author. He wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism or "new nonfiction reportage", also known as New Journalism. His most famous articles are about Joe DiMaggio, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.

Reviews

[LAPL Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gay Talese, the nattily attired New York-based reporter, writes non-fiction pieces in the style of short stories, with omniscient third person narrators, vivid descriptions of the commonplace, and surprising, revelatory endings. High Notes collects many of the greatest works from his sixty-year career. His most famous act of reportage, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” (Esquire) dwells on the private side of the man known as The Chairman of the Board, without interviewing the subject directly. Talese later revealed more details of the assignment with the essay “On Writing ‘Frank Sinatra Has a Cold’” ( The Best American Essays 1987). Other well-known Esquire articles that explored the Italian-American experience include “The Kidnapping of Joe Bonnano,” about the famous mob boss, and “Wartime Sunday,” which ends with the author’s family seeing Joe DiMaggio eat spaghetti at a family restaurant in Atlantic City. “High Notes” (New Yorker) documents a recording session between two Italian-American superstars of different generations: Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.

Gay Talese spent most of the 1970s researching the sexual revolution. Two Esquire articles from this period, “A Matter of Fantasy” and “Charles Manson’s Home on the Range,” are both a reflection of the evolving sexual mores of the time. Talese explores the august history of the New York Times in “The Kingdoms, the Powers and the Glories of the New York Times” (Esquire) and “The Kingdom and the Tower” (New York Observer). In “Travels with a Diva” (New Yorker), Talese shadows the young Russian opera star, Marina Poplavskaya. “The Homeless Woman with Two Homes” (New York Magazine) profiles one troubled woman who has chosen to be homeless. Two short pieces from the New Yorker, “Gino’s Long Run” and “Four Hundred Dresses,” are reminiscences of two local restaurateurs.

Talese is able to fuse journalist, reporter, raconteur, master of the English language in these essays, which display the best of a very unique style.

Reviewed by David B., Librarian, InfoNow

[Sahil Raghavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absolute master of style. There are no doubts about Talese's writing ability. He's exceptional. This much is certain.

Less certain, however, much like when one listens to a frantic, virtuoso Liszt piece, is the ability of the work, by all means technically impressive in its mechanics and metrics, to transform and provoke a meaningful emotional response.

Some of them do. For example, 'Frank Sinatra Has a Cold', Talese's most well-received and best remembered work for good reason, manages to do just that. The haunting Manson ranch piece does well too. But more often than not, while I found myself dazzled by his high-wire writing flourishes, I felt a more gaping emptiness in a lot of these pieces. Take the New York Times piece, which is the longest by far. It displays this layered institution and constructs a sweeping narrative, a bustling portrait of the evolution of the newspaper. But by the end, I'm saying, 'So what?' It all feels hollow.

In that sense, Mr. Talese is the ultimate stylist without enough substance. There's no horrible stuff here though, besides the short pieces, which are less bad and just more unnecessary. I'm not honestly sure why the publisher even bothered to include them, as they add nothing to the collection.

The Best:
Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
Charlie Manson's Home on the Range
High Notes

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are 13 delightful articles in this collection, my first by Gay Talese. Of the thirteen I have read only one, a few years back. I no longer recall how I chanced upon the exceptionally novel Frank Sinatra Has a Cold on the internet, an essay I always thought was written by Tom Wolfe (who wrote that equally entertaining article on the Black Panthers' society dinner at Chez Leonard Bernsteins). But if anything can top this, it would definitely be On Writing "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold." Much research, talent, and dogged patience went into what would eventually become an unforgettable, and seemingly serendipitous, effortless piece of work.

Apart from the little I have gathered from this collection, I do not know much about Gay Talese's life nor his work's trajectory. (This was intentional--I wanted to be objective, this being my first foray into his writing. Although I did have to Google how to pronounce his name.) From what I've read here, he strikes me as a journalist's journalist from the Old School. Highly recognized and respected by his peers, and clearly well compensated by his publishers. And extremely appreciated by this reader, who looks forward to more of the same. My only beef? The absence of chronology. I found myself second guessing the year, if not the decade for each piece. Dates should have been provided before or after each article, especially since Mr Talese's writings and reminiscences span a period of at least 50 years.

Ticking off my faves from this collection, in no particular order of preference:

- The Kidnapping of Joe Bonanno (Mafia scenes, familiar and otherwise)
- Charlie Manson's Home on the Range (same fodder for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
- Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
- On Writing "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"
- The Kingdoms, the Powers, and the Glories of the New York Times (THE Game of Thrones)
- High Notes (Technology and gadgets aside, this may well have been set in the fifties)

Mr Gay Talese is easily, my newfound favorite.

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am Anfang dachte ich mir oh je oh je. Das Buch liest du nicht fertig. Dann kam Taleses Reportage "Frank Sinatra ist erkältet" und dann war ich schon recht begeistert. Sauber und kleinlich recherchierte Reportagen - oft nicht unbedingt szenisch - aber er erzählt eher wirkliche Geschichten, als dass er text book Reportagen schafft. Seine Texte über sich und die NY Times empfehle ich für alle, die ein bisschen journalistisches Interesse haben.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gay has marvelous style that captures the reader without using a lot of literary devices or gimmicks. His essays are well researched and well written.

My favorite essays were:

Wartime Sunday
Frank Sinatra Has a Cold
On Writing Frank Sinatra Has a Cold.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much to say about this collection of some of his best, including the iconic "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold". One of the originators of New Journalism, Gay Talese is well worth curling up with a cup of tea.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

He writes as smooth as silk
Of people of all ilks.

[Charles Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read my first Gay Talese, Honor Thy Father, decades ago without realizing of couse the style of the telling. All I remember was it was long and boring and I was looking for gangster action!

Talese is one of those long-form writers for magazines that are few and far between in this day and age. Having since then, lately, trying to imitate his "literary" approach to journalism, I've come to appreciate just how hard that is to do.

"High Notes" is a collection of a few of his numerous articles from Bill Bonanno to Frank Sinatra to a homeless woman with two houses. He has developed a remarkable eye for detail without taking photographs and a remarkable ability for dialogue without using a recorder. But, maybe best of all, he had developed over a very long period of time a feel for the story without having to be at the core of the events.
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[Debbie Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gay Talese is a pioneer of "the new journalism", immersion journalism or narrative journalism and his writing shows why. His descriptions and attention to detail; his ability to show normal people in everyday settings while revealing important information about the ordinary lives we overlook are extraordinary. Included in this collection of his journalism is "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", considered one of the best pieces of narrative journalism ever written. There's also a piece on Charles Mansion. His ability to capture ordinary people is extraordinary. In this collection is a haunting piece on
the background of a homeless woman who never got over the trauma of liing in World War II Germany. Anyone interested in journalism, culture, writing or just good reading, Gay Talese's books are a must-read.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest collection of journalism from years ago by Gay Talese, a veteran writer of the Tom Wolfe/Truman Capote/ David Halberstam/ et. al., school and era of magazine/newspaper writers who brought the New into New Journalism. Many of these pieces appeared in New York magazine, Esquire, or The New Yorker. Talese brought excellent listening and an amazing eye for detail into his writing. Some of these pieces are exceptional such as "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold." I also very much enjoyed the first piece Wartime Sunday, which evokes Talese's 1940s childhood in Ocean City, NJ .... not far from where I live now. He evokes the sand, grit and hustle of growing up just south of Atlantic City. (Rating: 4.2-4.4/5.0 stars.).

[Beverly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Talese has a high opinion of himself. He subtly conveys this along with prejudices about his subjects in this essay collection. His most famous piece, Frank Sinatra has a Cold, reveals that Sinatra is at bottom a good guy, but he lavishes a lot of writing on an essentially uninteresting personality. In a New Yorker piece he mocks the very talented Lady Gaga while elevating the bland Tony Bennett. There is something distasteful and cold about Talese's narrative voice. I don't like him.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gay Talese is one of my absolute favourite writers. He is a master storyteller and it was great getting the opportunity to read a variety of his writings, including the iconic 'Frank Sinatra Has a Cold'. The only reason I gave this a 4 instead of a 5 was because the only essay in this book that I found particularly dry and tedious to read, happened to also be the longest essay in the book. Overall though, a great collection of his work.

[Mike Burrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amazing characteristic of Talese's writing is that he is the proverbial fly on the wall. I kept asking myself, how does he know so much about gangsters, about Sinatra, about some woman on the street with mental problems? He's truly one of the great practitioners of narrative non-fiction.

[HEIDY LEIVA HENRIQUEZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice

I have never read Talese before this book. Now, I want to read other of his books. He is a very good writer

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

someone could edit these essays and make them very good, but as it is they are full of problems and repetition and I do not like them

[Jean-marie Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talese has an amazing way with words, and some of the essays are wonderful; however, two were virtually rehashing of others, and the two about "The Times" were tedious lists of characters.

[David W. Berner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvelous stories, told like no other journalist in history.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pointless anthology: there are already two print ‘greatest hits’ readily available (The Gay Talese Reader and Frank Sinatra Has A Cold and Other Essays), both better.

[Ben Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the Gay Talese Reader instead, it’s a much better collection

[Erin Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

That Frank Sinatra profileeeeee

[Diana Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very easy to read...his words have a wonderful flow to them.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although some of the subject/topic material is dated, the high quality of writing shines through, giving each article great detail, color, humanity and depth.

[Cgburke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much. Talese could write about cement drying (wait, he does that in here!) and make it interesting.

[Amitava Mazumdar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays was interesting in the sense that it offers younger news readers the experience of time travel in journalism. This type of fly-on-the-wall reporting doesn’t exist much anymore, because ... you know ... tl;dr. That said, there is an elitism in Talese's hobnobbing approach that I think journalism does better without. The modern version of such literary reporting — as in Matt Taibbi's of Rolling Stone — benefits from greater skepticism and more transparent sourcing. To trust Talese's reporting requires you to trust Talese the person. In the era of fake news, though, you have to trust the process, not the person.

[Katy]

I received my copy free through Goodreads Firstreads.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Wonderful portraits of people from the famous ("Frank Sinatra Has A Cold") to the
not-so-famous ("The Homeless Woman With Two Homes")

[Steven Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bittersweet reminder of what the world lost when it decided journalism wasn't worth paying for.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoy his writing style and insights