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 | | The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries (P.S.) by Marilyn Johnson ISBN-10: 9780060758769 ISBN-10: 0-06-075876-7 ISBN-13: 9780060758769 ISBN-13: 978-0-06-075876-9 Paperback 2007-02-01 Harper Perennial Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Amazon.com Once upon a time, journalism profs duly instructed their greenhorn grads to seek out community papers and the obit pages as logical entrance points into the world of newspaper reporting. Working for cash-strapped local papers allowed novices to practice writing everything from hard news to lifestyle features. Obituaries, meanwhile, were a rung on the ladder of major publications, albeit the lowest. The musty, dusty obit pages also traditionally hosted aging reporters put out to pasture. Not any more, argues Marilyn Johnson in her unabashedly knock-kneed love letter to the obit pages, The Dead Beat. Today, august publications like The New York Times, England's Daily Telegraph, Independent, and The Economist, and Canada's Globe and Mail use exalted members of the fourth estate to turn out smart, hip tributes to widespread, almost cultish, acclaim. Why? Because, as Johnson persuasively demonstrates in her book, truth is almost always stranger than fiction and a well-written, deeply researched obit is not only a vital historical record but a damn fine read over coffee and toast. "God is my assignment editor," cracks Richard Pearson of the Washington Post and if that isn't more interesting than what's going on in your city council chambers, author Johnson and those working the so-called Dead Beat don't know what is. As Johnson explains in free-wheeling prose, today's obit writers are virtual folk heroes with global Internet followings and their own conventions. With care and an ear for gentle humor, Johnson guides her readers through the surprisingly structured, labyrinthine obit scene, pausing to meet the writers while pondering both the essence of our being and why, in the right hands, the life of an average Joe can be just as riveting as the shenanigans of a high-flying playboy. And infinitely more resonant. Savvy J-school professors and their students are advised to take heed. --Kim Hughes | ||
Product Description Marilyn Johnson was enthralled by the remarkable lives that were marching out of this world—so she sought out the best obits in the English language and the people who spent their lives writing about the dead. She surveyed the darkest corners of Internet chat rooms, and made a pilgrimage to London to savor the most caustic and literate obits of all. Now she leads us on a compelling journey into the cult and culture behind the obituary page and the unusual lives we don't quite appreciate until they're gone. | ||
Reviews | ||
An Amusing Read This is a great book for a lazy afternoon. It's amusing and amazing at the same time. Sort of like gossiping over the fence with the neighbors. | ||
Starts good but then... This book was good as a history, but did not hold my attention. I liked the book STIFF much better. The writers sound like they could be fun though. | ||
Includes Some Spirited Obituaries This review focuses on just one obituary, that of Frank Zielony. First appearing in the OREGONIAN, it included the following: "Frank Zielony might have lived his entire life as a Polish farmer and brick maker like his father, in the plains of what is now the Ukraine. But in 1939, war came. Soviet troops showed up at 7 o'clock on a dark morning in early 1940 and told the entire village...that they had half an hour to prepare to leave the country. They were packed in cattle cars and deported to Siberia--among more than a million non-Jewish Poles forced into slave labor camps. That's how Frank...came to be cutting down trees and making railroad ties in sub-zero weather." (p. 122) In commenting on the foregoing obituary, Johnson writes: "The story of Zielony's survival and immigration to the Pacific Northwest, and his life helping other Polish Catholics survive, was one of those great obituaries that are made to be reread. Dark and gritty, but suffused with spirit, it was written by someone inspired." (p. 123) | ||
A Shining Star! Brilliantly written, absorbing and full of incredible details, this book is one of the best non-fiction volumes I've ever read! | ||
"I write about dead people!" It's difficult to imagine an entire book dedicated to telling the average reader about those folks who write obituaries for a living. This book, however, takes on that daunting task, and fully delivers, with information and humor. Those of us who don't do this kind of writing can't imagine that it is an intense experieance for the writer, especially those who sytrive to give the reader a close insight into the person who has died. We learn about the newspapers that contain the "best" obituaries, and also those writers who are considered at the top of this unusual pyramid. If you want to be informed, and entertained, about a very unusual subject, you can't go wrong with this book. | ||